Mutual Aid, Resistance and international engagement and response to the Sudan Crisis

On April 15th 2023, Sudan was plunged into crisis after escalating tensions erupted into violent fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Response Forces. Multiple ceasefire agreements between the warring parties have failed to hold and the situation has worsened for civilians caught up in the conflict. The cost of basic items has sky rocketed, water and electricity cuts have become the norm and banks are closed across the country. There are currently no humanitarian corridors for NGOs or UN agencies to intervene.

While most aid agencies have evacuated their international staff, communities have started to roll out mutual aid efforts, led by local resistance committees and other grassroots organizations who have become first responders in the crisis. The resistance committees are informal networks that had organised nationwide protest during and after the revolution in 2019.

This conversation will cover questions such as the role of civil society in Sudan, including the Resistance Committees, the Emergency Response Rooms, and discuss how the international community can support and do things differently both in this humanitarian response and in support of the pro-democracy forces in Sudan.