A Question of Leadership: Addressing a Dangerous Crisis in Sudan’s SPLM-N

Note: This report is published by the Enough Project.

A worsening recent political divide within the leadership of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N, or “movement”), traditionally based in South Kordofan and Blue Nile (the “Two Areas”), is increasingly likely to lead to a change of leadership of the movement. Of grave concern, the political divide has already led to violent clashes with strong ethnic undertones between units of the movement’s armed wing (the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North, the SPLA-N) in parts of Sudan’s Blue Nile state that are controlled by the movement and in camps hosting refugees from Blue Nile just across the border in South Sudan’s Upper Nile state.

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Yes, We Have Leverage: A Playbook for Immediate and Long-Term Financial Pressures to Address Violent Kleptocracies in East and Central Africa

Note: This policy brief was first published on the Enough Project website.

“We have no leverage.” “All of this leader’s money is parked elsewhere in Africa, in Dubai, or Europe.” “Sanctions do not work.”

These are just a few of the views one often hears from observers of crises in Africa and, more worryingly, senior U.S. and foreign diplomats assigned to try to resolve them. Through the Enough Project’s engagement with these officials, my colleagues and I regularly encounter such opinions. It is increasingly clear to us that there is a broad lack of familiarity with the array of tools that policymakers have at their disposal to address seemingly intractable conflicts or murderous warlords. These tools have not been a consistent part of the policy discussion concerning how to resolve crises, or when they have, the institutional barriers to action have been too high. So it is no wonder those tools are often used improperly, ineffectively, or not at all.

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