Eastern Sudan: Challenges facing the implementation of the peace agreement in Gedaref State

The briefing assesses the East Sudan Peace Agreement (ESPA) signed in October 2006 between the government of Sudan and the Eastern Front. While the agreement ended ten years of hostilities, its implementation is hindered by a lack of clear modalities, the absence of international guarantors, and significant disputes over ethnic representation. In Gedaref State, tensions are high because the Eastern Front primarily represents the Hadendowa, Rashaida, and Beni Amir, who are marginal in Gedaref's population. Fieldwork in Gedaref reveals that while 71.7% of interviewed community leaders are satisfied that the ESPA ended the conflict, many view the power-sharing arrangements as unjust and non-inclusive of the state's diverse ethnic groups, including the Shukriya and migrants from Western Sudan. The document warns that these inequities could lead to tribal polarisation or a return to armed conflict if the government does not ensure more equitable wealth and power distribution.

• The East Sudan Peace Agreement (ESPA), signed in October 2006, established power-sharing roles including Assistant to the President and Cabinet and State Ministers, and created the Eastern Sudan Reconstruction and Development Fund (ESRDF) with a seed amount of US$ 100 million in 2007 and at least US$ 125 million annually from 2008 to 2011.
• A critical weakness of the ESPA is the lack of international or regional guarantors to ensure the Sudanese government adheres to the agreement, as the process was brokered solely by Eritrea.
• The agreement faces a crisis of representivity because the Eastern Front primarily represents the Hadendowa and Rashaida, leaving other ethnic groups, such as the Beni Amir (initially) and those in Gedaref State, marginalized in the power-sharing formula.
• The inclusion of Gedaref State in the ESPA is contentious because the state's demographic composition differs from Red Sea and Kassala; the Eastern Front is marginal in Gedaref, and major groups like the Shukriya and those from Western Sudan are not part of the Front.
• Fieldwork conducted in April 2007 in Gedaref town showed that 71.7% of respondents were satisfied with the ESPA for ending the conflict, but 61.7% believed the negotiation process was not inclusive.
• There is a perceived risk that marginalized ethnic groups in Gedaref may resort to armed conflict to demand a fairer share of power and wealth, imitating the Beja's approach.

APA

Assal, M. A. M., & Ali, S. A. M. (2007). Eastern Sudan: Challenges facing the implementation of the peace agreement in Gedaref State. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/EASTERN SUDAN SITREP FINAL5.PDF

Chicago

Assal, Munzoul A. M., and Samia A. M. Ali. Eastern Sudan: Challenges facing the implementation of the peace agreement in Gedaref State. Institute for Security Studies, 2007. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/EASTERN SUDAN SITREP FINAL5.PDF.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Assal |first1=Munzoul A. M. |last2=Ali |first2=Samia A. M. |title=Eastern Sudan: Challenges facing the implementation of the peace agreement in Gedaref State |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=20 November 2007 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/EASTERN SUDAN SITREP FINAL5.PDF |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{assal2007eastern, author = {Assal, Munzoul A. M. and Ali, Samia A. M.}, title = {{Eastern Sudan: Challenges facing the implementation of the peace agreement in Gedaref State}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2007}, month = nov, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/EASTERN SUDAN SITREP FINAL5.PDF}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }