KAMPALA—The most striking part of Sudan’s message in Kampala was not about the war itself, but what is meant to come after it.
At a Pan-African symposium held at Hotel Africana, Sudan’s Ambassador to Uganda, H.E. Ahmed Ibrahim Ahmed, laid out a post-war roadmap that he said could pull the country back from collapse: the appointment of a civilian Prime Minister, a Sudanese–Sudanese political dialogue, and the disarmament and dismantling of militias that have turned cities into battlefields.
It was a vision aimed as much at Africa as at Sudan. The war, the ambassador argued, is no longer a purely national tragedy. It is a continental crisis that will shape security, sovereignty and political norms across the region long after the fighting ends.
The symposium, organised by the Pan-African Movement in collaboration with the Sudanese community in Uganda, brought together government officials, diplomats, religious leaders, civil society actors, journalists and community representatives. By the end of the day, delegates had adopted what they called the Kampala Declaration: a sweeping statement of Africa’s diagnosis of the war in Sudan and its preferred response.
A war with continental consequences
Speaking to the gathering, Ambassador Ahmed thanked Uganda for hosting Sudanese nationals displaced by the conflict and praised the organisers for creating a platform for African debate.
“Sudan has long supported liberation movements across Africa and continues to host many African communities and refugees,” he said. “Today, as Sudan endures an unprecedented war in our region, African solidarity is more essential than ever.”
That appeal framed the war not as an internal power struggle but as a turning point for Africa’s ability to respond to conflicts shaped by external interests. The ambassador argued that the Sudanese Armed Forces, backed by popular support, had scored significant gains, including the liberation of Khartoum and the disruption of supply routes used by militias operating with foreign backing.
He described the unity and professionalism of the armed forces as central to protecting Sudan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, particularly in the face of what he said were internationally recognised foreign threats.
Behind that language lies a wider concern shared by many African governments: that Sudan’s conflict risks becoming a template for proxy warfare on the continent, with armed groups sustained by outside money, weapons and political cover.
Accusations of foreign interference
The ambassador was explicit about where he believed that interference originates. He accused the United Arab Emirates of providing daily support to the Janjaweed militia, also known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), including weapons, funding and mercenaries.
He said the militia had committed systematic crimes — including genocide, ethnic cleansing and other war crimes — in towns such as Wad Al-Noura, Bara, El Geneina, El Fasher, Kalugi and Kutum.
“The ongoing war endangers not just Sudan’s stability but also the security of neighbouring countries and the Red Sea region,” he warned.
His message to African governments and civil society was blunt: unity is needed to resist external intervention and to insist that peace in Sudan must come through democracy, the rule of law and respect for the Sudanese people’s right to determine their own future without pressure from outside actors.
A post-war roadmap, African-led
Against that backdrop, the ambassador outlined Sudan’s proposed post-war transition. The plan centres on restoring civilian leadership through the appointment of a Prime Minister, reopening political space through an inclusive national dialogue, and dismantling armed militias that operate outside the state.
Sudan, he said, has formally shared this roadmap with regional and international bodies, including the United Nations, and welcomes peace initiatives that respect its sovereignty, territorial integrity and popular will.
He also underscored the role he believes African leaders and institutions must play. In particular, he highlighted the importance of African civil society and governments — and singled out President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni — in supporting Sudan’s reintegration into the African Union and promoting African-led solutions to the conflict.
That emphasis reflects a broader shift in African diplomacy, where calls for “African solutions” increasingly serve as resistance to externally brokered peace processes seen as disconnected from realities on the ground.
The Kampala Declaration
The Kampala Declaration, adopted by delegates at the symposium, captured that thinking in stark terms.
It described the war in Sudan as a moral and political challenge for the entire continent, rooted in decades of structural injustice and intensified by coordinated external intervention. According to the declaration, Sudan has become a battleground for regional and international power struggles, with devastating consequences for civilians.
Delegates argued that Sudan’s struggle is inseparable from a wider fight to reclaim African sovereignty and resist what they called neo-colonial aggression. They warned that the conflict threatens not only Sudan’s unity, but peace and stability across Africa.
A central concern in the declaration is the treatment of militias as legitimate political actors. Delegates said that recognising armed groups such as the RSF or Janjaweed as state counterparts has fractured Sudan, creating rival power structures that hollow out national institutions.
The declaration went further, describing the war as a foreign invasion carried out through proxy militias, involving mercenaries from more than 17 countries. External actors, it said — naming the United Arab Emirates in particular — are accused of fuelling and prolonging the conflict for strategic, military, economic and geopolitical gain.
Atrocities and economic collapse
The declaration detailed what it described as systematic atrocities committed by the RSF/Janjaweed, including killings, mass violence, sexual abuse and ethnic cleansing targeting indigenous African communities in Darfur.
Beyond the human toll, delegates pointed to the war’s economic consequences. Sudan’s productive capacity, they said, has been looted or destroyed. Agriculture has been disrupted, financial institutions weakened, and parts of the economy transformed into a war system driven by gold smuggling and arms trafficking.
That economic breakdown, they warned, risks locking Sudan into prolonged instability even if large-scale fighting subsides.
What Africa says must happen next
The Kampala Declaration set out a pan-African response built around several core demands.
Delegates called for an immediate and verifiable ceasefire, the withdrawal of foreign mercenaries, and unrestricted humanitarian access across all affected areas. They demanded the disbandment or transparent integration of the RSF and a clear pathway towards genuine civilian democratic governance, including free and fair national elections.
They also rejected foreign-imposed political solutions, insisting that Sudan’s future governance must be decided by Sudanese civilians.
Justice and accountability featured prominently. The declaration called for independent investigations into alleged war crimes and for RSF leaders to be referred to international justice mechanisms. It also urged continent-wide financial oversight and sanctions against African commercial actors who profit from or support the war economy.
In one of its most controversial positions, the declaration explicitly excluded the United Arab Emirates from peace initiatives, citing its alleged role in supplying weapons and funding to the militias.
A test case for the continent
Beyond Sudan, the declaration reads as a warning about trends reshaping conflict across Africa: the growing use of proxy forces, the blurring of lines between state and militia power, and the economic incentives that allow wars to sustain themselves.
Delegates urged African institutions to respond more assertively. They called for African Union–mediated negotiations free from external influence, stronger continental defence and solidarity mechanisms, and reforms to ensure communities facing foreign-backed violence are protected.
They also stressed the importance of countering misinformation, amplifying Sudanese civilian voices, and ensuring that reconstruction and governance efforts are led by Sudanese women, youth, professionals and resistance groups.
The road ahead
In closing, the ambassador and symposium delegates called on African governments, civil society organisations and international partners to support both Sudan’s post-war roadmap and the Kampala Declaration.
Their argument was that Sudan’s future — and the security of North-East Africa — will hinge on justice, accountability and credible civilian democratic governance.
Whether that vision can be realised remains uncertain. But the message from Kampala was clear: Sudan’s war is no longer seen as a distant crisis. It is a measure of whether Africa can shape its own peace, on its own terms, in an era of intensifying external pressure.
