Fresh from the success of bringing peace to one African conflict, President Donald Trump and his administration are "uniquely positioned" to end the continent’s other major war in Sudan, according to a leading analyst.
President Trump got the foreign ministers of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda to the White House June 27 to sign a peace deal to end their 30-year war.
Cameron Hudson, a former senior official on Africa in the George W. Bush administration, exclusively told Fox News Digital Trump’s actions on brokering peace in Africa have been "refreshing" and that U.S. involvement in Sudan is essential.
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Sudan is often called the forgotten war. An estimated 150,000 have been killed. On Friday, a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital a staggering 14.2 million have been displaced since the government and the rebel Rapid Support Forces started the current civil war in April 2023. The spokesperson added "over 30 million people (are) in need of humanitarian assistance, (and) more than 630,000 individuals (are) experiencing catastrophic food insecurity. The suffering in Sudan demonstrates the importance of a swift and durable negotiated end to the conflict."
At a U.N. Security Council briefing Thursday, Ambassador Dorothy Shea, the acting U.S. representative, said, "By many measures, the conflict in Sudan is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. We call on Sudan’s warring parties to cease hostilities, allow unhindered humanitarian access to all parts of the country and protect civilians."
Shea added, "The United States calls for accountability for the Rapid Support Forces for the genocide in Sudan, where they have murdered men and boys, even infants on an ethnic basis, targeted fleeing civilians and committed acts of brutal sexual violence against women and girls of other ethnic groups."
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), declared aid convoys are being targeted, hospitals bombed and food and water deliberately withheld. RSF rebels reportedly have encircled the city and camps of El Fasher in Darfur and effectively put the area under siege.
Hudson, also a former State Department advisor, told Fox News Digital it’s the moment for President Trump to make his move because he "is rapidly staking out a position for himself as a peacemaker in the world, and this message resonates deeply with African leaders and their publics.
"To the degree that Trump has continued to frame his personal diplomacy in terms of peace, that has been well received. Closer to home, his prioritization of peace in the Congo-Rwanda dispute is seen as genuine.
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"Africans, by and large, don’t begrudge the president for also having an agenda to secure critical minerals. I think they see his transparency and transactionalism as refreshing from a U.S. president. Washington has a tendency of speaking about our values but pursuing our interests in a contradictory fashion. For Trump, they see his interests as his values."
Looking back at the tsunami of words but lack of definitive action from the previous administration, Hudson added, "If you look at the facts on the ground in Sudan today, this might be the last moment we have to try to walk the country back from the brink of collapse. U.S. involvement now is essential, not just for regional stability but for ensuring the U.S.’s own long-term security interests.
"A failed state of 50 million people on the shores of the Red Sea will disrupt an essential lane of commercial navigation, destabilize partners across the Gulf and send waves of migrants streaming into Europe and Africa. None of this serves Washington’s interests."
Ambassador Shea said at this week’s Security Council briefing the U.S. believes "external support to the warring (Sudanese) parties only serves to prolong the conflict and must cease."
Hudson said the U.S. could — and should — end that support.
"The Trump administration is uniquely positioned to make a difference in Sudan," Hudson said. "The principal backers to the sides in the war — Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey — are all U.S. allies. where President Trump has cultivated close ties and deep influence. He is in a position to help these countries settle their differences and forge a consensus on ending their support for the war. It will take some dedicated diplomacy, but that is the message that he is trying to send, that he is a peacemaker."
"The United States remains focused on working with our partners to resolve the crisis in Sudan," the State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital Friday. "We support the restoration of civilian governance in a peaceful, unified Sudan. We continue to engage with key regional and other partners to urge the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to cease hostilities, allow unhindered humanitarian access to all parts of the country, protect civilians and take steps toward a negotiated peace through inclusive dialogue."
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