Welcome back to This Week in Peace, our weekly summary of events in global peacebuilding.
This week, we discuss ongoing efforts to end the civil war in Sudan, Armenia’s determination to find peace with Azerbaijan, the small but vocal Russian opposition putting themselves at risk to end the war on Ukraine, and a noticeable shift in American policy towards the war in Gaza at the UN.
US hopes to restart peace talks in Sudan – but faces many obstacles
The ongoing civil war in Sudan continues, as Sudanese civilians face an ever-escalating humanitarian crisis. Nearly a year since the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began fighting, neither side has found a decisive advantage, millions have been displaced, and the country and capital city of Khartoum remain divided between the two factions. The newly-appointed US envoy, Tom Perrielo, hopes to restart talks at the end of Ramadan, but that will depend on the willingness of the leaders of both factions to participate. Previous talks in Jeddah, moderated by the US and Saudi Arabia, led to an agreement that quickly fell apart. The RSF is the successor of militias notorious for committing crimes against humanity in the Darfur region in the early 2000s, and is backed by the UAE and other regional actors. The army held power for decades during the dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir and has also committed numerous crimes against civilians. The influence of Islamist factions mirrors the ideological mix of the Bashir years, and alleged backing from Iran could help escalate the conflict further. Neither side has the interests of the Sudanese people in mind, and it is crucial that the fighting end in order to protect civilians and prevent further atrocities from taking place.
Read our past stories on Sudan here.
Armenia’s PM makes his desire for peace clear
Past editions of his series have written about efforts to negotiate a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, neighbors who have fought several wars over disputed territory since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Over the past few months, talks have failed to find a final agreement. Armenia’s Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, recently demonstrated his willingness to build peace, and the risks associated with failing to agree on a deal, when he said that Armenia must return disputed territory it has held since the 1990s, in order to prevent another war. The military balance between the two states has shifted decisively in Azerbaijan’s favor in recent years, fueled by energy revenues and Turkish weapons. Russia is either unwilling or unable to protect its supposed ally in Armenia, which has turned to the West in recent years. Many EU member states rely on Azerbaijan to replace Russian gas, and military action against Armenia in 2020 and in the formerly disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in late 2023 were met with a muted international response. A final, formal peace deal would be an important step towards ending a long-running conflict, and Pashinyan’s willingness to make concessions presents the best chance in a generation to make it a reality.
Read more stories about this issue here.
Positive changes in US policy on Gaza, but still much work to be done
This week, the US released a draft UN resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, in a significant shift from its past defense of Israel. The draft, which calls for an end to fighting accompanied by the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas, marks a departure from previous American policy at the UN, where it has blocked similar resolutions in the past. As the war in Gaza continues, and Israel continues to insist on carrying out what could be a highly destructive attack on Rafah, where over one million Palestinians are sheltering, the US is one of the few international actors that can hypothetically help influence Israel to pause fighting. Negotiations for a ceasefire have collapsed several times in 2024, but hopefully efforts such as this will help to provide extra momentum that can lead to an end to fighting, protection and aid for Palestinian civilians, and the release of remaining hostages.
We recently began a series with the Alliance for Middle East Peace which focuses on the peacebuilders working to build peace between Palestinians and Israelis, which you can read here.
Russians risk their livelihoods to protest rigged elections
This week, Russian president Vladimir Putin was reelected with an improbable 87% of the vote in elections that were clearly rigged, and vowed to continue his war in Ukraine. Despite the preordained result and crackdown on free speech, which has seen any anti-war and pro-peace messages criminalized and met with harsh repression, there were numerous acts of resistance and protest, many in support of peace with Ukraine. Across Russia, people protested at the ballot box, spoiling their own ballots, or sometimes dumping ink or burning ones that had already been cast. Many more, including hundreds if not thousands of Russian expats, crowded polling stations at noon on the first day of voting as an act of protest endorsed by prominent opposition leaders, many calling for peace – more common in foreign countries where there was no risk of violence from state security forces. While these acts of protest did little to affect the final result, they are crucial in demonstrating that the Kremlin’s war agenda does not have total popular support. The dire situation in occupied Ukraine – where early voting was accompanied by the presence of soldiers and the implicit threat of violence – illustrates why this is so important. In those territories, illegally annexed by Russia following its invasion, the Ukrainians that remain face the threat of deportation, kidnapping, and torture, a stark illustration of the need to end the war as soon as possible.
Read more stories about this conflict here.
