XCEPT is pleased to launch a new collection of research exploring how decentralisation and identity politics are reshaping governance and legitimacy in Sudan and South Sudan. Produced by leading researchers with deep regional expertise, these studies offer timely insights into how power is negotiated, contested, and reimagined in both countries.
About the Research
This collection includes three original studies:
- Will Sudan’s new centre endure as a periphery? The implications of moving the state to eastern Sudan.
By Awet Weldemichael. This study explores the relocation of Sudan’s state apparatus to Port Sudan, interrogating whether this shift represents a genuine decentralisation or a reproduction of centre–periphery inequalities in a new geography.
- Racist violence as border-making in Sudan and South Sudan
By Nicki Kindersley, Amar Jamal, and Machot Amoum Malou. This briefing note examines how elite mobilisation, access to resources and labour, and identity-based politics continue to shape South Sudan’s state legitimacy and future.
- Rapid Support Forces governance and negotiated sovereignty in Sudan (coming soon)
The names of the authors have been withheld to respect their preference for anonymity. Focusing on Sudan’s peripheries, this paper examines RSF governance in Sudan’s western and southern borderlands, revealing how hybrid authority structures and informal power arrangements are reshaping sovereignty, local stability and cross border relationships.
Public webinar
To mark the launch of the collection, XCEPT will host a public webinar on 23 October 2025 at 14:00 BST, featuring authors Awet Weldemichael, Nicki Kindersley, Amar Jamal, and Machot Amoum Malou in conversation. The panel will explore how decentralisation and identity politics are reshaping governance and legitimacy in Sudan and South Sudan.