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. The Arabic translation of the summary can be found here.
- 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. The Arabic translation can be found here.
- Rapid Support Forces governance and negotiated sovereignty in Sudan (coming soon)
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 hosted a public webinar on 23 October 2025, featuring authors Awet Weldemichael, Nicki Kindersley, Amar Jamal, and Machot Amoum Malou in conversation. The panel explored how decentralisation and identity politics are reshaping governance and legitimacy in Sudan and South Sudan. Wa