Since late 2022, internal dynamics in Sudan and Ethiopia have undergone significant change.
This has impacted wider regional dynamics between these two countries, as well as between
both of them and Eritrea. These changing dynamics continue to impact communities living in
the borderlands of these counties, forcing them to deal with increased insecurity and political
mobilization.
This research paper builds on work the Rift Valley Institute (RVI) has conducted on the Sudan–Ethiopia borderland under the XCEPT programme since 2021. This culminated in the report ‘Resistance in the Peripheries: Fragile peace and civil war in Sudan and Ethiopia’s borderlands’, published in March 2023. It also draws on work undertaken by the RVI as part of the Ethiopia Peace Research Facility (PRF), particularly on the Amhara region. This paper was written through a combination of open-source research and utilizing a team of researchers to carry out fieldwork in Benishangul-Gumuz (Ethiopia), and Gedaref, Kassala and Red Sea states in Sudan.