Latest Sudan Conference Shows Diplomacy is Backsliding

[John Ashworth]

Latest Sudan Conference Shows Diplomacy is Backsliding

Crisis Group President Comfort Ero and Horn of Africa Director Alan
Boswell reflect on this week’s Sudan conference in Berlin, which
revealed more division than unity among key external actors

International Crisis Group
17 April 2026

On 15 April, for the third year in a row, African, Arab and Western
countries gathered in a European capital to discuss ending the war in
Sudan. For the second year in a row, the gathering instead displayed
the outside divisions helping tear Sudan apart.

Like in London last year, the officials who gathered at the Sudan
conference in Berlin on 15 April failed to agree on a joint
communiqué, leaving the co-hosts to release a separate statement
instead.

While Germany deserves credit for hosting the conference, where €1.5
billion in humanitarian pledges were announced, the blame for its
shortcomings lies within the U.S.-led Quad group, which has taken the
lead on peacemaking diplomacy. Comprising Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates alongside the U.S., the Quad represents the
countries with greatest influence over Sudan’s two warring parties,
the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Egypt and
Saudi Arabia back the army, which they view as Sudan’s state
authority, while the Emirates are widely understood (despite Emirati
denials) to back the RSF.

In September 2025, the Quad agreed on a roadmap toward peace, starting
with a humanitarian truce. But what seemed a possible breakthrough has
yielded mainly disappointment.

The Berlin conference highlighted that the group is too at odds to
even agree on a new statement about the war. Over seven hours of
negotiations, delegates debated proposed changes to the draft
communiqué. In the end, negotiations foundered over Saudi Arabia’s
insistence on language stressing the need to preserve “state
institutions”, which would include Sudan’s army, and the UAE’s
opposition to it. A similar debate among Arab governments derailed
discussions last year in London. Last-minute efforts by U.S. Senior
Advisor Massad Boulos to broker a Saudi-Emirati compromise failed.

In side discussions, delegates expressed near despair. The intra-Quad
discord highlights the challenges facing U.S.-led efforts to secure a
truce, which are backsliding amid souring relations between Saudi
Arabia and the UAE. The two squared off in Yemen in December, when Abu
Dhabi-backed forces launched an offensive near Saudi borders, leading
Riyadh to attack those forces, and their broader dispute continues to
play out in Sudan. This dynamic frustrates struggling efforts to set
the roadmap in motion. The high-level diplomacy needed to narrow
differences over Sudan’s thorny endgame is meanwhile absent. With U.S.
diplomacy unreliable, there is glaring need for other countries to
backstop its efforts, but little indication that others will step up.

One bright spot came from a nearby building, where Sudanese civil and
political representatives (including some aligned with Sudan’s army)
agreed on a joint call to end the war after a marathon day of intense
and emotional negotiations. While the belligerents themselves do not
appear close to peace talks, some hope the new declaration could help
kickstart dialogue among Sudanese about a post-conflict settlement. At
the least, it showed that those committed to Sudan’s greater good can
still achieve compromise – a marked contrast to the outside powers who
keep tragically failing to do the same.

https://www.crisisgroup.org/anb/africa/sudan-egypt-saudi-arabia-united-arab-emirates-united-states/latest-sudan-conference-shows-diplomacy-backsliding

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