Sudanese Women… How Are They Shaping the Path to Peace?

Sudan Media Forum – Amira Mahjoub

Port Sudan, April 25, 2026 (Al-Alag Press Services Center) – The women’s workshops that concluded in April 2026 were not an isolated event, but rather part of a gradual process that began in September 2024, when UN Women, in cooperation with its partners, launched the first rounds of capacity-building for Sudanese women in dialogue, mediation, and negotiation.

From September 9 to 12, 2024, this process began in Kampala, where a training workshop brought together participants both in person and online from Port Sudan. The sessions focused on equipping women with the technical skills needed to engage in peace processes, while adopting a gender perspective that reflects women’s realities and needs.

Laying the Foundation: From Capacity Building to Vision Formation

The workshop established a knowledge base, giving participants a deeper understanding of the complexities of peace processes and the importance of integrating gender issues into negotiation tracks. It also helped build networks among journalists, activists, and lawyers, despite structural challenges such as marginalization, discrimination, and social barriers.

This accumulated knowledge later evolved into a series of five training sessions held between December 2024 and April 2026, led by Sudanese and international experts. These trainings shifted participants from passive recipients to active contributors, culminating in the development of a unified women’s negotiation paper reflecting Sudanese women’s priorities.

From the Margins to the Center of Influence

One of the most significant transformations in this process was the shift of women from trainees to active agents shaping the peace agenda. The negotiation paper focused on key issues including political participation, protection, justice, humanitarian conditions, and economic empowerment, while demanding no less than 50% representation of women at all levels of negotiations.

Berlin 2026: From Training to Proposing Solutions

In a notable development, the outcomes of this process moved beyond training and theory into international platforms. At the Berlin Conference on Sudan humanitarian aid 2026 held on April 15, 2026, a group of Sudanese women from diverse cultural, political, and geographic backgrounds presented a comprehensive de-escalation paper, reflecting the maturity of this process and its transformation into a tool for advocacy and pressure.

A Feminist Framework: De-escalation as a Humanitarian Necessity

The participants emphasized that the war, now in its fourth year, has imposed a catastrophic humanitarian reality on women and girls, making de-escalation an urgent necessity—not only to contain the crisis, but to pave the way toward sustainable peace based on gender justice.

The paper stressed that de-escalation represents the dividing line between continued collapse and the possibility of restoring stability, through ending violence, creating space for dialogue, and ensuring the protection of civilians, especially women and vulnerable groups.

Conflict Zones and Priority Areas

The paper identified five priority areas for de-escalation: Darfur, Kordofan, Blue Nile, South Kordofan, and West Kordofan, as the regions most affected by the conflict. It highlighted rising violence against women, collapsing healthcare services, and increasing blockades, which have led to higher maternal and child mortality rates and deteriorating livelihoods.

Clear Demands and Direct Messages

The women presented a set of demands, including: an immediate halt to aerial and artillery bombardment and lifting sieges on cities; opening safe humanitarian corridors; involving women in aid planning and distribution; establishing mechanisms to monitor and document gender-based violence; ensuring access to health and legal services, especially for survivors; banning child recruitment; demilitarizing civilian facilities; involving women in de-escalation, monitoring, and implementation; releasing arbitrarily detained individuals and exchanging prisoners as confidence-building measures; supporting local women-led mediation initiatives; and strengthening the role of media in advocacy.

The paper also called for linking de-escalation to a comprehensive political process that guarantees equal participation of women, urging the international community to curb arms flows and impose sanctions on those benefiting from the war economy.

Ongoing Recommendations and an Incomplete Path

Despite this progress, key recommendations that accompanied the process from the beginning remain relevant, including expanding women’s participation, ensuring their protection within negotiation processes, funding women-led initiatives, and building broader alliances, including with supportive men.

Conclusion

Between the Kampala workshop in 2024 and the Berlin conference in 2026, it is clear that Sudanese women have not only demanded participation but have actively built its tools, shaped its agenda, and carried it from training rooms to international platforms.

This process reflects a qualitative shift—from learning about peace to redefining it through a feminist lens.

Amid the complexities of the Sudanese context, a key question remains: will these visions find their way to actual negotiation tables? What is certain, however, is that women are no longer outside the equation—they have become a decisive force in Sudan’s future peace.

• The Sudan Media Forum and its member institutions publish this material, prepared by Al-Alag Press Services Center, to highlight the conditions of Sudanese women during the war and their potential to positively influence Sudan’s political future. The report documents an extended women’s workshop process aimed at building capacities in dialogue, mediation, and negotiation, involving journalists, activists, and lawyers, ultimately producing a comprehensive vision for de-escalation and ending the war in Sudan.