Reflections on Recent Events in the Republic of Sudan

Dr Ahmed Al-Shahi (Research Fellow, St Antony's College, Trustee of the Sudanese Programme), Dr Sara Abdelgalil (Paediatric Consultant, President of Sudan Doctors' Union UK), Dr Richard Barltrop (Consultant and researcher on the two Sudans, Trustee of the Sudanese Programme)

About the speakers:

Dr Ahmed Al-Shahi is a Research Fellow and, since 2002 co-Founder of The Sudanese Programme. He is a social anthropologist whose research interests are economic and social development, sectarian politics, social differentiations, popular culture and oral tradition. He has undertaken extensive anthropological research in northern Sudan.

Selected Publications:
Among his publications are: Wisdom from the Nile (with F.C.T. Moore), The Oxford Library of African Literature, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1978; La Republique du Soudan, Berger- Levrault, Paris, 1979; Islam in the Modern World (co-editor with D. MacEoin), Croom Helm, 1983; Themes from Northern Sudan, Ithaca Press, 1986; The Arab House (co-editor with A. D. C. Hyland), University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1986; The Diversity of the Muslim Community: Anthropological Essays in Memory of Peter Lienhardt (editor), Ithaca Press, 1987; Disorientations: A society in Flux. Kuwait in the 1950s by Peter Lienhardt (editor), Ithaca Press, 1991; A Special Issue:Al-Tayyib Salih, Seventy Candles, Edebiyart: The Journal of Middle Eastern Literature, (co-editor with Ami Elad-Bouskila) 1991; Shaikhdoms of Eastern Arabia by Peter Lienhardt (editor), Palgrave/St. Antony's College Series, 2001; Middle East and North African Immigrants in Europe (co-editor with Richard Lawless), Routledge, 2005; Sudan: A Long Transition into Two States (editors: Ahmed Al-Shahi and Bona Malwal), published (in collaboration with the Sudanese Programme, St Antony’s College) by M.O. Beshir Centre for Sudanese Studies, Omdurman Ahlia University, Omdurman, Sudan, 2013; and Hikma min Al-Nil (Wisdom from the Nile) (editor with F.C.T.Moore), Abdel Karim Mirghani Centre, Omdurman, Sudan, 2017. His most recent publication are: Women Writers of the Two Sudans (2019, co-edited with Laurent Mignon) and Wisdom from the Desert (2019) in collaboration with FCT Moore.

Sara Ibrahim Abdelgalil is a consultant paediatrician who is interested in international child health and development. She graduated from university of Khartoum in 1998 with Kitchener’ and Albagdadi’s prizes - best academic performance. While in Sudan she worked alongside other colleagues to establish an organisation that supports children with disadvantaged backgrounds e.g. orphans and street children. Sara moved to the United Kingdom to achieve her dreams in better training and medical practice. She campaigned for women and children rights as well as for human rights violations in particular in relation to health services. She obtained her masters and diploma degrees at Liverpool school of tropical medicine in tropical child health with an award and distinction - John Hey prize. Sara completed her paediatric training in the U.K. and has the fellowship of the royal college of Paediatrics and child health. Working among Sudanese diaspora in different societies and groups she promoted the activation and return of legitimate professionals unions back home. This campaign included Sudanese university graduates. Her role in the Sudan Doctors’ Union U.K. extended from establishing links with other Sudanese professionals in U.K. to working in epidemic campaigns in Sudan. As the president of SDU U.K. she is leading her organisation to support democratic change in Sudan and contribute to rebuilding of new Sudan. SDU U.K. raised concerns in regards to human rights violations against peaceful protestors in Sudan.

Richard Barltrop is a consultant specialising in work on conflict, development and peace in the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa. Since 2001 he has worked for the United Nations Development Programme in Iraq, Libya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen. He has worked for the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, and for the UK Stabilisation Unit in Iraq and on Syria peace talks. He has also worked as a consultant on conflict resolution and peacebuilding for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, International Alert, and the EU. Richard has a DPhil in International Relations, an MPhil in Middle Eastern Studies, and a BA in Classics from the University of Oxford. He is the author of Darfur and the International Community: The Challenges of Conflict Resolution in Sudan (IB Tauris, 2011), and was a visiting fellow at Durham University in 2015.