Events Detail

Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom and the Institute on Religion and Democracy held a discussion on...

 

Eastern Sudan:

 

Threats to the Beja People and Global Security

 

Wednesday, April 27

4:00 - 5:30 PM

  

In January, South Sudan voted overwhelmingly for its independence. But millions of oppressed and marginalized people remain in Sudan, including in Eastern Sudan, home of the Beja people who comprise 15% of Sudan's overall population.

 

Eastern Sudan possesses gold, oil, and natural gas, and is the site of Sudan's main port city, Port Sudan, a strategic Red Sea harbor. Successive Sudanese governments have attempted to suppress Beja culture and identity, and barred humanitarian relief organizations from the area. As a result, the Beja suffer severe rates of poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, illness, and high infancy and maternal mortality.

 

Now Khartoum is displacing the indigenous Beja and replacing them with settlers from the Rashaida tribes originally from Saudi Arabia, who were invited to eastern Sudan decades ago. The Rashaida settlers, particularly the Jihadi elements among them, are already notorious for smuggling Iranian weapons to Hamas. Their actions and alliances with terrorists like Hamas and other Jihadists cause a threat to regional and global security. 

 

Ibrahim Tahir Ahmed, together with Omar Hummadgimi, leads the Washington, DC chapter of the Beja Congress, one of the oldest political parties of Sudan.

 

Walid Phares is the Co-Secretary General, Transatlantic Legislative Group on Counter Terrorism and Professor of Global Strategies, National Defense University.

 

Jimmy Mulla is the President of Voices for Sudan, an advocacy organization that represents Sudan's marginalized and oppressed groups.

 

Faith McDonnell directs the Religious Liberty Program and the Church Alliance for a New Sudan at the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

 

Paul Marshall is a Senior Fellow with Hudson's Center for Religious Freedom.

 

 

Besty and Walter Stern Conference Center

Hudson Institute

1015 15th Street, NW

Sixth Floor

Washington, DC 20005