Is the International Mood Shifting Toward Sudan?
By Dr. Al-Mugira Fadallah
Amid the growing wave of international engagement and the recent meetings between Western organizations and Sudanese media professionals who advocate for the country’s unity and institutions, a pressing question arises among observers and those following Sudan’s affairs: Is the international mood toward Sudan beginning to change?
A number of Sudanese media figures—including journalist Diaa Al-Din Bilal, broadcaster Esraa Zain Al-Abidin (known as Umm Waddah), Dr. Osama Aidarous, as well as former diplomats, military officers, and others—recently took part in a closed discussion session organized by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, the United Kingdom’s oldest defense and security think tank.
This meeting came within a broader pattern of growing Western research interest in listening to national Sudanese perspectives, and in understanding the nature of the conflict through a lens that respects Sudan’s sovereignty and its right to defend its institutions and territorial integrity.
Similarly, in recent months, the Promediation organization—supported by the European Union and other Western entities—has held multiple meetings with various Sudanese political groups, in repeated attempts to grasp the positions of Sudanese stakeholders and reassess European approaches to the Sudanese crisis.
Although some of these meetings remain surrounded by debate and speculation regarding their objectives and background, they nevertheless reflect a gradual shift in international engagement with Sudan—one that is becoming more pragmatic and objective.
This growing openness to dialogue also serves as a positive indicator of a developing transformation within Western decision-making circles—toward a more realistic understanding of the situation in Sudan, and the need to reconsider previous policies and stances in line with the Sudanese people’s will and their national choice to resist aggression and rebellion.
The recent series of meetings between Western organizations and Sudanese journalists, activists, and figures supportive of the country’s “Battle of Dignity”—defending state institutions and national unity against insurgency—further underscores this shift in the international mood.
The world, which once viewed the Sudanese scene through a narrow and often distorted lens, now appears to be grasping the realities on the ground. Even those previously complicit, or passive observers, seem increasingly convinced of the need to revisit their positions, acknowledge past misjudgments, and align their outlooks with the Sudanese people’s legitimate right to safeguard their sovereignty and unity.
Thus, it appears that international public opinion—along with major Western policy circles—is gradually freeing itself from biased narratives, moving instead toward a deeper understanding of Sudan’s crisis as a national struggle for sovereignty and unity, rather than a mere domestic conflict as it was initially portrayed.
From this standpoint, it is vital for all Sudanese patriots to continue their efforts and actively engage in such dialogues and forums, to amplify Sudan’s authentic voice on the global stage and to solidify the state’s narrative in confronting rebellion, foreign interference, and media distortion.
