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📄 APA-0006 Partially Implemented

Juba Agreement for Peace in Sudan (Juba Peace Agreement)

Also known as: Juba Peace Agreement

Country
Sudan
Region
East Africa
Date signed
3 October 2020
Type
Comprehensive Peace Agreement
Mediator(s)
Government of South Sudan

A multi-track settlement between Sudan's post-revolution transitional government and armed movements from Darfur, the Two Areas and the East, integrating them into transitional power structures; implementation was derailed by the 2021 coup and the 2023 war.

Conflict Background

Following the 2019 revolution and constitutional declaration, the civilian–military transitional government prioritised peace with the armed movements, negotiating parallel regional tracks in Juba under South Sudanese mediation.

Negotiation Context

The agreement traded movement integration into national institutions for commitments on land, nomads and pastoralists, transitional justice, and Darfur's special status — but SPLM-N al-Hilu and SLM/A-Abdul Wahid stayed out.

Parties

  • Transitional Government of Sudan
  • Sudan Revolutionary Front coalition
  • SLM/A–Minni Minnawi
  • JEM (Gibril Ibrahim)
  • SPLM-N (Agar wing)
  • Other movements

Mediators & Guarantors

Mediators
  • · Government of South Sudan
Guarantors
  • · South Sudan
  • · Chad
  • · Qatar
  • · UAE
  • · African Union
  • · United Nations
  • · Egypt

Key Provisions

Power sharing: movement representation in the Sovereignty Council, cabinet and legislature
Security arrangements integrating movement forces into a unified army
Darfur track: land commission, nomads and herders provisions, compensation, ICC cooperation
Two Areas and Eastern tracks with autonomy and development provisions
Extension of the transitional period from the agreement's signing

Implementation

Formally extant but operationally suspended by the Sudan war; several signatories are now combatants. CRCA assesses the JPA as the probable scaffolding for any future Darfur and Two Areas negotiation track.

Timeline

  1. 2020-10-03
    Signed in Juba
  2. 2021-02
    Movement leaders join cabinet and Sovereignty Council
  3. 2021-10-25
    Military coup upends the transitional framework; key signatories side with the military
  4. 2023-04-15
    SAF–RSF war erupts; implementation architecture collapses
  5. 2024–2025
    Signatory movements drawn into the war on divergent sides; Darfur provisions moot amid RSF advances

Challenges

  • The 2021 coup destroyed the civilian transitional counterpart to the agreement
  • Security integration never executed; signatory forces remilitarised after April 2023
  • Holdout movements retained the strongest constituencies in Darfur and the Nuba Mountains

Outcomes

  • Briefly achieved the broadest formal inclusion of Sudan's peripheries in national government since independence
  • Its Darfur land and compensation frameworks remain the reference text for any post-war settlement

Lessons

  • Integrating movements into government without integrating their forces leaves the coercive landscape unchanged
  • Multi-track design manages complexity but multiplies veto points
  • Guarantor mediation by a neighbouring state with its own dependencies (South Sudan) has limited enforcement reach

Related CRCA Resources

References

  • Transitional Government of Sudan & SRF (2020). Juba Agreement for Peace in Sudan.
  • De Waal, A. (2023). commentary series on Sudan's war economy and peacemaking.