Sudan in Turkey’s African Geopolitics: A Sotto Voce Experience in a Coveted Region
Since the launch of the Opening Plan to Africa in 2003, Turkey's African policy has spread to the whole of the African continent, where its involvement is distinguished by its scope and diversity.
This note offers a case study of Turkey's strategy in sub-Saharan Africa, through an analysis of bilateral relations between Turkey and Sudan, and Turkey's presence on the ground. Through Sudan, Turkey is seeking to extend its political influence in the Horn of Africa, a pilot area for its African policy where the level of competition between external players, particularly from the Middle East, is particularly high. The fall of the al-Bashir regime in 2019 has opened up a volatile political sequence in Sudan, from which Turkey has pulled out in favor of its Arab rivals, led by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. Its withdrawal from Sudanese political affairs has not, however, weakened its multi-sector activism on the ground, which demonstrates the resilience of its modus operandi to shifting political conjunctures.
This content is available in French: Le Soudan dans la géopolitique africaine de la Turquie : une expérience sotto voce dans une région convoitée
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Elisa DOMINGUES DOS SANTOS
Associate Research Fellow, Sub-Saharan Africa Center and Turkey/Middle East Program, Ifri
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Founded in 2007, Ifri's Sub-Saharan Africa center produces an in-depth analysis of the African continent and its security, geopolitical, political and socio-economic dynamics (in particular the phenomenon of urbanization). The Center aims to be both, through various publications and conferences, a space for disseminating analyzes intended for the media and the public but also a decision-making tool for political and economic actors with regard to the continent.
The center produces analyses for various organizations such as the Ministry of the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the French Development Agency (AFD) and even for various private supports. Its researchers are regularly interviewed by parliamentary committees.
The organization of events of various formats complements the production of analyzes by bringing the different spheres of the public space (academic, political, media, economic and civil society) to meet and exchange analytical tools and visions of the continent. The Sub-Saharan Africa Center regularly welcomes political leaders from different sub-Saharan African countries.
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The East and Central Africa Observatory is a 3-year research project (2023-2025) that Ifri is carrying out jointly with the French Institute of Research in Africa (IFRA) in Nairobi for the French Ministry of Defense, and more specifically its International Relations and Strategy Division (DGRIS). This observatory focuses on the main political, security and geopolitical developments taking place in the geographical areas covered by itself. This is achieved through the regular production of research notes, in English or French and the organization of an annual seminar around a key theme. For our research notes and conferences, we call on internationally acknowledged experts in the topics covered. This Observatory began in 2016, under the title of Observatory of Central and Southern Africa within Ifri's Sub-Saharan Africa Center. 55 notes were drafted between 2016 and 2020.
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