Sudan’s forgotten war and exploitation: reasserting the legal obligations of parties to prevent trafficking and slavery during armed conflicts

Relative to other global conflicts, the ongoing war in Sudan has exemplified a paradigmatic forgotten war, despite its varying ramifications for victims and the wider civilian population. In many ways, exploitation and its utilitarian value in hostility have often been rationalised by warring parties to justify their war aims. Although Sudan was plunged into its latest cycle of hostility in April 2023, the extent to which the conflict has induced vulnerability to exploitation, especially trafficking and slavery, remains largely uninterrogated in the academic literature. The scope of legal obligations and compliance by parties equally remain unclear. This paper therefore proceeds with two main objectives: firstly, it seeks to understand the relationship between war and exploitation in Sudanese conflicts (past and present), and, secondly, it investigates the implementation of applicable international law relating to trafficking and slavery, including compliance by parties. Given the collapse of many governance structures and widespread exploitation risks, the article further examines the roles of mutual aid networks at the community level and the impact of their work in mitigating exploitation.