U.S. ambassador to Sudan, John Godfrey, to step down.

Devex

The United States Department of State plans to appoint a new special envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello, following months of demands by Democratic and Republican lawmakers to hire a senior troubleshooter to help prevent one of Africa’s largest countries from spiraling deeper into civil war, ethnic cleansing, and one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

The move comes more than nine months after Sudan’s democratic transition came crashing down, as the Sudan Armed Forces and a powerful Sudanese militia, known as the Rapid Support Forces, came to blows in April, triggering a new wave of violence in a country that has been in and out of conflict for decades. It also coincides with a decision by the U.S. ambassador to Sudan, John Godfrey, acting as the informal envoy, to step down from his job in the coming weeks, according to several diplomatic sources.

The appointment aims to demonstrate the U.S. commitment to ending a conflict that has resulted in the deaths of more than 12,000 Sudanese and stymied international efforts to help Khartoum develop its economy. The current war has displaced nearly 8 million people and led to a resumption of mass killings in Darfur, the site of genocide in the early aughts. It has also upended one of the U.S.’s most important policy objectives in sub-Saharan Africa, steering a largely hostile Islamic autocracy accused of genocide into a flourishing democracy.

“Peace efforts suffer from a US-sized hole,” said Alan Boswell, the International Crisis Group’s project director for the Horn of Africa, in an email to Devex. “Everyone knows what a serious US response to a crisis looks like. Everyone knows this has not been a serious response. The administration has thus far resisted a high-level US special envoy capable of leading efforts in both the Arab and African worlds that look necessary to end this war.”

“No single place has suffered from the gap between American policymakers’ atrocities prevention rhetoric and their ability to deliver more than Sudan,” added Akshaya Kumar, director of crisis advocacy at Human Rights Watch. “Unlike Gaza, Sudan is blessed with bipartisan support on the Hill. Unlike Ukraine, the fighters terrorizing its populace don’t wear the uniform of a veto-wielding great power. But practically, that has meant little for Sudanese who have seen their country go up in flames over the past nine months.”

Forgotten crisis
For months, American Republican and Democratic lawmakers have pressed the Biden administration to appoint a senior envoy to invest greater high-level engagement with Sudan. Last May, Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, ranking member, published a statement calling on President Joe Biden and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to appoint either a U.S. or U.N. special envoy “to urgently bring the warring parties to the negotiating table and end hostilities.”

McCaul initially appealed directly to Guterres to appoint David Beasley, former executive director of the World Food Programme, according to a Republican staffer. But Beasley never gained traction. In December, U.S. Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Rep. Jim Risch of Idaho, the committee’s ranking member, introduced a resolution also backing calls for the appointment of a high-level special envoy to help end the conflict in Sudan.

“Despite global focus on crises in Europe and the Middle East, the dire situation in Sudan — characterized by extreme suffering, widespread destruction, and horrendous crimes — must not be overlooked,” Risch said in a statement.

A Biden administration official countered that any suggestion that Sudan lacks high-level engagement “couldn’t be further from the truth.” The official said in addition to the decision to bring Perriello on board, the administration’s U.S. ambassador to Sudan, Godfrey, continues to press for peace from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Other top U.S. officials with decades of experience in Africa, including Molly Phee, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African Affairs, and Mike Hammer, the U.S. special envoy for the Horn of Africa, have also been deeply engaged.

“The notion that this hasn’t had high-level engagement just isn’t true. We are doing everything we can to push for talks [between the warring generals] and some sort of durable path forward,” the official told Devex in a telephone call. “This is something the president and the secretary of state continue to put a lot of focus and emphasis on.”

Sanctions aversion
During his first months in office, Biden singled out Sudan as a bright symbol of democratic possibilities in a world grappling with authoritarianism. Beginning in 2018, popular protests there resulted in the fall of the country’s long-standing military dictator, Omar Hassan al Bashir, a man charged with genocide in Darfur by the International Criminal Court.

“The democratic world is everywhere,” Biden told world leaders in his first address as U.S. president to the U.N. General Assembly, citing “the brave women of Sudan who withstood violence and oppression to push a genocidal dictator from power and who keep working every day to defend their democratic progress.”

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But Sudan’s democratic spring was short-lived, as the country’s rival military chiefs, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the Sudan Armed Forces, and his deputy, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, leader of the Rapid Support Forces, seized power and then turned against one another. Since then, the Biden administration has faced criticism from lawmakers for presiding over one of the largest diplomatic setbacks in U.S. policy in Africa in a generation.

Biden’s Sudan policy has been a shambles, say critics, who have cited what they see as a lack of high-level engagement in efforts to rein in the country’s warring factions, and their regional backers. They note that previous U.S. presidents, including George W. Bush and Barack Obama, had appointed personal White House envoys to troubleshoot U.S. diplomatic challenges in Sudan, reflecting the high priority placed on responding to the crisis.

In a hearing last May, the then-chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, and Risch called on the Biden administration to appoint a special envoy with a direct reporting line to the president or the secretary of state.

The appeal reflected concern that the department’s senior official overseeing Sudan policy, Phee, had been too timid in her dealings with Sudan’s warring generals.

“Assistant Secretary of State Phee seems to have an aversion to sanctions as any tool, at any time for any purpose. That’s a problem,” said Menendez, who recently stepped down from his post following charges that he promoted the interests of Egypt and Qatar in exchange for gold bars and other benefits. Menendez has denied the charges.

Victoria Nuland, the U.S. deputy secretary of state, appeared at the time to resist calls for a new special envoy, noting that Godfrey was effectively playing the role of special envoy, with help from the U.S. special envoy to the Horn of Africa, Ambassador Mike Hammer. But Nuland and others have since come on board.

Nuland also defended the U.S. record on sanctions, noting that the Biden administration froze $700 million in aid for Sudan and suspended debt relief following the October 2021 military coup. The U.S., however, declined to impose targeted sanctions against the country’s generals.

Risch, meanwhile, made it clear that lawmakers wanted fresh blood. “The administration must change not only the architecture but also the architects of this policy,” Risch said in his opening remarks to the May hearing.

The effort to select a new envoy, meanwhile, has dragged on for months, partly over a dispute about the new envoy’s reporting chain of command, according to a well-placed observer.

Perriello, a former Democratic congress member from Virginia who lost his state’s gubernatorial race in 2017, has little experience in Sudan, though he has served as a special envoy to Africa’s Great Lakes region. In April, he stepped down from a job as executive director of U.S. programs at the Open Society Foundations.

Approached last year for the Sudan job, Perriello made a number of demands before accepting, including that he be given the power to appoint his own staff, determine his own travel needs, and be granted a direct reporting line to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The request was initially opposed by Phee, according to a well-placed diplomatic source. But she later relented and signed off on the arrangement.

But Blinken’s office rejected the request, insisting that Perriello, like other State Department envoys, report through the relevant bureau, in this case, the Bureau of African Affairs, the source told Devex. Perriello subsequently turned down the offer, but has since reversed course and accepted the job. He is currently awaiting the standard security clearance and vetting process that traditionally precedes senior appointments.

In the end, Perriello outpaced several potential candidates, including Godfrey and Gayle Smith, a former USAID administrator who recently stepped down as the president and CEO of the ONE Campaign. On Thursday, Blinken met with lawmakers and informed them that he would likely announce a new envoy in the coming weeks, and that the envoy would have access to him when needed, according to two sources briefed on the exchange.

A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on the details of the hiring process, saying, “We do not have any personnel news to offer.” Another administration official said Perriello was always squarely on the Biden administration’s radar and denied the claim that Phee ever opposed his request to report directly to Blinken.

The official, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal personnel matters, told Devex that Perriello would be given the same standing that all U.S. envoys have. “All of our current envoys follow this model that places special envoys in the office with resources, staffing, and logistical support at their disposal,” the administration official added.

The role of special envoys has become increasingly controversial within the State Department, where they are often seen as duplicating the work conducted by U.S. ambassadors and foreign service officers. The Biden administration has been particularly prolific in its promotion of special envoys, creating more than 50 posts, many of them vacant at the moment.

But others believe they can provide a boost to the department’s work-a-day diplomats, offering high-level engagement on an issue that is reserved for debate within the confines of the State Department. Sudan experts said they fear that Perriello’s failed bid to secure a direct line to the secretary of state, let alone the U.S. president, may hamstring him before his first day on the job.

“For me, as a Sudan watcher, what is upsetting about all of this is that Blinken doesn’t want to be involved,” claimed Cameron Hudson, a former State Department and CIA analyst who served under previous Sudan envoys. “That is pretty devastating for our Sudan policy. There is a genocide going on in Sudan, the country is on the verge of breaking apart and he won’t touch it with a ten-foot pole.”

A second administration official countered that Perriello would wield the same influence as any high-level presidential envoy, noting that in practice all envoys rely on the staffing and bureaucratic support of the relevant bureaus in the State Department. The official added that while Perriello will report to Phee, he will be able to engage with Blinken through what is called a “dotted line” arrangement that would allow Perriello to route memos to both Phee and Blinken.

Asked what sort of reception Perriello might expect from Congress, one congressional aide told Devex: “Generally, he is acceptable, but there is a cost” for not arming him with a direct reporting line to Blinken.

Godfrey, the first confirmed U.S. ambassador to Sudan in more than a quarter century, has been managing U.S. interests in Sudan from Addis Ababa since the civil war broke out in April 2023, forcing the closure of the U.S. embassy and the evacuation of foreign diplomats and other nationals. It is unclear why Godfrey — who has been on the job since being sworn in in August 2022 — has decided to leave.

But his relationship with some in Congress was somewhat strained, in part because of lingering questions, particularly among Republicans, about how the Biden administration handled the evacuation of American nationals following the outbreak of violence on April 15.

Godfrey was awarded the Ryan C. Crocker Award for Outstanding Leadership in Expeditionary Diplomacy for his role in managing the evacuation, which resulted in no American loss of life.

But some lawmakers criticized the evacuation as slow, noting that other countries, including Britain and Japan, were able to evacuate significant numbers of their nationals in the days following the violence by air.

The Americans carried out their first major evacuation nearly two weeks after the violence erupted. Nuland defended the U.S. evacuation, which was conducted by land under cover of armed drones, saying it had coordinated the evacuation of some American nationals on foreign planes in the early stages of the conflict.

Some Republican lawmakers made it clear to the department that they would not accept Godfrey in the new role, insisting the special envoy be someone who was not involved in shaping the administration’s Sudan policy over the last two years, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

“We indicated clearly it should not be him,” said a third source who is a congressional aide.

Godfrey did not respond to an email request for comment on this story.

But a colleague praised Godfrey’s tenure and said his absence will be felt. “If he moves on in the near future, it will leave the diplomatic community weaker,” said one ambassador for a European power that has worked with him. “A special envoy has a different assignment from an ambassador.”