Into Africa

In this youth roundtable, Catherine Nzuki, Associate Fellow with the CSIS Africa Program, is joined by two Sudanese scholars to discuss Sudan's Emergency Response Rooms, a grassroots network of young volunteers delivering food, medicine, and essential services across all eighteen states in Sudan. Noaman Mousa is a political science PhD student at UCLA, where his research focuses on civil wars and state-building in Sub-Saharan Africa. Yasir Zaidan is an adjunct lecturer at Seattle University and a PhD student at the University of Washington, where his research examines the expanding influence of Middle Eastern states in the Horn of Africa. Together, they trace the ERRs' origins in the neighborhood resistance committees that drove Sudan's 2019 revolution and explore what a day in the life of an ERR volunteer looks like across different regions and frontlines. Yasir and Noaman also reflect on the deepening of ethnic and tribal cleavages in Sudan since the outbreak of war in April 2023, the role of Gulf states in prolonging the conflict, and the difficult question of what a path to peace might look like.

Reading Recommendations from Noaman Mousa:


The Coup-Civil War Trap, Phil Roessler


Ethnic Armies, Kristen Harkness


Warlord Politics and African States, Will Reno


Sudan: The Historical Predicament and the Horizons of the Future, Muhammad Abu al-Qasim Hajj Hamad (in Arabic, currently under translation by Prof. Alden Young).

Reading Recommendations from Yasir Zaidan:


Sudan: The Historical Predicament and the Horizons of the Future, Muhammad Abu al-Qasim Hajj Hamad (in Arabic, currently under translation by Prof. Alden Young).

As the U.S.-Israel-Iran war intensifies, global attention is focused on the Middle East, but a profound geopolitical restructuring is unfolding along the Red Sea. For years, the Horn of Africa has been a critical arena for understanding global geopolitical competition and shifts, and the Iran war is exposing the risks and gaps that analysts had foreshadowed.  As international attention and diplomatic bandwidth for the Horn’s overlapping crises decline, the region is undergoing rapid political repositioning and transformation as the attention of Gulf states turns inward.

In this special episode of Into Africa, Samira Gaid, founding director of Balqiis Insights, rejoins the Into Africa podcast to dive deeper into the geopolitics of the Horn and unpack how the Iran war is reverberating across the region.

Is the new wave of U.S-Africa bilateral health deals a game-changer for African health sovereignty or a step backward for solidarity?  With more than a dozen African countries signing nearly $20 billion in bilateral deals by early 2026, the Trump administration’s America First Global Health Strategy is reshaping the future of foreign assistance and global health.

In this episode, Doris Macharia, president of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF), and Steve Morrison, senior vice president of the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, join Oge to take stock of this pivotal moment. They examine what the America First health strategy gets right, what it has overlooked, and how its rapid rollout is playing out on the continent. As the strategy moves to the implementation phase, it is being met with a mix of skepticism, anxiety, and cautious hope.

Late last year, the U.S redesignated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, a move that reignited fierce global debate and intensified an already complex moment in U.S.–Nigeria relations. U.S. military air strikes on Christmas that targeted an ISIS-affiliated terrorist group in northwest Nigeria, which the U.S. accused of persecuting Christians, further illustrates these complicated and evolving dynamics. What does this CPC redesignation mean for the millions of people living in Nigeria? Is this a necessary wake-up call for accountability or a surface-level solution to a deeply rooted complex crisis of political power and security?

In this episode, Oge is joined by Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Archbishop Emeritus of Abuja and Dr. Usman Bugaje, senior adviser to the Sultan of Sokoto, to unpack the nexus of religion, power, and the desperate search for peace in one of the world’s most religiously vibrant countries.

As the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe enters its third year, international aid is facing drastic reductions. Local and international humanitarian organizations are adapting their strategies to continue delivering lifesaving care to the over 30 million people who urgently need assistance.  The recent launch of the Sudan Humanitarian Fund, which included contributions from regional and international partners, including the US and UAE pledging $700 million in support, signals renewed attention to the humanitarian funding gap in Sudan, but also highlights the complexity of addressing this conflict.

In this episode, Oge is joined by Hanin Ahmed, a Sudanese activist, and Daniel O’Malley, head of the International Committee for the Red Cross delegation in Sudan. Hanin and Daniel share their perspectives on the scale of the crisis, the current humanitarian support landscape, and possible avenues to address the fragmentation of the social fabric in Sudan.