The Human Cost of War: Understanding the Crisis in Sudan

This event is being held virtually and is open to everyone.

Decades of political instability and disputes over power in Sudan have resulted in a calamitous civil war. In 2023, fighting erupted between rival military groups: the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The conflict has precipitated extreme violence, large-scale massacres, mass displacement, and an alarming humanitarian crisis. Now, fighting has expanded throughout most of the country, with civilians often bearing the brunt of the violence as infrastructure collapses and access to food, healthcare, and safety become scarce.

Join Global Minnesota for a panel discussion on the current situation in Sudan and how international actors are responding to the crisis. The conversation will feature Ambassador Michelle Gavin, the Council on Foreign Relations’ Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies, and Oge Onubogu, Director and Senior Fellow of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Global Minnesota Program Director Erin Hart, who served as press officer for Southern Africa and Sudan at the U.S. Department of State from 2024-2025, will moderate the event and audience Q&A.

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About the Speaker: Michelle D. Gavin

Michelle D. Gavin is the Ralph Bunche senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. She has over twenty-five years of experience in international affairs in government and non-profit roles and was formerly the managing director of The Africa Center, a multidisciplinary institution dedicated to increasing understanding of contemporary Africa. From 2011 to 2014 she was the U.S. Ambassador to Botswana and served concurrently as the U.S. Representative to the Southern African Development Community.

During Ambassador Gavin’s tenure, the United States and Botswana launched the most ambitious HIV prevention study in the world; Botswana hosted Southern Accord, the 1,400-strong joint SADC-U.S. military exercise; and the U.S. embassy helped to found Botswana’s first American Chamber of Commerce. Prior to that, she was a special assistant to President Obama and the senior director for Africa at the National Security Council, where she helped to create the Young African Leaders Initiative and led major policy reviews of Sudan and Somalia.

Previously, Ambassador Gavin was an international affairs fellow and adjunct fellow for Africa at CFR. She has also worked in the U.S. Senate, where she was the staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on African Affairs, director of international policy issues for Senator Russ Feingold, and legislative director for Senator Ken Salazar.

Gavin received an M.Phil in international relations from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes scholar, and earned her B.A. from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where she was a Truman scholar. She serves on the board of directors of Points of Light.

About the Speaker: Oge Onubogu

Oge Onubogu is Director and Senior Fellow of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a foreign policy leader with two decades of experience shaping policy and engagement on Africa and U.S.–Africa relations. She has worked extensively with African governments, international organizations, civil society, academia, and the private sector. Most recently, Onubogu served as Director of the Africa Program at the Wilson Center, where she led research and programs that centered African knowledge and agency in developing actionable strategies to address critical issues facing Africa and U.S.-Africa relations.

Previously, she was Director of the West Africa Program at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where she expanded USIP’s work in Nigeria and Coastal West Africa. Earlier in her career, she led governance and democracy support initiatives in Washington, D.C., and across Africa—including Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe —with the National Democratic Institute and the National Endowment for Democracy. Onubogu has consulted for Freedom House, the World Bank, and the Carter Center, and coordinated refugee resettlement programs with the International Rescue Committee.

Her commentary has appeared in major publications and broadcast outlets, and she has testified before Congress. She holds an M.A. in International Development from the Heller School at Brandeis University and a B.A. in International and Area Studies from the University of Oklahoma. She also earned a Public Leadership Credential from the Harvard Kennedy School and is completing a Doctorate in International Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.