Editing Foreign relations of Sudan (section)

== African regional organizations ==
Sudan is an active member of all pertinent African organizations and is a charter member of the [[Organization of African Unity]] (OAU), established in 1963 and headquartered in [[Addis Ababa]].<ref name="loc2015">{{Cite encyclopedia|last=Shinn|first=David H.|title=Foreign relations|editor-last=Berry|editor1-first=LaVerle|url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/cs/pdf/CS_Sudan.pdf|encyclopedia=Sudan: a country study|date=2015|publisher=[[Federal Research Division]], [[Library of Congress]]|isbn=978-0-8444-0750-0|edition=5th|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=275–296|postscript=. {{PD-notice}} Though published in 2015, this work covers events in the whole of Sudan (including present-day South Sudan) until the 2011 secession of South Sudan.}}</ref> During most of its time as a member of the OAU, it used its membership to keep the OAU out of the [[Second Sudanese Civil War|civil war]].<ref name="loc2015" /> Even so, in 1994, the OAU mandated that negotiations toward ending the civil war be undertaken.<ref name="loc2015" /> Sudan consistently made its presence known in the OAU and continued to do so in its successor forum, the [[African Union]] (AU), created in 2002.<ref name="loc2015" /> In contrast to its policy of keeping the OAU out of the war in the South, Sudan accepted 8,000 AU troops in troubled [[Darfur]] (see [[War in Darfur]]), concluding that it was preferable to have an AU [[peacekeeping]] mission than one from the [[United Nations]].<ref name="loc2015" /> However, Sudan both limited the number of AU troops and confined their role to monitoring the situation rather than engaging in more proactive peacekeeping.<ref name="loc2015" /> In mid-2007, [[Omar al-Bashir|al-Bashir]] finally agreed to allow UN forces to join AU peacekeeping operations in Darfur.<ref name="loc2015" /> The crisis in Darfur prevented Sudan from taking its turn in 2006 to assume the chairmanship of the AU; most AU members wanted Sudan to make more progress in ending the Darfur conflict.<ref name="loc2015" /> Subsequent indictment by the [[International Criminal Court]] further complicated al-Bashir's situation, and the AU continued to pass over his name in selecting a chairman.<ref name="loc2015" />

Sudan is a charter member of [[Intergovernmental Authority on Development]] (IGAD), established in 1996 as the successor to an earlier regional grouping.<ref name="loc2015" /> The focus of IGAD in the early 2000s was regional cooperation among its seven member states.<ref name="loc2015" /> IGAD played a critical role in ending the [[Second Sudanese Civil War|war]] between Khartoum and the [[Sudan People's Liberation Movement]]/[[Sudan People's Liberation Army]] but otherwise was not effective in mediating regional conflicts because of serious differences among its members, especially Ethiopia and Eritrea.<ref name="loc2015" /> Sudan is a member of the [[Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa]] (COMESA) and is one of 11 COMESA nations that had joined in a free-trade area and agreed to eliminate tariffs on goods originating in member countries.<ref name="loc2015" /> Sudan is a member of the economic union led by Libya known as the [[Community of Sahel–Saharan States|Community of Sahel-Saharan States]].<ref name="loc2015" /> Sudan also belongs to the [[African Development Bank]] (ADB) and receives significant assistance from that organization.<ref name="loc2015" /> As of 2011, it had been in arrears to the ADB since 1995 but had begun making payments in order to pay down the debt.<ref name="loc2015" /> Sudan is an active member of the [[Nile Basin Initiative]], which brought the [[Riparian zone|riparian]] states together to discuss technical and political cooperation related to [[Nile]] water issues.<ref name="loc2015" />