Born: 4 June 1955, UK. Education: 1973-1976 University of York, Hons. Biology

Languages: Arabic (colloquial Sudanese), French, German. Member: Sudan Studies Society UK

Employment in Sudan (1977-1989)

 1977-1980: Teacher (EFL) in Sudan government schools; Ethiopian refugee project worker

 1980-1983: Staff writer for "Sudanow" magazine at the Ministry of Information

 1984: Refugee project monitor (Eastern Sudan) for Royal Netherlands Embassy; Lecturer, Khartoum Academy of Administrative Sciences

 1985-1986:  Field officer, Geneina, Darfur, for Save the Children Fund UK.

 1987-1989:  Field officer for UK NGO Green Deserts. (Atbara/Ed Damer)

1989-present : Employment in UK

 Editor of Sudan Update, an independent monitoring and information service which reviews current affairs in Sudan. Sudan Update compiles and analyses news from different published sources, with background information from a network of experts inside and outside Sudan and has provided expert briefings on a variety of Sudan-related subjects for different appellants since 1989.  Supported and consulted by international humanitarian and human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, Christian Aid and Human Rights Watch, it has tackled issues including human rights, religion, censorship, slavery and oil, and called attention to the presence of Osama bin Laden in Sudan in the early 1990s.

I gave evidence before the ACP/EU Working Group on Sanctions on 30th January 2001, at the invitation of the European Parliament in Brussels, and have been consulted by Members of the European Parliament prior to missions to Sudan in 2001, 2002, and 2004.  I have also assisted or corresponded with British Members of Parliament and Members of the House of Lords from all three major parties on Sudan issues.

In December 2004 I was commissioned as a special adviser on Darfur to assist the House of Commons' International Development Committee and the Overseas Development Institute. I helped the preparations for a visit to Sudan by MPs and a report on Darfur in early 2005.

Additional activities with Sudan Update - examples

1991: convened 'Famine Now' all-party emergency conference on famine in Sudan at the Institute for African Alternatives; published the proceedings as 44-page report

1992:  held seminar on Sudan and the Popular Press at University of Oxford; participated in conferences held by St Antony's College and the Sudan Human Rights Organisation.

1993: assisted "Ecology & conflict" work at the Institute for African Alternatives; presented Sudan overview paper at annual Sudan-Tagung at Hermannsburg, Germany.  Assisted Survival International, CIIR and Nuba Mountains Solidarity in a multi- media exhibition at theLondon Ecology Centre on crisis affecting the indigenous peoples of the Nuba Mountains.

1994:  presented critique of Sudan's NDA opposition at Hermannsburg international Sudan conference; chaired workshop on Islam at UN-sponsored Armagh Conference on Religion and Conflict.

1994:  Script consultant to award-winning documentary film about the Nuba people, "Kafi's Story". Assisted in the foundation of Nuba Mountains Solidarity Abroad (NMSA), a Nuba organisation with an office in the UK. Wrote chapter on Contemporary Music in Sudan for the Rough Guide to World Music

1994, 1995, 1996: wrote Sudan chapters for the annual Critiques of State Department Country Reports by the US Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights

1995 -1999:  member of the Sudan Analysts' Forum convened by the School of African and Oriental Studies (University of London) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

1995: edited Minority Rights Group report "Conflict and Minorities in Sudan", including section on Darfur co-written with Sudanese academics -- an early warning of the current Darfur crisis

1997: jointly published report "Slavery in Sudan" with Anti-Slavery International. objective review of slavery -- including the role of government-armed militias in slave-taking, included a critique of slave "redemption" and highlighting the risks of the "buying-back" slaves project.

1997-1998: Oil pipeline political risk assessment for major oil company, identifying the risk of attack on pipeline in Red Sea area

1998: Speaker at first World Conference on Music and Censorship; related article for Index on Censorship; tour of Eastern Equatoria with Christian Aid.

1999:  published "Raising the Stakes" report on oil and conflict in Sudan.  Sponsored by Oxfam-UK, Novib and Christian Aid, cited by Amnesty International and others. Predicted the Sudan government's massive expansion of expenditure on weapons using oil revenue.

2000: Script consultant for the documentary film "Nuba Conversations" by Arthur Howes; revised chapter for second edition of Rough Guide to World Music

2001:  Speaker at Medecins Sans Frontieres' annual international staff discussion at Sosterberg.

2001-2004: Expert witness reports for lawyers working with Sudanese refugees increasingly requested.

2003: Alerted and assisted film-makers and human rights observers going to Darfur.

2004:  Preparing booklet on Sudan's peace talks; assisting "Art for Darfur" exhibition"; public talks on Darfur -- e.g  with David Drew MP at Stroud Town Hall, September 2004.

2005 - Special adviser to parliamentary International Development Committee on Darfur.

With Mackintosh Associates - assisted briefings on working in Sudan - for RedR (engineers’ NGO) and for UN Environment Programme in Geneva.  

2006 - Author of Oxford University Refugee Studies Programme web-site introduction to forced migration in Sudan.