A document released by the U.K. government acknowledges its failure to fully understand the risk of civil war breaking out in Sudan when it controversially axed a peace-building program as part of wider aid cuts.
The £2.6 million ($2.8 million) Sudan Transitional Programme — scrapped after just 10 months — was given the task of developing a “better understanding of emerging conflicts” but it “missed several outcome targets,” the assessment acknowledges.
The admission is revealed following strong criticism of the U.K. for scaling back efforts to “support the peace process” in the years before fighting erupted between rival factions of Khartoum’s military government, which emerged during a parliamentary hearing in April.