Europe warily eyes security implications of a protracted conflict in Sudan

Long dispute creates unwanted uncertainties as increased migration and outside actors enter the conflict

Fears remain that Sudan - riven by fighting between the Sudanese army and its paramilitary rival, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) - could plunge into a protracted crisis, prompting a humanitarian disaster with broad geopolitical implications.

A string of failed or divided states already exist on Europe's peripheries, a crescent of instability that stretches from the African Sahel, Libya, through to Yemen, Syria, and north into Ukraine, three countries where extended wars have been raging.