Ernst Jan “EJ” Hogendoorn is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center. He was senior advisor to the special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan from 2019 to 2023, supporting Sudan’s transition to democracy and the implementation of the Sudan and South Sudan peace agreements. From 2012 to 2019, he was the deputy program director for Africa at the International Crisis Group, based in Washington, DC, with frequent travel to Africa. Before moving to Washington, Hogendoorn was Crisis Group’s Horn of Africa project director, based in Nairobi, Kenya. Hogendoorn was a former sanctions expert with the United Nations Panel of Experts on Somalia (from 2002 to 2003) and Sudan (from 2005 to 2006). Prior to that, he worked as a researcher for the Human Rights Watch Arms Division and with Amnesty International USA.
Hogendoorn has published and edited numerous reports and articles on African conflicts, armed extremist groups, counterterrorism, peacekeeping and peacemaking, the political economy of conflict, international security threats, and the arms trade, arms embargoes, and sanctions for Crisis Group and other organizations. He has testified before the US Congress on Bosnia, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan. Prior to joining the US State Department, he regularly contributed to television, radio, print, online media, and documentaries. He has a PhD in public affairs and an MPA (with a certificate in science, technology, and environmental policy) from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.