Sudan (pronounced
/suːˈdæn/), officially the
Republic of the Sudan,
[4] is a country in northeastern
Africa. It is the largest country in Africa and the Arab world,
[5] and
tenth largest in the world by area. It is bordered by
Egypt to the north, the
Red Sea to the northeast,
Eritrea and
Ethiopia to the east,
Kenya and
Uganda to the southeast, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and the
Central African Republic to the southwest,
Chad to the west and
Libya to the northwest. The world's longest river, the
Nile, divides the country between east and west sides.
[6] However, after an
Islamic legal code was introduced on a national level, the ruling
National Congress (NCP) established themselves as the sole political party in the state and has since supported the use of recruited Arab militias in guerrilla warfare, such as in the ongoing
conflict in Darfur.
[13][14] Since then thousands of people have been displaced and killed, and the need for humanitarian care in Darfur has attracted worldwide attention. The conflict has since been described as a
genocide.
[15] Officially a
federal presidential representative democratic republic, the
politics of Sudan are widely considered by the international community to take place within an
authoritarian dictatorship due to the influence of the NCP.
[16] These factors led to the
termination of diplomatic relations between Sudan and
Chad, obstructed humanitarian assistance to the civilian population and has even led to
war crimes charges being issued against members of the Sudanese government.
[17] On 4 March 2008, the
International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an
arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and
crimes against humanity, the first sitting head of state ever indicted by the ICC.
[18][18] And on July 12, 2010, the ICC issued a second arrest warrant for al-Bashir, adding the charge of genocide.
[19] Sudan has also been the subject of severe sanctions due to alleged ties with
Egyptian Islamic Jihad and
al-Qaeda.
[20][21] Sudan has scored medium in
human development in the last few years,
[22] ranking #150 in 2009, between
Haiti and
Tanzania. Statistics indicate that about 17% of the population live on less than US $1.25 per day.
[23]A member of the
United Nations, Sudan also maintains membership with the
AU,
LAS,
OIC and
NAM, as well as serving as an observer in
WTO.
[17] Its capital is
Khartoum, which serves as the political, cultural and commercial centre of the nation, while
Omdurman remains the largest city. Among Sudan's population of 42 million people,
Sunni Islam is the official and largest religion, while
Arabic and
English are the official languages.
[24][25]
History
Early history (3000 BC–543 AD)
Archaeological evidence has confirmed that the area in the east of Sudan,
Nubia, was inhabited at least 70,000 years ago. A settled culture appeared around 8,000 B.C. They subsisted on hunting, fishing and grain foraging and kept cattle and sheep.
[26]The area was known to the Egyptians as the
Kush and had strong cultural and religious ties to Egypt. In the
8th century BC, however, Kush came under the rule of an aggressive line of monarchs, ruling from the capital city,
Napata, who gradually extended their influence into Egypt. About 750 BC, a Kushite king called
Kashta conquered
Upper Egypt and became ruler of
Thebes until approximately 740 BC. His successor,
Piankhy, subdued the delta, reunited Egypt under the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, and founded a line of kings who ruled Kush and Thebes for about a hundred years. The dynasty's intervention in the area of modern
Syria caused a confrontation between Egypt and
Assyria. When the Assyrians in retaliation invaded Egypt,
Taharqa (688–663 BC), the last Kushite pharaoh, withdrew and returned the dynasty to Napata, where it continued to rule Kush and extended its dominions to the south and east.
Statue of a Nubian king, Sudan.
In 590 BC, an Egyptian army sacked Napata, compelling the Kushite court to move to
Meroe near the
Sixth Cataract. The Meroitic kingdom subsequently developed independently of Egypt, and during the height of its power in the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC, Meroe extended over a region from the Third Cataract in the north to
Sawba, near present-day
Khartoum (the modern capital of Sudan).
The pharaonic tradition persisted among Meroe's rulers, who raised
stelae to record the achievements of their reigns and erected pyramids to contain their tombs. These objects and the ruins at palaces, temples and baths at Meroe attest to a centralised political system that employed artisans' skills and commanded the labour of a large workforce. A well-managed
irrigation system allowed the area to support a higher population density than was possible during later periods. By the
1st century BC, the use of
hieroglyphs gave way to a Meroitic script that adapted the Egyptian writing system to an indigenous,
Nubian-related language spoken later by the region's people.
In the 6th century AD, the people known as the
Nobatae occupied the
Nile's west bank in northern Kush. Eventually they intermarried and established themselves among the Meroitic people as a military aristocracy. Until nearly the 5th century,
Rome subsidised the Nobatae and used Meroe as a buffer between Egypt and the
Blemmyes. About AD 350, an
Axumite army from
Abyssinia captured and destroyed Meroe city, ending the kingdom's independent existence.
Christianity and Islam (543–1821)
By the 6th century, fifty states had emerged as the political and cultural heirs of the Meroitic Kingdom. Nobatia in the north, also known as Ballanah, had its capital at Faras, in what is now Egypt; the central kingdom, Muqurra (Makuria), was centred at Dunqulah, about 13 kilometres south of modern Dunqulah; and Alawa (
Alodia), in the heartland of old Meroe, which had its capital at Sawba (now a suburb of modern-day Khartoum). In all three kingdoms, warrior aristocracies ruled Meroitic populations from royal courts where functionaries bore Greek titles in emulation of the
Byzantine court. A missionary sent by Byzantine empress Theodora arrived in Nobatia and started preaching
Christianity about AD 540. The Nubian kings became
Monophysite Christians. However,
Makuria was of the
Melkite Christian faith, unlike
Nobatia and
Alodia.
After many attempts at military conquest failed, the Arab commander in Egypt concluded the first in a series of regularly renewed treaties known as
Albaqut (pactum) with the Nubians that governed relations between the two peoples for more than 678 years. Islam progressed in the area over a long period of time through intermarriage and contacts with Arab merchants and settlers, particularly the Sufi nobles of Arabia. In 1093, a Muslim prince of Nubian royal blood ascended the throne of Dunqulah as king. The two most important Arab tribes to emerge in Nubia were the
Jaali and the Juhayna. Both showed physical continuity with the indigenous pre-Islamic population. Today's northern Sudanese culture combines Nubian and Arabic elements.
During the 16th century, a people called the
Funj, under a leader named Amara Dunqus, appeared in southern
Nubia and supplanted the remnants of the old
Christian kingdom of
Alwa, establishing As-Saltana az-Zarqa (the Blue Sultanate), also called the
Sultanate of Sennar. The Blue Sultanate eventually became the keystone of the Funj Empire. By the mid-16th century, Sinnar controlled Al Jazirah and commanded the allegiance of vassal states and tribal districts north to the Third Cataract and south to the rainforests. The government was substantially weakened by a series of succession arguments and coups within the royal family. In 1820
Muhammad Ali of Egypt sent 4,000 troops to invade Sudan. The
pasha's forces accepted Sinnar's surrender from the last Funj
sultan,
Badi VII.
Modern Egyptian Occupation (1821–1885)
In 1820, the Albanian-Ottoman ruler of Egypt
Muhammad Ali Pasha invaded and conquered northern Sudan. Though technically the
Wāli of Egypt under the
Ottoman Sultan, Muhammad Ali styled himself as
Khedive of a virtually independent Egypt. Seeking to add Sudan to his domains, he sent his third son Ismail (not to be confused with
Ismail the Magnificent mentioned later) to conquer the country, and subsequently incorporate it into Egypt. This policy was expanded and intensified by
Ibrahim's son,
Ismail I, under whose reign most of the remainder of modern-day Sudan was conquered. The Egyptian authorities made significant improvements to the Sudanese infrastructure (mainly in the north), especially with regard to irrigation and cotton production.
In 1879, the
Great Powers forced the removal of Ismail and established his son
Tewfik I in his place. Tewfik's corruption and mismanagement resulted in the
Orabi Revolt, which threatened the Khedive's survival. Tewfik appealed for help to the
British, who subsequently occupied
Egypt in 1882. Sudan was left in the hands of the Khedivial government, and the mismanagement and corruption of its officials became notorious.
[27] During the 1870s, European initiatives against the
slave trade caused an economic crisis in northern Sudan, precipitating the rise of
Mahdist forces.
[28][29]Eventually, a revolt broke out in Sudan, led by
Muhammad Ahmad ibn Abd Allah, the
Mahdi (Guided One), who sought to end foreign presence in Sudan. His revolt culminated in the winter of
Khartoum and the death of the British governor
General Gordon (
Gordon of Khartoum) in 1885. Egypt and Britain subsequently withdrew forces from Sudan leaving the Mahdi to form a short-lived theocracy.
The Mahdist rule (1885–1899)
The Mahdiyah (Mahdist regime) did not impose
Islamic laws. The new ruler's aim was more political than anything else. This was evident in the animosity he showed towards existing Muslims and locals who did not show loyalty to his system and rule. He authorised the burning of lists of pedigrees and books of law and theology as well as destruction of mosques in the north and east of Sudan. The Mahdi maintained that his movement was not a religious order that could be accepted or rejected at will, but that it was a universal regime, which challenged man to join or to be destroyed.
Originally, the Mahdiyah was a
jihad state, run like a military camp. Courts enforced the regime's grip on power and the Mahdi's precepts, which had the force of law. Six months after the fall of Khartoum, the Mahdi died of
typhus, and after a power struggle amongst his deputies,
Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, with the help primarily of the
Baqqara Arabs of western Sudan, overcame the opposition of the others and emerged as unchallenged leader of the Mahdiyah. After consolidating his power, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad assumed the title of
Khalifa (successor) of the Mahdi, instituted an administration, and appointed
Ansar (who were usually Baqqara) as emirs over each of the several provinces.
The Mahdist State (1881–98), inside the border of modern Sudan.
Regional relations remained tense throughout much of the Mahdiyah period, largely because of the Khalifa's brutal methods to extend his rule throughout the country. In 1887, a 60,000-man Ansar army invaded
Ethiopia, penetrating as far as
Gondar. In March 1889, king
Yohannes IV of Ethiopia, marched on
Metemma; however, after Yohannes fell in battle, the Ethiopian forces withdrew. Abd ar Rahman an Nujumi, the Khalifa's general, attempted an invasion of
Egypt in 1889, but British-led Egyptian troops defeated the Ansar at Tushkah. The failure of the Egyptian invasion broke the spell of the Ansar's invincibility. The
Belgians prevented the Mahdi's men from conquering
Equatoria, and in 1893, the
Italians repelled an Ansar attack at
Akordat (in
Eritrea) and forced the Ansar to withdraw from
Ethiopia.
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1899–1956)
In the 1890s, the British sought to re-establish their control over Sudan, once more officially in the name of the Egyptian Khedive, but in actuality treating the country as British imperial territory. By the early 1890s,
British,
French and
Belgian claims had converged at the
Nile headwaters. Britain feared that the other imperial powers would take advantage of Sudan's instability to acquire territory previously annexed to Egypt. Apart from these political considerations, Britain wanted to establish control over the Nile to safeguard a planned irrigation dam at
Aswan.
"The War in the Soudan." A U.S. poster depicting British and Mahdist armies in battle, produced to advertise a Barnum & Bailey circus show titled "The Mahdi, or, For the Victoria Cross", 1897.
Lord Kitchener led military campaigns from 1896 to 1898. Kitchener's campaigns culminated in the
Battle of Omdurman. Following defeat of the
Mahdists at
Omdurman, an agreement was reached in 1899 establishing Anglo-Egyptian rule, under which Sudan was run by a governor-general appointed by
Egypt with British consent. In reality, much to the revulsion of Egyptian and Sudanese
nationalists, Sudan was effectively administered as a
British colony. The British were keen to reverse the process, started under
Muhammad Ali Pasha, of uniting the
Nile Valley under Egyptian leadership, and sought to frustrate all efforts aimed at further uniting the two countries. During
World War II, Sudan was directly involved militarily in the
East African Campaign. Formed in 1925, the
Sudan Defence Force (SDF) played an active part in responding to the early incursions (occupation by Italian troops of
Kassala and other border areas) into the Sudan from
Italian East Africa during 1940. In 1942, the SDF also played a part in the invasion of the Italian colony by British and Commonwealth forces. From 1924 until independence in 1956, the British had a policy of running Sudan as two essentially separate territories, the north (Muslim) and south (Christian). The last British
Governor-General was
Sir Robert Howe.
Independence and civil wars (1956–1989)
The continued British occupation of Sudan fueled an increasingly strident nationalist backlash in Egypt, with Egyptian nationalist leaders determined to force Britain to recognise a single independent union of Egypt and Sudan. With the formal end of Ottoman rule in 1914,
Hussein Kamel was declared
Sultan of Egypt and Sudan, as was his brother
Fuad I who succeeded him. The insistence of a single Egyptian-Sudanese state persisted when the
Sultanate was retitled the
Kingdom of Egypt and Sudan, but the British continued to frustrate these efforts. The
Egyptian Revolution of 1952 finally heralded the beginning of the march towards Sudanese independence. Having abolished the monarchy in 1953, Egypt's new leaders,
Muhammad Naguib, whose mother was Sudanese, and later
Gamal Abdel-Nasser, believed the only way to end British domination in Sudan was for Egypt to officially abandon its sovereignty over Sudan. The British on the other hand continued their political and financial support for the Mahdi successor Sayyid Abdel Rahman whom they believed could resist the Egyptian presence in Sudan. However they realised his political inability and diminishing support in northern and central Sudan, both Britain and Egypt with no option but to allow the Sudanese in the north and south together self determination and a free vote on independence. In 1954 the governments of Egypt and Britain signed a treaty guaranteeing Sudanese
independence on 1 January 1956, in a special ceremony held at the People's Palace where the Egyptian and British flags were lowered and the new Sudanese flag, composed of green, blue and white stripes, was raised in their place. Afterwards, Ismail Al-Azhari was elected first Prime Minister and led the first modern Sudanese government.
[30]In 1955, the year before independence, a
civil war began between Northern and
Southern Sudan. The southerners, anticipating independence, feared the new nation would be dominated by the north. Historically, the north of Sudan had closer ties with Egypt and was predominantly Arab and
Muslim while the south was predominantly a mixture of
Christianity and
Animism. These divisions had been further emphasized by the British policy of ruling the north and south under separate administrations. From 1924, it was illegal for people living north of the
10th parallel to go further south and for people south of the
8th parallel to go further north. The law was ostensibly enacted to prevent the spread of
malaria and other
tropical diseases that had ravaged British troops, as well as to facilitate spreading Christianity among the predominantly Animist population while stopping the Arabic and Islamic influence from advancing south. The result was increased isolation between the already distinct north and south and arguably laid the seeds of conflict in the years to come.
The resulting conflict lasted from 1955 to 1972. The 1955 war began when Southern army officers mutinied and then formed the Anya-Nya guerilla movement. A few years later the first Sudanese military regime took power under Major-General Abboud. Military regimes continued into 1969 when General
Gaafar Nimeiry led a successful coup.
[31] In 1972, a cessation of the north-south conflict was agreed upon under the terms of the
Addis Ababa Agreement, following talks which were sponsored by the
World Council of Churches. This led to a ten-year hiatus in the national conflict.
In 1983, the civil war was reignited following President
Gaafar Nimeiry's decision to circumvent the Addis Ababa Agreement. President Gaafar Nimeiry attempted to create a federated Sudan including states in southern Sudan, which violated the Addis Ababa Agreement that had granted the south considerable autonomy. He appointed a committee to undertake “a substantial review of the Addis Ababa Agreement, especially in the areas of security arrangements, border trade, language, culture and religion”.
[32] Mansour Khalid a former foreign minister wrote, “Nimeiri had never been genuinely committed to the principles of the Addis Ababa Agreement".
[33] When asked about revisions he stated “The Addis Ababa agreement is myself and Joseph Lagu and we want it that way... I am 300 percent the constitution. I do not know of any plebiscite because I am mandated by the people as the President”.
[34] Southern troops rebelled against the northern political offensive, and launched attacks in June 1983. In September 1983, the situation was exacerbated when President
Gaafar Nimeiry's culminated the 1977 revisions by imposing new Islamic laws on all of Sudan, including the non-Muslim south. In 1995, former
U.S. President Jimmy Carter negotiated the longest
ceasefire in the history of the war to allow humanitarian aid to enter
Southern Sudan which had been inaccessible owing to violence.
[35] This ceasefire, which lasted almost six months, has since been called the "
Guinea Worm Ceasefire."
[35] Since 1983, a combination of civil war and
famine has taken the lives of nearly 2 million people in Sudan.
[36]
The war continued even after Nimeiry was ousted and a democratic government was elected with
Al Sadig Al Mahdi's Umma Party having the majority in the parliament. The leader of the SPLA
John Garang refused to recognize the government and to negotiate with it as representative of Sudan but agreed to negotiate with government officials as representative of their political parties.
Recent history (1989–present)
On 30 June 1989, colonel
Omar al-Bashir led a group of army officers in ousting the unstable coalition government of Prime Minister
Sadiq al-Mahdi in a bloodless
military coup.
[9] Under al-Bashir's leadership, the new military government suspended political parties and introduced an Islamic legal code on the national level.
[37] He then became Chairman of the
Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation (a newly established body with legislative and executive powers for what was described as a transitional period), and assumed the posts of
chief of state,
prime minister, chief of the armed forces, and
minister of defense.
[38] Subsequent to al-Bashir's promotion to the Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation, he allied himself with
Hassan al-Turabi, the leader of the
National Islamic Front (NIF), who along with al-Bashir began institutionalizing
Sharia law in the northern part of Sudan. Further on, al-Bashir issued purges and executions in the upper ranks of the army, the banning of associations, political parties, and independent newspapers and the imprisonment of leading political figures and journalists.
[39]The Sudanese Army advanced successfully in the south, reaching the southern borders with neighbouring
Kenya and
Uganda. The campaign started in 1989 and ended in 1994. During the fight the situation worsened in the tribal south causing casualties among the Christian and animist minority.
[40] Rebel leader Riek Mashar subsequently signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government and became Vice President of Sudan. His troops took part in the fight against the SPLA during the government offensive in the 1990s. After the Sudanese army took control of the entire south with the help of Riek Mashar, the situation improved. In time, however, the SPLA sought support in the West by using the northern Sudanese government's religious propaganda to portray the war as a campaign by the Arab Islamic government to impose
Islam and the
Arabic language on the
Christian south.
The war went on for more than 20 years, including the use of
Russian-made combat
helicopters and military cargo planes which were used as bombers to devastating effect on villages and tribal rebels alike. "Sudan's independent history has been dominated by chronic, exceptionally cruel warfare that has starkly divided the country on racial, religious, and regional grounds; displaced an estimated four million people (of a total estimated population of thirty-two million); and killed an estimated two million people."
[41] It damaged Sudan's economy and led to food shortages, resulting in starvation and malnutrition. The lack of investment during this time, particularly in the south, meant a generation lost access to basic health services, education, and jobs.
On 16 October 1993, al-Bashir's powers increased when he appointed himself
President of the country, after which he disbanded the
Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation and all other rival political parties. The executive and legislative powers of the council were later given to al-Bashir completely.
[42] In the 1996 national election, where he was the only candidate by law to run for election,
[16] al-Bashir transformed Sudan into an
Islamic totalitarian single-party state and created the
National Congress Party (NCP) with a new parliament and government obtained solely by members of the NCP.
[43] During the 1990s,
Hassan al-Turabi, then Speaker of the National Assembly, reached out to
Islamic fundamentalist groups, as well as allowing them to operate out of Sudan, even personally inviting
Osama bin Laden to the country.
[20] The
United States subsequently listed Sudan as a
state sponsor of terrorism[21] and U.S. firms were barred from doing business in Sudan.
[44] Further on, al-Turabi's influence and that of his party's "'internationalist' and ideological wing" waned "in favor of the 'nationalist' or more pragmatic leaders who focus on trying to recover from Sudan's disastrous
international isolation and economic damage that resulted from ideological adventurism."
[45] At the same time Sudan worked to appease the United States and other international critics by expelling members of the
Egyptian Islamic Jihad and encouraging bin Laden to leave.
[46] Prior to the
2000 presidential election, al-Turabi introduced a bill to reduce the President's powers, prompting al-Bashir to dissolve parliament and declare a
state of emergency. After he urged a boycott of the President's re-election campaign and signed an agreement with
Sudan People's Liberation Army, Omar al-Bashir suspected that they were plotting to overthrow him and the government,
[47] thus jailing Hassan al-Turabi that same year.
[48]Peace talks between the southern rebels and the government made substantial progress in 2003 and early 2004. The peace was consolidated with the official signing by both sides of the
Nairobi Comprehensive Peace Agreement 9 January 2005, granting
Southern Sudan autonomy for six years, to be followed by a referendum about independence. It created a co-vice president position and allowed the north and south to split oil deposits equally, but also left both the north's and south's armies in place.
John Garang, the south's peace agreement appointed co-vice president died in a helicopter crash on 1 August 2005, three weeks after being sworn in. This resulted in riots, but the peace was eventually able to continue. The
United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) was established under the UN Security Council Resolution 1590 of 24 March 2005. Its
mandate is to support implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and to perform functions relating to
humanitarian assistance, and protection and promotion of
human rights. In October 2007 the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) withdrew from government in protest over slow implementation of a landmark 2005 peace deal which ended the civil war. Due to significant cultural, social, political, ethnic and economic changes in short amounts of time, conflicts were evolved in western and eastern provinces of Sudan in addition to an escalating conflict in
Southern Sudan. Since the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), several violent struggles between the
Janjaweed militia and rebel groups such as the
Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA),
Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and the
Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in the form of
guerilla warfare in the
Darfur,
Red Sea and
Equatoria regions have occurred, which has resulted in death tolls between 200,000
[13] and 400,000,
[17][49][50] over 2.5 million
people being displaced[51] and the
diplomatic relations between Sudan and
Chad being at a crisis level.
[52]Darfur conflict
Map of Northeast Africa highlighting the Darfur region of Sudan Main article:
War in DarfurJust as the long north-south
civil war was reaching a resolution, some clashes occurred in the western region of
Darfur in the early 1970s between the
pastoral tribes. The rebels accused the central government of neglecting the Darfur region economically, although there is uncertainty regarding the objectives of the rebels and whether they merely seek an improved position for Darfur within Sudan or outright secession. Both the government and the rebels have been accused of atrocities in this war, although most of the blame has fallen on Arab militias known as the
Janjaweed, which are armed men appointed by the
Al Saddiq Al Mahdi administration to stop the longstanding chaotic disputes between Darfur tribes. According to declarations by the United States Government, these militias have been engaging in
genocide; the fighting has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, many of them seeking refuge in neighbouring
Chad. The government claimed victory over the rebels after capturing a town on the border with Chad in early 1994. However, the fighting resumed in 2003.
On 9 September 2004, the
United States Secretary of State Colin Powell termed the Darfur conflict a genocide, claiming it as the worst
humanitarian crisis of the 21st century.
[53] There have been reports that the Janjawid has been launching raids, bombings, and attacks on villages, killing civilians based on ethnicity, raping women, stealing land, goods, and herds of livestock. So far, over 2.5 million civilians have been displaced and the death toll is variously estimated from 200,000
[13] to 400,000 killed.
[14] These figures have remained stagnant since initial
UN reports of the conflict hinted at
genocide in
2003/2004 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 2003/2004 end_of_the_skype_highlighting. Genocide has been considered a criminal offense under international humanitarial law since the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
[54]On 5 May 2006, the Sudanese government and Darfur's largest rebel group, the SLM (Sudanese Liberation Movement), signed the
Darfur Peace Agreement, which aimed at ending the three-year-long conflict.
[55] The agreement specified the disarmament of the Janjaweed and the disbandment of the rebel forces, and aimed at establishing a temporal government in which the rebels could take part.
[56] The agreement, which was brokered by the
African Union, however, was not signed by all of the rebel groups.
[56] Only one rebel group, the SLA, led by Minni Arko Minnawi, signed the DPA.
[57] [Did SLA or SLM sign the DPA?]
A mother with her sick child at Abu Shouk IDP camp in North Darfur.
Since the agreement was signed, however, there have been reports of widespread violence throughout the region. A new rebel group has emerged called the National Redemption Front, which is made up of the four main rebel groups that refused to sign the May peace agreement.
[58] Recently, both the Sudanese government and government-sponsored Muslim militias have launched large offensives against the rebel groups, resulting in more deaths and more displacements. Clashes among the rebel groups have also contributed to the violence.
[58] Recent fighting along the Chad border has left hundreds of soldiers and rebel forces dead and nearly a quarter of a million refugees cut off from aid.
[59] In addition, villages have been bombed and more civilians have been killed.
UNICEF recently reported that around 80 infants die each day in Darfur as a result of
malnutrition. The hunger in the
Darfur region is still concerning many developed countries in the world.
The people in Darfur are predominantly
Black Africans of
Muslim belief. While the
Janjawid militia is made up of
Arabized Black African (
Black Arabs); the majority of Arab groups in Darfur remain uninvolved in the conflict. Darfurians—Arab and non-Arab alike—profoundly distrust a government in Khartoum that has brought them nothing but trouble.
[60]The
International Criminal Court has indicted State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs
Ahmed Haroun and alleged Muslim Janjawid militia leader Ali Mohammed Ali, also known as Ali Kosheib, in relation to the atrocities in the region. Ahmed Haroun belongs to the Bargou tribe, one of the non-Arab tribes of Darfur, and is alleged to have incited attacks on specific non-Arab ethnic groups. Ali Kosheib is a former soldier and a leader of the popular defense forces, and is alleged to be one of the key leaders responsible for attacks on villages in west Darfur.
The Arab League,
African Union, and even France support Sudan’s efforts to suspend the ICC investigation.
[62] They are willing to consider Article 16 of the Rome Statute, which states ICC investigations can be suspended for one year if the investigation endangers the peace process.
[63]Chad-Sudan conflict
The
Chad-Sudan conflict officially started on 23 December 2005, when the
government of Chad declared a
state of war with Sudan and called for the citizens of
Chad to mobilize themselves against the "common enemy"
[64]—the
United Front for Democratic Change, a coalition of rebel factions dedicated to overthrowing Chadian President
Idriss Déby (and who the Chadians believe are backed by the Sudanese government), and Sudanese janjawid, who have been raiding refugee camps and certain tribes in eastern Chad. Déby accuses Sudanese President
Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir of trying to "destabilize our country, to drive our people into misery, to create disorder and export the war from Darfur to Chad."
The problem prompting the declaration of war was an attack on the Chadian town of
Adré near the Sudanese border that led to the deaths of either one hundred rebels (as most news sources reported) or three hundred rebels. The Sudanese government was blamed for the attack, which was the second in the region in three days,
[65] but Sudanese foreign ministry spokesman
Jamal Mohammed Ibrahim denied any Sudanese involvement, "We are not for any escalation with Chad. We technically deny involvement in Chadian internal affairs." The
Battle of Adré led to the declaration of war by Chad and the alleged deployment of the Chadian air force into Sudanese airspace, which the Chadian government denies.
[66]The leaders of Sudan and Chad signed an agreement in
Saudi Arabia on 3 May 2007 to stop fighting from the
Darfur conflict along their countries' 1,000-kilometre (600 mi) border.
[67]Eastern Front
Both the Free Lions and the Beja Congress stated that government inequity in the distribution of oil profits was the cause of their rebellion. They demanded to have a greater say in the composition of the national government, which has been seen as a destabilizing influence on the agreement ending the conflict in
Southern Sudan.
The Eastern Front had threatened to block the flow of
crude oil, which travels from the
oil fields of the south-central regions to outside
markets through Port Sudan. A government plan to build a second
oil refinery near Port Sudan was also threatened. The government was reported to have three times as many soldiers in the east to suppress the rebellion and protect vital infrastructure as in the more widely reported Darfur region.
The Eritrean government in mid-2006 dramatically changed their position on the conflict. From being the main supporter of the Eastern Front they decided that bringing the Sudanese government around the negotiating table for a possible agreement with the rebels would be in their best interests.
They were successful in their attempts and on the 19 June 2006, the two sides signed an agreement on declaration of principles.
[69] This was the start of four months of Eritrean-mediated negotiations for a comprehensive peace agreement between the Sudanese government and the Eastern Front, which culminated in signing of a peace agreement on 14 October 2006, in Asmara. The agreement covers security issues, power sharing at a federal and regional level, and wealth sharing in regards to the three Eastern states
Kassala,
Red Sea and
Al Qadarif.
In July 2007, many areas of the country were devastated by
flooding, prompting an immediate humanitarian response by the
United Nations and partners, under the leadership of acting
United Nations Resident Coordinators David Gressly and
Oluseyi Bajulaiye.
[70] Over 400,000 people were directly affected, with over 3.5 million at risk of epidemics.
[71] The United Nations have allocated US$ 13.5 million for the response from its pooled funds, but will launch an appeal to the international community to cover the gap.
[72] The humanitarian crisis is in danger of worsening. Following attacks in Darfur, the U.N. World Food Program announced it could stop food aid to some parts of Darfur.
[73] Banditry against truck convoys is one of the biggest problems, as it impedes the delivery of food assistance to war-stricken areas and forces a cut in monthly rations. In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed
Scott Gration as his envoy to Sudan.
Autonomy, separation and conflicts
Southern Sudan is an autonomous region intermediate between the states and the national government. Southern Sudan is scheduled to have a referendum on independence in 2011.
[74] As agreed in the peace agreement a new currency, the Sudan Pound was launched throughout the country on 10 January 2007, and will replace the Sudanese Dinar. But this agreement has come under dispute owing to poor communication. The Southern Sudanese government tried to launch a new currency, but stopped after the central Sudanese government declared that such a move constituted a breach of the peace agreement.
There was also an insurgency in the east led by the
Eastern Front. On 14 October 2006, both the Sudanese government and the Eastern Front signed a power-sharing agreement ending the insurgency.
Government and politics
Following the signing of the 2005
Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the government of Omar al-Bashir and the SPLA, a Government of National Unity was installed in Sudan in accordance with the Interim Constitution whereby a co-
Vice President position representing the south was created in addition to the northern Sudanese
Vice President. This allowed the north and south to split
oil deposits equally, but also left both the north's and south's armies in place. Following the
Darfur Peace Agreement, the office of senior Presidential advisor was allocated to
Minni Minnawi, a
Zaghawa of the
Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA), and this thus became the fourth highest constitutional post.
According to the new 2005 constitution, the bicameral
National Legislature is the official Sudanese
parliament, and is divided between two chambers; the
National Assembly, a lower house with 450 seats, and the
Council of States, an upper house with 50 seats. Thus the parliament consists of 500 appointed members altogether, where all are indirectly elected by state legislatures to serve six-year terms.
[17]Despite his international arrest warrant, Omar al-Bashir was a candidate in the
2010 Sudanese presidential election, the first
democratic election with multiple political parties participating in 24 years.
[75] In the build-up to the vote Sudanese pro-democracy activists say they faced intimidation by the government
[76] and the
International Crisis Group reported that the ruling party had
gerrymandered electoral districts.
[77] A few days before the vote the main opposition candidate, Yasir Arman from the SPLM, withdrew from the race.
[78] The U.S.-based
Carter Center, which helped monitor the elections, described the vote tabulation process as “highly chaotic, non- transparent and vulnerable to electoral manipulation."
[79] Al-Bashir was declared the winner of the election with 68% of the vote.
[80] There is considerable concern amongst the international community of a return to violence in the run-up to the southern Sudan referendum in January, with post-referendum issues such as oil revenue sharing and border demarcation not yet resolved.
[81]Foreign relations
Sudan has had a troubled relationship with many of its neighbours and much of the international community owing to what is viewed as its aggressively Islamic stance. For much of the 1990s,
Uganda,
Kenya and
Ethiopia formed an ad-hoc alliance called the "Front Line States" with support from the
United States to check the influence of the
National Islamic Front government. The Sudanese Government supported anti-Uganda rebel groups such as the
Lord's Resistance Army.
Beginning from the mid-1990s Sudan gradually began to moderate its positions as a result of increased US pressure following the
1998 U.S. embassy bombings and the new development of oil fields previously in rebel hands. Sudan also has a territorial dispute with Egypt over the
Hala'ib Triangle. Since 2003, the foreign relations of Sudan have centred on the support for ending the
Second Sudanese Civil War and condemnation of government support for militias in the
Darfur conflict.
The United States has listed Sudan as a
state sponsor of terrorism since 1993.
[21] U.S. firms have been barred from doing business in Sudan since 1997.
[44] In 1998, the
Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum was destroyed by a US cruise missile strike because of its alleged production of chemical weapons and links to
al-Qaeda. Sudan has extensive economic relations with China. China gets 10
% of its oil from Sudan, and according to a former Sudanese government minister, China is Sudan’s largest supplier of arms.
[82]On 23 December 2005,
Chad, Sudan's neighbour to the west, declared war on Sudan and accused the country of being the "common enemy of the nation [Chad]." This happened after the 18 December attack on
Adré, which left about 100 people dead. A statement issued by Chadian government on 23 December, accused Sudanese militias of making daily incursions into Chad, stealing cattle, killing people and burning villages on the Chadian border. The statement went on to call for Chadians to form a patriotic front against Sudan.
[64]The
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) have called on Sudan and Chad to exercise self-restraint to defuse growing tensions between the two countries.
[83] On 11 May 2008 Sudan announced it was cutting diplomatic relations with Chad, claiming that it was helping rebels in
Darfur to attack the Sudanese capital
Khartoum.
[84] On 27 December 2005, Sudan became one of the few
states to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over
Western Sahara.
[85]On 20 June 2006 President Omar al-Bashir told reporters that he would not allow any UN peacekeeping force into Sudan. President al-Bashir denounced any such mission as "colonial forces."
[86] On 17 November 2006, UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan announced that "Sudan has agreed in principle to allow the establishment of a joint African Union and UN peacekeeping force in an effort to solve the crisis in Darfur" – but had stopped short of setting the number of troops involved. Annan speculated that this force could number 17,000.
[87]Despite this claim, no additional troops have been deployed as of late December 2006. On 31 July 2007 the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1769, authorizing the deployment of UN forces.
[88] Violence continues in the region and on 15 December 2006, prosecutors at the
International Criminal Court (ICC) stated they would be proceeding with cases of human rights violations against members of the Sudan government.
[89] A Sudanese legislator was quoted as saying that Khartoum may permit UN peacekeepers to patrol Darfur in exchange for immunity from prosecution for officials charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Armed forces
The
Sudan People's Armed Forces is the regular forces of the Republic of Sudan and is divided into five branches; the Sudanese Army, Sudanese Navy (including the Marine Corps),
Sudanese Air Force, Border Patrol and the Popular Defence Force, totalling about 200,000 troops. The military of Sudan has become very well equipped fighting force, thanks to increasing local production of heavy and advanced arms. These forces are under the command of the National Assembly and its strategic principles include defending Sudan’s external borders and preserve internal security.
Legal system
The legal system in Sudan is based on
English common law and Islamic
sharia. Islamic law was implemented in all of the north as of 20 January 1991, by the now-defunct Revolutionary Command Council; this applies to all residents of the northern states regardless of their religion. The 2005
Naivasha Agreement, ending the civil war between North and South Sudan, established some protections for non-Muslims in Khartoum.
International Court of Justice jurisdiction is accepted, though with reservations. Under the terms of the Naivasha Agreement, Islamic law does not apply in the south; the legal system there is still developing.
[91]The
judicial branch of the northern government consists of a Constitutional Court of nine justices, the National Supreme Court and National Courts of Appeal, and other national courts; the National Judicial Service Commission provides overall management for the judiciary.
Human rights
While the government of the Republic of Sudan denies the allegations of slavery in the country, claiming that these reports are attempts to shed a bad light on
Muslims and Arabs, and that slave redemption programmes are fraudulent attempts to make money, the Rift Valley Institute's
Sudan Abductee Database claim over 11,000 people were abducted in 20 years of slave-raiding in the southern regions,
[101] while SudanActivism.com mentions that hundreds of thousands have been abducted into slavery, fled, or are otherwise unaccounted for in a second genocide in southern Sudan.
[102]A letter dated 14 August 2006, from the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch found that the Sudanese government is both incapable of protecting its own citizens in
Darfur and unwilling to do so, and that its militias are guilty of crimes against humanity. The letter added that these human rights abuses have existed since 2004.
[103] Some reports attribute part of the violations to the rebels as well as the government and the
Janjaweed. The US State Department's human rights report issued in March 2007 claims that "All parties to the conflagration committed serious abuses, including widespread killing of civilians, rape as a tool of war, systematic torture, robbery and recruitment of child soldiers."
[104]Both government forces and militias allied with the government are known to attack not only civilians in Darfur, but also humanitarian workers. Sympathizers of rebel groups are arbitrarily detained, as are foreign journalists,
human rights defenders, student activists, and displaced people in and around Khartoum, some of whom face torture. The rebel groups have also been accused in a report issued by the American government of attacking humanitarian workers and of killing innocent civilians.
[105]States, districts and counties
Political map of Sudan. Hala'ib Triangle has been under Egyptian administration since 2000.
Geography
Sudan is situated in northern Africa, with a 853 km (530 mi) coastline bordering the
Red Sea.
[106] With an area of 2,505,810
km2 (967,499
sq mi), it is the largest country on the continent and the tenth largest in the world. The terrain is generally flat plains, broken by several mountain ranges; in the west the
Jebel Marra is the highest range; in the south is the highest mountain Mount
Kinyeti Imatong (3,187 m/10,456 ft), near the border with
Uganda; in the east are the Red Sea Hills.
[107]
The amount of rainfall increases towards the south. In the north there is the very dry
Nubian Desert; in the south there are swamps and rainforest. Sudan’s rainy season lasts for about three months (July to September) in the north, and up to six months (June to November) in the south. The dry regions are plagued by
sandstorms, known as
haboob, which can completely block out the sun. In the northern and western semi-desert areas, people rely on the scant rainfall for basic agriculture and many are
nomadic, travelling with their herds of
sheep and
camels. Nearer the
River Nile, there are
well-irrigated farms growing
cash crops.
[108]Rich mineral resources are available in Sudan including:
petroleum,
natural gas,
gold,
silver,
chromite,
asbestos,
manganese,
gypsum,
mica,
zinc,
iron,
lead,
uranium,
copper,
kaolin,
cobalt,
granite,
nickel and
tin.
[109]In May 2007, it was announced that hundreds of wild
elephants had been located on a previously unknown, treeless island in the
Sudd swampland region of southern Sudan. The exact location was being kept secret to protect the animals from
poachers.
[113][114]Economy
Despite being the 17th fastest growing economy in the world with new economic policies and infrastructure investments, Sudan still faces formidable economic problems, as it must rise from a very low level of per capita output. Since 1997, Sudan has been implementing the macroeconomic reforms recommended by the
IMF.
In 1999, Sudan began exporting crude oil and in the last quarter of 1999, recorded its first trade surplus. Increased oil production (the current production is about 520,000 barrels per day (83,000 m3/d)) revived light industry, and expanded export processing zones helped sustain GDP growth at 6.1% in 2003. These gains, along with improvements to monetary policy, have stabilized the exchange rate.
Currently oil is Sudan's main export, and the production is increasing dramatically. With rising oil revenues the Sudanese economy is booming, with a growth rate of about 9% in 2007. Sustained growth was expected the next year
[when?] due to not only increasing oil production, but also to the boost of
hydroelectricity (annual electricity yield of 5.5 TWh) provided by the
Merowe Dam.
Rich mineral resources are available in Sudan including:
petroleum,
natural gas,
gold,
silver,
chromite,
asbestos,
manganese,
gypsum,
mica,
zinc,
iron,
lead,
uranium,
copper,
kaolin,
cobalt,
granite,
nickel,
tin,
aluminum.
Agriculture production remains Sudan's most important sector, employing 80% of the workforce and contributing 39% of GDP, but most farms remain rain-fed and susceptible to
drought. Instability,adverse weather, and weak world agricultural prices—ensures that much of the population will remain at or below the poverty line for years.
The
Merowe Dam, also known as Merowe Multi-Purpose Hydro Project or Hamdab Dam, is a large construction project in Northern Sudan, about 350 km north of the capital Khartoum. It is situated on the River Nile, close to the
Fourth Cataract where the river divides into multiple smaller branches with large islands in between. Merowe is a city about 40 km downstream from the construction site at Hamdab.
The main purpose of the dam will be the generation of electricity. Its dimensions make it the largest contemporary hydro power project in Africa. The construction of the dam was to be finished by mid-2008, supplying more than 90% of the population with electricity. Other gas-powered generating stations are under construction in Khartoum state; these were also due to be completed by 2008.
Despite the American sanctions, the Sudanese economy is one of the fastest growing in the world according to a
New York Times report of October 2006.
[115]Demographics
Sudan population density (person per Km2).
In Sudan's 1993
census, the population was recorded to be 25 million. No comprehensive census has been carried out since then owing to the continuation of the civil war. The 2009 census put the population at more than 39 million people.
[116] The population of metropolitan Khartoum (including Khartoum,
Omdurman, and
Khartoum North) is growing rapidly and is estimated at about 5 to 7 million, including around 2 million displaced persons from the southern war zone as well as western and eastern drought-affected areas.
Despite being a refugee-generating country, Sudan also hosts a refugee population. According to the
World Refugee Survey 2008, published by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, 310,500 refugees and asylum seekers lived in Sudan in 2007. The majority of this population came from
Eritrea (240,400 persons),
Chad (45,000),
Ethiopia (19,300) and the
Central African Republic (2,500).
[117] The Sudanese government was reportedly uncooperative with the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees in 2007, and the government forcibly deported at least 1,500 refugees and asylum seekers during the year. Sudan is a party to the 1951
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.
[117]Ethnic groups
Sudan has 597 tribes that speak over 400 different languages and dialects
[118] split into two major Ethnic groups:
Arabs of the largely
Muslim Northern Sudan versus the largely
Christian and
animist Nilote Southern Sudan of the south.
[7][8] These two groups consist of hundreds of smaller ethnic and tribal divisions, and in the latter case, language groups.
As with
Moroccans,
Algerians and most other non-
Arabian Peninsula Arabs, most Sudanese Arabs are "
Arabs" in linguistic and cultural association. They descended primarily from the pre-existing indigenous populations; that is, the ancient Nubians. The
Nubians share a common history with
Egypt. In common with much of the rest of the
Arab World, the gradual process of
Arabisation in northern Sudan led to the predominance of the
Arabic language and aspects of
Arab culture,
[119] leading to the shift among a majority of northern Sudanese today to an Arab
ethnic identity. This process was furthered both by the spread of Islam and an emigration to Sudan of genealogical Arabs from the
Arabian Peninsula, and their intermarriage with the Arabized indigenous peoples of the country.
The northern states cover most of Sudan and include most of the urban centres. Most of the 22 million Sudanese who live in this region are Arabic-speaking Muslims, as education is in Arabic language, though the majority also use a traditional non-Arabic mother tongue (e.g. Nubian, Beja, Fur, Nuban, Ingessana, etc.). Among these are several distinct tribal groups: the
camel-raising Kababish of northern Kordofan; the Dongolawiyin (الدنقلاويين); the Ga’aliyin (الجعلين); the Rubatab (الرباطاب); the
Manasir (المناصير); the
Shaiqiyah (الشايقيّة); the Bideiria ; the semi-nomadic Baggara of
Kurdufan and
Darfur; the
Beja and
Hausa people in the Red Sea area and who extend into Eritrea; and the Nubians of the northern Nile areas, some of whom have been resettled on the Atbara River.
Shokrya in the
Butana land, Bataheen bordering the Ga’alin and Shokrya in the southwest of
Butana. Rufaa, Halaween,
Fulani (فولاني) and many other tribes have settled in the Gazeera region and on the banks of the
Blue Nile, Damazine and the Dindir region. The Nuba of southern Kurdufan and Fur in the western reaches of the country.
The southern region has a population of around six million and a predominantly rural, subsistence economy. This region has been affected by war for all but 10 years since the country's independence in 1956, resulting in serious neglect, lack of infrastructure development, and major destruction and displacement. More than two million people have died, and more than four million are internally displaced or have become refugees as a result of the civil war and war-related impacts.
Here a majority of the population practices traditional indigenous beliefs, although some practice
Christianity, a result of Christian
missionary efforts. The south also contains many tribal groups and many more languages are used than in the north. The
Dinka, whose population is estimated at more than one million, are the largest of the many ethnic groups of Sudan. Along with the
Shilluk, also the
Nuer, the Otuho and the
Bari who consist of five other tribes,
Pojulu,
Mundari, Kuku, Kakaw and Ngangwara are
Nilotic tribes.
The
Azande, Bor, and
Jo Luo are “Sudanic” tribes in the west, and the [Otuho]and
Acholilive in the extreme south, extending into
Uganda. Unlike northern Sudan, Arabisation and
Islamisation have been limited in the south as the region's permanent merger with the north is relatively recent, dating back to the
union with Egypt in the 19th century. Besides, the north and the south were administered as separate districts in the period 1924-1956 as mentioned earlier. As a result, Arab self-identification amongst people in the south is almost exclusively limited to those of northern Sudanese origin, with the vast majority of southern Sudanese rejecting Arab identity.
Religion
Islam predominates in the north, while traditional indigenous beliefs (animism) and Christianity are prevalent in the south. Almost all Muslims are Sunni, although there are significant distinctions between followers of different Sunni traditions. Two popular divisions, the Ansar and the Khatmia, are associated with the opposition Umma and Democratic Unionist Parties, respectively. There is a small
Shi'a community.
There are also
Ethiopian and
Eritrean Orthodox communities in Khartoum and eastern Sudan, largely made up of refugees and migrants. Other Christian groups with smaller followings in the country include the Africa Inland Church, the
Armenian Apostolic Church, the Sudan Church of Christ, the Sudan Interior Church,
Jehovah's Witnesses, the Sudan Pentecostal Church, the Sudan Evangelical Presbyterian Church (in the North), and the
Seventh-day Adventist Church of Sudan. In January 2010,
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gained its first official presence in Sudan, opening its first branch in the south of the country.
[123][unreliable source?]Foreign missionary groups operate in both North and South, although Christian missionary activity is limited in the North owing to Shari'a, strong social pressure against
proselytizing, and existing laws against
apostasy.
Many Christians in the north are descended from pre-Islamic era communities or are trading families that immigrated from
Egypt or the
Near East before independence (1956). Many Muslims in the south are shopkeepers or small business owners who sought economic opportunities during the civil war. Political tensions have created not only a sense of ethnic and religious marginalisation among the minority religious group in each region but also a feeling among the majority that the minority groups control a disproportionate share of the wealth.
[citation needed]Religious identity plays a role in the country's political divisions. Northern Muslims have dominated the country's political and economic system since independence. The NCP draws much of its support from
Islamists,
Salafis/
Wahhabis and other conservative Arab Muslims in the north. The
Umma Party has traditionally attracted Arab followers of the Ansar sect of Sufism as well as non-Arab Muslims from Darfur and Kordofan.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) includes both Arab and non-Arab Muslims in the north and east, especially those in the Khatmia
Sufi sect, as well as some northern Arabic-speaking Christians. Southern Christians generally support the SPLM or one of the smaller southern parties.
[124]People of Sudan
Didinga
Languages
According to the first authoritative Ethnologue, the total number of languages used or spoken in Sudan is 142. Possibly less.
[125] Of those, 133 are currently spoken and lived languages and 9 languages are extinct.
The most used languages are:
Arabic in the north, east, west and middle regions, along with the tribal languages ( if they have another language apart from Arabic).
Tribal languages in all Sudan with some educated people speaking English.
Some
Western African tribes like the Fallata, also known as
Fulani and
Hausa, have migrated to Sudan at various times, settling in various regions, mainly in the north, with most speaking Arabic in addition to their native languages.
