Language: Arabic, English
Currency: Sudanese pound (SDG)
Calling code: 249
Sudan, whose official name is the Republic of the
Sudan (Arabic: جمهورية السودان, Yumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), colloquially
called North Sudan (as opposed to South Sudan), is one of the
fifty-four countries that make up the African continent . Its
capital and most populated city is Khartoum. It is located in
the northeast of Africa and shares a border with Egypt to the north,
with the Red Sea to the northeast, with Eritrea and Ethiopia to the
east, with South Sudan to the south, with the Central African
Republic to the southwest, with Chad to the west and with Libya at
West. Until 2011, when the southern region of the country separated
(forming the new Republic of South Sudan) was the African state that
shared the border with a greater number of countries (nine),
including Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The
population of Sudan is a combination of indigenous Africans with a
Nilo-Saharan mother tongue and descendants of migrants from the
Arabian peninsula. Due to a process of Arabization, common to the
rest of the Muslim world, today Arab culture predominates in Sudan.
The majority of the population professes Islam. The Nile River
crosses the country from south to north.
The country has a
long history, dating back to the Ancient Age, where it is deeply
intertwined with the history of Egypt, belonging successively to
various states until its independence in the mid-twentieth century.
Sudan suffered seventeen years of war during the First Sudanese
Civil War (1955-1972), followed by ethnic, religious and economic
conflicts between the population of the Arab-Muslim north and the
population of the animistic, nilotic-Christian and black South that
led to the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005).
Due to the
continuous political and military imbalance, a coup d'état was
carried out in 1989 led by the then Brigadier Omar Hassan Ahmad
al-Bashir, who ended up proclaiming himself, in 1993, President of
Sudan since currently (May 2018) continues to occupy. The second
civil war ended after the signing, in 2005, of the General Peace
Agreement that led to the drafting of a new constitution and gave
autonomy to what was then the southern region of the country. In a
referendum carried out in January 2011, that region obtained the
votes necessary to become independent so that on July 9, 2011
it did so, becoming known as the Republic of South Sudan.
The toponym comes from the name of the natural region of Sudan, extending south of the Sahara desert. The full Arabic form of this name is bilād as-sūdān (بلاد السودان), which means "land of the blacks". The name is due to the fact that this region was a zone of contact between the Arabs and the black population of Africa.
Antiquity and the Middle Ages
In Sudan, finds of the Khartoum
culture of the Stone Age were discovered. In the 4th-3rd millennium
BC in northern Sudan there is a culture close to the culture of
Egypt at that time. In antiquity, a significant part of the
territory of modern Sudan (known as Nubia) was inhabited by
Semitic-Hamitic and Kushite tribes, akin to the ancient Egyptians.
From the 2nd millennium BC. Negroids from the south also moved
here. In the south of modern territory lived the ancestors of modern
Nilots. Locals traded with ancient Egypt and were subjected to
predatory raids on his part. At the beginning of the 2nd millennium
BC. e. here the state of Kerma arises, which is later replaced by
the kingdom of Kush.
At the beginning of the 4th century AD most of the territory entered the kingdom of Aksum. Over the next
centuries, several independent kingdoms arose in the region. The
most powerful of them, the Christian state of Mukurra, founded in
the VI century BC, existed for almost 900 years, until in the
XIV century it was not captured by the Egyptian Mamelukes. Another
state of Aloa, was conquered around 1500 by the people of the fungi.
In the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries on the territory of
present Sudan there were independent states with developed
agriculture, crafts and trade. The most important of them are the
Sultanate of Sennar and the Sultanate of Darfur. However, by the
middle of the XVIII century, they broke up into separate feudal
principalities and independent nomadic tribes.
XIX century
In 1819-1822, Egypt captured most of the territory of Sudan. In
accordance with the firm of the High Port in 1841, the
administration of these administrative units, called "Egyptian
Sudan", was transferred to the Viceroy of Egypt, thus Sudan became
part of the Ottoman Empire, but in fact became the possession of
Egypt.
In the second half of the 19th century, the influence
of Great Britain increased in Sudan. Cruel exploitation and national
oppression (combined with traditionalist reaction) led to the
emergence of a powerful popular protest movement with a religious
and reactionary orientation. Religious leader Muhammad ibn Abdullah,
proclaimed himself in 1881 the "Mahdi" (messiah) and tried to unite
the tribes of western and central Sudan against the Ottomans. The
uprising ended with the capture of Khartoum in 1885 and the
expulsion of European, Turkish and Egyptian officials from the
country. Mehmed Emin Pasha (Eduard Schnitzer 1840–1892) - Governor
of the Sudan region and Russian explorer of Africa Vasily Yunker
(1840–1892) left the region with an expedition led by Henry Morton
Stanley. The leader of the uprising soon died, but the despotic
state he created, headed by Abdullah ibn al-Said, lasted another
fifteen years, and only in 1898 the uprising was crushed by
Anglo-Egyptian troops.
On January 19, 1899, Great Britain and
Egypt signed an agreement on the establishment of joint management
in the Sudan (Anglo-Egyptian condominium). The top officials were
the British, and the middle were the Egyptians. In fact, Sudan was
turned into a colony of Great Britain.
XX century
After
the end of World War I, the British colonialists headed for the
transformation of Sudan into a cotton producing country. The Sudan
began to form a national bourgeoisie.
To strengthen its
power, the British administration, in particular, encouraged the
anti-Islamic and anti-Arab sentiments of the people of the Sudanese
south, adhering to traditional beliefs and professing Christianity.
In 1921, an officer of the 9th Sudanese battalion, the son of a
Dinka slave, Ali Abd al-Latif created the first political
organization, the Sudanese United Tribal Society, which demanded
independence. She issued a manifesto calling on Sudanese to armed
uprising.
During World War II, in June 1940, the Italian
army, operating from the territory of Abyssinia, occupied part of
the territory of Sudan, but already in 1941 the Italians were forced
to leave, and Sudan became an important base for the British armed
forces in Africa. Military units recruited from the local population
participated in hostilities in Eritrea, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia.
Participation in the war had positive consequences for Sudan -
the growth of national industry, the activation of political life,
the emergence of political parties, trade unions, and the
strengthening of aspirations for independence.
On October 15, 1951, the Egyptian Parliament approved the law on
the termination of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 and the
Anglo-Egyptian Agreement of 1899, the Egyptian King Farouk was
proclaimed King of Egypt and Sudan.
After the July Revolution
of 1952, Egypt recognized the right of the Sudanese people to
self-determination. In November 1953, parliamentary elections were
held in Sudan, and in 1954 a government of transitional
self-government was created. In August 1955, the Sudanese parliament
decided on the final termination of the condominium, and in the same
year the British and Egyptian troops were withdrawn from Sudan.
On January 1, 1956, Sudan was proclaimed an independent state.
XXI Century
The borders of Sudan during the colonial period were
drawn artificially and did not take into account ethnic and confessional
differences, which led to an almost continuous civil war. In 2011, the
conflict-torn country split into two parts, between which relations
remain extremely tense, up to armed conflicts, due to territorial and
economic disputes.
Peace negotiations between the rebels of the
South and the government in 2003-2004 produced tangible results, but
armed clashes continued in a number of southern regions. In January
2005, the parties agreed that South Sudan would enjoy autonomy for 6
years, after which the issue of the independence of this territory would
be put to a referendum, and oil revenues during this period would be
equally divided between the government and the rebels. In July 2005,
former rebel leader John Garang took office as Vice President of
Sudan[9]. Seats in parliament and government were divided between
representatives of the North and the South - both the ruling parties and
the opposition.
In addition to South Sudan, which became an
independent state after a referendum in 2011, the policy of the central
authorities for Islamization and Arabization caused insurgent and
separatist movements in other regions of the country with historical and
ethnic characteristics - Darfur, Kordofan, Bej. In Darfur, the
confrontation reached large-scale battles and massacres during the
conflict that had flared up since 2003, and in the east, until 2006, the
so-called “Eastern Front of the Beja People” had a political-armed
confrontation.
On April 11-15, 2010, general elections were held
in Sudan. The election results saw the ruling National Congress Party
and President Omar Bashir retain power.
On January 9-16, 2011, a
referendum was held on the creation of an independent state in southern
Sudan, its preliminary results were made public on January 30. In a
referendum, the vast majority of South Sudanese voted in favor of
independence. On July 9, South Sudan declared independence. Sudan became
the first state to recognize the new 193rd state in the world. On July
11, the UN Security Council decided to end the peacekeeping mission in
Sudan.
In May 2011, even before the separation of South Sudan, an
armed conflict with it began and continued until August in the disputed
zone of South Kordofan.
In March-April 2012, an armed conflict
between South Sudan and Sudan took place in Heglig.
In December
2018, due to the deteriorating economic situation in the country, mass
protests began. In December 2018 - January 2019, the death toll was more
than 30 people.
On April 11, 2019, a military coup took place in
Sudan, as a result of which the President of Sudan, Omar Bashir, was
removed from leadership and placed under arrest. The 2005 constitution
was terminated, and a state of emergency was in effect in Sudan for 3
months. Authorities were created - the Transitional Military Council of
Sudan and, later replacing it, the Sovereign Council of Sudan, which
ruled the country until the appointment of a new president.
As of
September 2020, over 100 people have died in Sudan as a result of
devastating floods.
Most of the territory of Sudan is occupied by a plateau (altitudes of
300-1000 meters), which is crossed from south to north by the valley of
the Nile River, formed by the confluence of the White and Blue Nile. At
the confluence is the capital of the country, the city of Khartoum. All
rivers belong to the Nile basin.
In the north of the country
there are the Libyan and Nubian deserts, almost devoid of vegetation (in
those deserts there are: dry grasses and cereals, rare trees,
semi-deserts and oases). In the center and in the south of the country
there are savannahs and light forests. Mountains to the east and west.
In the south, the climate is subequatorial, in the north - hot
desert. The main environmental problems are soil erosion and
desertification. About 10% of the territory is occupied by forests.
Of the animals preserved: oryx antelope, gazelle, giraffe, elephant,
leopard, lion, hippopotamus, ostrich, bustards, marabou, guinea fowl,
secretary bird, python, crocodile, lungfish protopter, polyfin, catfish,
Nile perch, tiger fish, termites, tsetse fly, etc.
Large regions
of the country with historical and ethnic features and differences are
Darfur, Kordofan, Sennar, Beja.
Administratively, Sudan is divided into 18 provinces (wilayats),
sometimes also called states:
White Nile
Eastern Darfur
Gedaref
blue nile
Western Darfur
Western Kordofan (restored in 2013)
Kassala
Red sea
Nile
northern province
Northern Darfur
Northern Kordofan
Sennar
Central Darfur
Khartoum
El Gezira
("Islands")
South Darfur
Southern Kordofan
at the level of 2.15%. The total fertility rate is about 4.4 births per woman. Infant mortality is 78 per 1000. The average life expectancy is 54.2 years for men, 56.7 years for women. The urban population is 43%. The literacy rate is 71% for males and 50% for females (2003 estimate). Arabs make up 70% of the population, Bejas (Cushites) - 6%, others 3%. The most common languages are Arabic, Nilotic languages, Nubian, Beja. The official languages are Arabic and English. The majority of the population of Northern Sudan professes Sunni Islam (95%), Christianity - 1%, aboriginal cults - 4%.
Republic. The provisional constitution of 2005 is in force. The head
of state is the president, and since 2017 the government is again headed
by the prime minister.
The parliament is bicameral - the Council
of Provinces (50 seats, elected by the provincial governments for a
6-year term) and the National Assembly (450 seats, appointed by the
president in 2005 - 360 seats filled: 355 from the presidential party
National Congress and 5 non-partisan).
On April 11-15, 2010
presidential and parliamentary elections were held. Omar Hassan
al-Bashir (68.24%) is declared the winner of the presidential elections.
According to the results of the parliamentary elections, the National
Congress of the Sudan party won the most votes.
The military organization of the Republic of the Sudan, designed to protect the freedom, independence and territorial integrity of the state, consists of ground forces, naval forces, air forces and people's defense forces.
The country's main income comes from agriculture, as well as oil
production, which has grown from 2,000 barrels per day (1993) to 49,000
barrels per day (2009). In 1999, an oil pipeline was launched from
Heglig (South Kordofan) and Unity (South Sudan) to Port Khartoum.
Industry is underdeveloped.
Until the second half of 2008,
Sudan's economy grew rapidly (GDP growth of over 10% in 2006 and 2007)
due to increased oil production (with high oil prices) and large foreign
investment. Sudan has been exporting oil since late 1999. Since 2011,
gold mining has been increasing, in 2013 about 24 tons were mined.
Agriculture remains a significant sector of the Sudanese economy -
80% of the workforce and almost a third of GDP.
GDP per capita in
2009 - 2.3 thousand dollars (181st place in the world). Below the
poverty level - 40% of the population (in 2004). The unemployment rate
is 19.6% (in 2017). Inflation - 17.6% (in 2016).
Industry - oil
extraction and refining, cotton processing, textiles, agricultural
processing, footwear, car assembly. Since 2011, after South Sudan gained
independence, oil production has decreased in the country (most of the
fields were located in the south of the state). Now Sudan covers the
external debt of South Sudan through the export of South Sudanese oil
through its territory.
Agriculture - cotton, peanuts, sorghum,
millet, wheat, gum arabic, sugarcane, cassava (tapioca), mangoes,
papaya, bananas, sweet potatoes; sheep, cows, goats are bred; fishing.
International trade
Export - $ 4.67 billion (in 2017) - Gold
(32%), livestock (19%), crude oil (15%), oilseeds (9.8%) and other
agricultural products and agricultural raw materials (sorghum, gum
arabic, raw cotton, peanuts, etc.).
The main buyers are the UAE
37%, China 13%, Saudi Arabia 13%, India 9.1%, Egypt 8.5%
Imports
- $ 9.87 billion (in 2017) - machinery and equipment (16.5%), food
(mainly wheat - 9.9%), vehicles (9.7%), chemical products, including
medicines (8.7%), petroleum products (7.3%), as well as textiles, metals
and rolled products, wood and paper products, consumer goods
The
main suppliers are China 24%, UAE 9.9%, India 8.5%, Saudi Arabia 6.5%,
Russia 6.5%.
It is a member of the international organization of
ACT countries.
External debt - 53.35 billion dollars (2017) -
63rd place in the world.
Since January 2007, a new currency has
been introduced in Sudan - the Sudanese pound (instead of the Sudanese
dinar - 100 dinars = 1 pound).
A characteristic feature of motor roads is that most of them are
unpaved and therefore impassable during the rainy season. The length of
paved roads is 4.6 thousand km. Traditional types of transport are
developed - pack transportation of goods, carrying goods by porters.
Navigation on the Nile River is carried out over 3.7 thousand km. Air
transportation - international airport in Khartoum.
The length of
the railway network is 4.7 thousand km.
The largest seaport is
Port Sudan.
The country's leading periodicals (dailies):
"Al-Ayyam" ("Days"),
since 1954, in Khartoum, in Arabic;
"As-Sahafa" ("Seal"), in
Khartoum, in Arabic;
"Sudan Vision" ("Image of Sudan"), in Khartoum,
in English.
Broadcasting is carried out in Arabic, English and
French, in Swahili. Broadcasting has been carried out by the Sudanese
National Radio Corporation since 1940.
Television programs have
been broadcast by the Sudanese National Broadcasting Corporation since
1962. Television programs are broadcast to Khartoum and its suburbs
mainly in Arabic.
National News Agency - Sudan News Agency
(SUNA), founded in 1971, languages used: English, French, Arabic.
There are also officially banned radio stations of armed opposition
groups.
The Darfur region is inhabited by representatives of various
nationalities, which, in principle, can be combined into two groups -
black Africans and Arab tribes. Both of them profess Islam, but
relations between the two ethnic groups for many centuries have been
tense and have led to regular armed clashes. Until the 20th century,
Darfur was the center of the slave trade, with black and Arab slave
traders competing with each other to carry out raids to capture slaves
and then resell them to the African coast. Ethnic groups also clashed
with each other over limited land and water resources. At the end of the
20th century, the desert began to absorb previously habitable lands
inhabited by nomadic Arabs, and they began to migrate south, which led
to an aggravation of interethnic relations.
The reason for the
modern conflict was an agreement between Khartoum and the rebels of the
South on the division of oil revenues. The black population of Darfur
believes that their economic interests were not taken into account in
the agreement.
In 2003, two paramilitary groups opposed the
government of Sudan: the Darfur Liberation Front, later renamed the
Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM/SLM), and the Justice and Equality
Movement (JEM). The SOD consisted mainly of the Fur, Zaghawa, and
Masalites.
Under the pretext of fighting insurgents, the Sudanese
government deployed the Janjaweed militia, organized from local
Arabic-speaking nomads, whose fighters conduct regular punitive raids
against African civilians. The Janjaweed detachments are supported by
the regular army: it is known, for example, about the numerous facts of
the bombing of civilians using aircraft and helicopters of the Sudanese
Air Force.
Due to the genocide of the local Negroid population
(Fur people) by Arab armed groups, Darfur has been in a state of
humanitarian catastrophe and emergency since 2003.
In July 2010,
a referendum was to be held on the future of the region. Residents had
to answer the question whether they want Darfur to consist of three
separate provinces or to form one autonomous region of Darfur with its
own constitution and government.
Halaiba Triangle
There is a dispute between Sudan and Egypt over
the ownership of the so-called. "Triangle of Halayib". In 1899, Great
Britain and Egypt declared Sudan as their condominium. The northern
border of the country was established along the 22nd parallel, the city
of Halayib formally went to Egypt. In 1902, England unilaterally changed
the border, transferring the "triangle" to the Sudan. November 12, 1955
Sudan gained independence. In 1958, Egypt captured the area of
Halaiba. Then the "triangle" was given to the use of Sudan. In 1992,
Sudan caused extreme dissatisfaction with Egypt, giving the coast of the
"triangle" to the concession of the Canadian oil company International
Petroleum Corporation. In 1993-1994, armed clashes took place on the
border of Egypt and Sudan. In 1995, Egypt sent troops to the region and
took control of all disputed lands, with the exception of the city of
Halaiba. In 2000, Sudan withdrew its troops from Halayib, the land was
completely under Egyptian control. In August 2002, Sudanese President
Omar al-Bashir told the press that he had sent an appeal to the UN
Security Council to review land ownership, since the "Halaib Triangle"
is Sudanese territory.
Abyei region
In 2004, the area was
granted "special administrative status" under the Abyei Conflict
Resolution Protocol (Abyei Protocol) under the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement (CPA), which ended the Second Sudanese Civil War. The
administrative center of the Abyei region is the city of Abyei. The
territory is disputed by South Sudan but controlled by the Northern
government.
Kafia Kingi area
As of January 1956, this
territory was part of Bahr el-Ghazal and only in 1960 was transferred to
Darfur. It was within the borders on January 1, 1956 that the government
of the Republic of Sudan recognized on July 9 (8), 2011 the new state of
South Sudan. At the same time, in accordance with the Naivasha
Agreement, we are not talking about the administrative border of that
time, but about the dividing line between the North and the South that
existed at the time Sudan gained independence on January 1, 1956. It is
known that this line at least in one place (in the Abyei region) does
not coincide with the 1956 border between the northern and southern
provinces. Which of the administrative borders (1956 or 1960) in its
western part corresponds to the dividing line is unknown: the United
States recognizes the 1956 border (on CIA maps, the territory in
question is designated as part of South Sudan). Russia only recognizes
the fact that the borders of the provinces at the time of the division
of the country (1960) for the most part correspond to the dividing line
of 1956, while the Russian Foreign Ministry and Rosreestr do not have
information about the exact passage of the dividing line of 1956 in that
area and consider the existing border as temporary until the end of the
negotiations.