area handbook series 

Sudan

a country study
 
Sudan 

a country study
 

Federal Research Division 

Library of Congress 

Edited by 

LaVerle Berry 
 

 

On the cover: A group of pyramids at Meroë, north of 

Khartoum 

Fifth Edition, First Printing, 2015 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 

Sudan: a country study / Federal Research Division, Library of Congress; 

edited by LaVerle Berry. – Fifth ed. 

pages cm. 

“This edition of Sudan: A Country Study is a revised and updated version 

that replaces the 1992 edition edited by Helen Chapin Metz.” 

Includes bibliographical references and index.
 

ISBN 978-0-8444-0750-0
 

1. Sudan. I. Berry, LaVerle Bennette, 1942- II. Library of Congress. 

Federal Research Division. 

DT154.6.S93 2015 

962.4—dc23 

2014043450 

Use of ISBN 

This is the Official U.S. Government edition of this 

publication and is herein identified to certify its 

authenticity. Use of the ISBN 978-0-8444-0750-0 is 

for U.S. Government Printing Office Official Editions 

only. The Superintendent of Documents of the U.S. 

Government Printing Office requests that any printed 

edition clearly be labeled as a copy of the authentic 

work with a new ISBN. 

This work contains copyrighted information, clearly identified as such where 

included 

ISBN 978-0-8444-0750-0 
 

 

Foreword 

This volume is the last in a series of books prepared by the Federal 

Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/ 

Area Handbook Program, formerly sponsored by the Department of the 

Army and temporarily revived in FY 2004 with congressionally mandated funding under the sponsorship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Strategic 

Plans and Policy Directorate (J–5). 

Most books in the series deal with a particular foreign country, describing and analyzing its political, economic, social, and national security systems and institutions, and examining the interrelationships of those 

systems and the ways they are shaped by historical and cultural factors. 

Each study is written by a multidisciplinary team of social scientists. The 

authors seek to provide a basic understanding of the observed society, 

striving for a dynamic rather than a static portrayal. Particular attention is 

devoted to the people who make up the society, their origins, dominant 

beliefs and values, their common interests and the issues on which they 

are divided, the nature and extent of their involvement with national institutions, and their attitudes toward each other and toward their social system and political order. 

The books represent the analysis of the authors and should not be construed as an expression of an official U.S. government position, policy, or 

decision. The authors have sought to adhere to accepted standards of 

scholarly objectivity. 

Chief 

Federal Research Division 

Library of Congress 

Washington, DC 20540–4840 

E-mail: frds@loc.gov 

iii 

 

 

Acknowledgements 

The editor and authors wish to acknowledge the contribution of the 

coauthors of the 1992 edition of Sudan: A Country Study, edited by Helen 

Chapin Metz. Their information provided general background for the 

present volume. 

Several members of the staff of the Federal Research Division greatly 

assisted in the preparation of this book. Sandra Meditz reviewed all parts 

of the book and served as the overall editor and manager of production. 

Catherine Schwartzstein edited the manuscript, made many useful suggestions, and helped clarify obscure points. She also conducted the final 

prepublication editorial review and compiled the index. Janie L. Gilchrist 

performed word processing and formatting of text. 

The editors also gratefully acknowledge contributions from other divisions of the Library of Congress. The Prints and Photographs Division 

assisted in the selection of material from their holdings. The staff of the 

Library’s Overseas Office, Cairo, and its director William Kopyicki provided information not otherwise available outside Sudan. 

Christopher Robinson prepared the book’s graphics and also performed 

the photocomposition and preparation of the final digital manuscript. 

Thanks go to Seif El-Din Yasin, Counselor, Press and Information Section, Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan, Washington, D.C., who provided photographs of important political figures as well as information for 

the volume. The authors acknowledge the generosity of other individuals 

who allowed their photographs to be used in this study or who provided 

information about selected images: Hussein Askary, Donielle DeToy, Lillian Craig Harris, the late Robert O. Collins, Brian McMorrow, Michael 

Freeman, Konrad Thọ Fiedler, and Timothy Carney, and also author Peter 

Bechtold. 

Finally, the editors wish to acknowledge the patience and support of 

each of the authors for what has been an extended editorial process with 

regard to producing this volume. 

v 

Contents 

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
 

Table B. Chronology of Important Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
 

Country Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv
 

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xli
 

Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
 

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
 

Table A. Selected Abbreviations and Acronyms. . . . . . . . . . xvii
 

Chapter 1. Historical Setting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
 

Thomas P. Ofcansky 

EARLY HISTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
 

Kush. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
 

Meroë. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
 

Christian Nubia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
 

THE COMING OF ISLAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
 

The Arabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
 

The Decline of Christian Nubia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
 

The Rule of the Kashif. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
 

The Funj. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
 

The Fur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
 

Southern Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
 

THE TURKIYYAH, 1821–85 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
 

THE MAHDIYYAH, 1885–98 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
 

The Khalifa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
 

The Reconquest of Sudan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
 

THE ANGLO-EGYPTIAN CONDOMINIUM,
 

1899–1955 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
 

Britain’s Southern Policy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
 

The Rise of Sudanese Nationalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
 

The Road to Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
 

The South and the Unity of Sudan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
 

INDEPENDENT SUDAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
 

vii 
The Politics of Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
 

SADIQ AL-MAHDI AND COALITION
 

UMAR AL-BASHIR AND THE ISLAMIST
 

The Abbud Military Government, 1958–64. . . . . . . . . . 33
 

Return to Civilian Rule, 1964–69. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
 

THE AL-NUMAYRI ERA, 1969–85 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
 

The Revolutionary Command Council. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
 

The Southern Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
 

Political Developments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
 

National Reconciliation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
 

Economic Developments since Independence . . . . . . . . 41
 

THE TRANSITIONAL MILITARY COUNCIL . . . . . . . . . 42
 

GOVERNMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
 

REVOLUTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
 

Hassan al-Turabi and the Islamization of Sudan . . . . . . 50
 

Sudan and International Terrorism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
 

The Peace Process in Southern Sudan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
 

Chapter 2. The Society and Its Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
 

Peter K. Bechtold 

PHYSICAL SETTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
 

Geographic Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
 

Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
 

Hydrology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
 

Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
 

POPULATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
 

MIGRATION AND REFUGEES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
 

ETHNICITY AND LANGUAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
 

Ethnicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
 

Languages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
 

ETHNIC GROUPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
 

Muslim Peoples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
 

Non-Muslim Peoples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
 

Regionalism and Ethnicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
 

RELIGIOUS LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
 

Islam: Tenets and Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
 

Islamic Movements and Religious Orders . . . . . . . . . . . 100
 

Christianity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
 

Indigenous African Religions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
 

SOCIAL ORDER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
 

viii 
 

Northern Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
 

Southern Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
 

Urban and National Elites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
 

Women and the Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
 

EDUCATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
 

Development of the Education System . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
 

Primary and Secondary Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
 

Educational Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
 

Female Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
 

Higher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
 

HEALTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
 

Regional Disparities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
 

Health Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
 

Diseases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
 

Chapter 3. The Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
 

Virginia DeLancey 

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
 

The Colonial Period. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
 

The Postcolonial Period. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
 

STRUCTURE OF THE ECONOMY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
 

Overview of the Economy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
 

Gross Domestic Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
 

Prices and Inflation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
 

Privatization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
 

Foreign Investment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
 

ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
 

Development Planning and the Debt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
 

The Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
 

Foreign Aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
 

MONEY AND BANKING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
 

Currency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
 

Banking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
 

Islamic Banking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
 

LABOR FORCE, WAGES, AND UNIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
 

Labor Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
 

The Informal Sector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
 

Wages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
 

Unions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
 

ix 
AGRICULTURE, LIVESTOCK, FISHERIES, AND
 

FORESTRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
 

Land Use

INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND BALANCE OF
 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
 

Land Tenure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
 

Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
 

Crops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
 

Livestock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
 

Fisheries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
 

Forestry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
 

INDUSTRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
 

Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
 

Energy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
 

Mining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
 

Petroleum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
 

TRANSPORTATION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS . . 201
 

Railroads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
 

Roads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
 

Inland Waterways. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
 

Civil Aviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
 

Marine Ports and Shipping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
 

Pipelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
 

Telecommunications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
 

PAYMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
 

International Trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
 

Balance of Payments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
 

PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
 

Chapter 4. Government and Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
 

David H. Shinn 

THE AL-BASHIR ERA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
 

Institutions of Government. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
 

Recent Constitutional Developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
 

The Federal System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
 

Elections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
 

Corruption and Governance Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
 

The Presidency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
 

National Council of Ministers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
 

South Sudan Council of Ministers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
 

National Legislature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
 

x 
 

 

South Sudan Legislative Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
 

Civil Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
 

State and Local Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
 

THE LEGAL SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
 

The Courts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
 

Sharia Law. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
 

Human Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
 

POLITICAL GROUPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
 

National Congress Party . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
 

Popular Congress Party . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
 

Umma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
 

Democratic Unionist Party . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
 

National Democratic Alliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
 

Sudanese National Alliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
 

Sudan Communist Party . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
 

Other Northern Political Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
 

Western Political Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
 

Eastern Political Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
 

Sudan People’s Liberation Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
 

Other Southern Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
 

REGIONAL DYNAMICS AND CONFLICT . . . . . . . . . . . 266
 

South Sudan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
 

Western Sudan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
 

Eastern Sudan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
 

INFORMATION MEDIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
 

Print Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
 

Radio, Television, and Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
 

FOREIGN RELATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
 

Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
 

Libya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
 

Ethiopia and Eritrea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
 

Chad and the Central African Republic. . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
 

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and
 

Kenya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
 

African Regional Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
 

Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
 

Arab and Islamic Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
 

China, Russia, India, and Malaysia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
 

European Union, Britain, and France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
 

United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
 

xi 
 

United Nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
 

OUTLOOK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
 

Chapter 5. National Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
 

Thomas P. Ofcansky 

THE MILITARY IN NATIONAL LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
 

THE SUDANESE PEOPLE’S LIBERATION
 

PARAMILITARY GROUPS AND FORCED
 

Early Development of the Armed Forces. . . . . . . . . . . . 302
 

World War I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
 

The Interwar Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
 

The Italian–Ethiopian War and World War II . . . . . . . . 305
 

Role in Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
 

The Armed Forces in Sudanese Society. . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
 

EXTERNAL SECURITY CONCERNS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
 

Relations with Neighboring States. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
 

United States–Sudanese Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
 

CIVIL WARFARE IN THE SOUTH AND WEST . . . . . . . . 317
 

First Southern Civil War, 1955–72 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
 

Second Southern Civil War, 1983–2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
 

Security Provisions of the CPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
 

The War in Darfur, 2003–11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
 

AU and UN Forces in Darfur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
 

THE SUDAN ARMED FORCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
 

Army. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
 

Air Force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
 

Navy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
 

Personnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
 

Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
 

Defense Expenditures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
 

MOVEMENT/ARMY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
 

MIGRATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
 

Militias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
 

Forced Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
 

FOREIGN MILITARY ASSISTANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
 

INTERNAL SECURITY AGENCIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
 

The Sudan Police Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
 

Security and Intelligence Apparatus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
 

THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
 

Criminal Courts and Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
 

xii 
 

The Prison System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
 

FUTURE PROSPECTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
 

Appendix. Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
 

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
 

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
 

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
 

Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
 

Published Country Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
 

List of Figures 

1 Administrative Divisions of Sudan, 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . xl
 

2 Sudan, 2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xliv
 

3 South Sudan, 2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xlv
 

4 Ancient and Medieval Sudan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
 

5 The Mahdist State, 1885–98 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
 

6 Anglo–Egyptian Sudan, circa 1950 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
 

7 Administrative Divisions of Sudan, 1991 . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
 

8 Topography and Drainage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
 

9 Population Distribution by Age and Sex, 2008 . . . . . . . . 72
 

10 Major Ethnolinguistic Groups, 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
 

11 Oil Pipelines and Hydroelectric Sites, 2011. . . . . . . . . . . 194
 

12 Transportation System, 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
 

xiii 

 

 

 

Preface 

This edition of Sudan: A Country Study is a revised and updated version that replaces the 1992 edition edited by Helen Chapin Metz. As with 

other volumes in the Country Studies series, it attempts to cover in a concise fashion the history, society, environment, economy, government, and 

security sector of a contemporary nation, in this case, the Republic of the 

Sudan. The text is based on a variety of sources including books, scholarly 

journals, foreign and domestic newspapers, official reports of governments and international organizations, and numerous periodicals and Web 

sites on Sudan, Africa, and the Middle East. At the end of each chapter is 

a bibliographic essay in which the author discusses the main sources used 

in the chapter. Complete citations for all chapters are included in the comprehensive bibliography at the end of the volume. 

While this study was in production, the 10 Southern states of Sudan 

voted overwhelmingly to break away, and in mid-July 2011 they formed 

an independent nation, the Republic of South Sudan. In view of this 

development, the five chapters of the volume cover events in the whole of 

Sudan up to early 2011 and hence do not deal with South Sudan as an 

independent country. Events in Sudan and South Sudan since their separation are included in the Introduction and in the Country Profile, both 

current as of early August 2014. 

Every effort has been made to include the most accurate and recent 

information throughout the volume. However, locating current information on both Sudan and South Sudan is often a difficult task. Information 

that is available may be fragmentary or not up to date. This problem is 

especially the case with respect to statistical data on such topics as the 

economy or the education and health sectors. Demographic information 

has fared better because the latest national census was conducted in 2008. 

In general, current information on security forces is scarce if not lacking 

altogether. 

The spelling of contemporary place-names conforms in most cases to 

the system approved by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. However, 

in cases where the Board's version might prove confusing, we have 

retained spellings in English that are in common use, for example, AlObeid instead of Al-Ubayyid. With regard to personal names and terms in 

Arabic, we have followed the transliteration system of the Library of Congress–American Library Association, with modifications. In instances 

where names are commonly rendered in English, we have used the familiar 

xv 
 

form rather than one that might not be recognizable to the reader, and no 

diacritics are used except for apostrophes (’) and hyphens (-).

 Unfamiliar terms are defined in the text; more extended definitions are 

found in the Glossary at the end of the volume. As an aid to the reader, 

abbreviations and acronyms that appear in the text are listed with their 

expanded form in Table A, and a chronology of significant events from 

antiquity to 2014 appears in Table B. Metric measurements are used 

throughout the text. Table 1 in the Appendix contains a conversion chart 

to assist those readers unfamiliar with metric measurements. Because the 

boundaries and names of Sudan’s administrative divisions have changed 

since the early 1990s, the administrative divisions map for Sudan in 1991 

given in chapter one serves for reference there and in succeeding chapters. 

An administrative divisions map of Sudan in 2011 appears in the front of 

the book. Current maps of both Sudan and South Sudan are in the Introduction. 

xvi 
Table A. Selected Abbreviations and Acronyms 

ADB African Development Bank 

AFESD Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development . 

AMIS African Union Mission in Sudan 

ASF African Standby Force 

AU African Union 

b/d barrels per day 

CAR Central African Republic 

CBS Central Bureau of Statistics 

CNPC China National Petroleum Corporation 

COMESA Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa 

CPA Comprehensive Peace Agreement 

DDR disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (under the CPA, q.v.) 

DPA Darfur Peace Agreement 

DRC Democratic Republic of Congo 

DUP Democratic Unionist Party 

EDF Equatoria Defense Force 

EF Eastern Front 

FAO Food and Agriculture Organization (of the United Nations) 

FY fiscal year 

GNPOC Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company 

GOSS Government of Southern Sudan 

GSM Global System for Mobile Communications 

HIPC heavily indebted poor country 

ICC International Criminal Court 

ICF Islamic Charter Front 

IDA International Development Association 

IDB Islamic Development Bank 

IDPs internally displaced people 

IGAD Intergovernmental Authority on Development 

IGADD Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development 

JEM Justice and Equality Movement 

JIUs Joint Integrated Units 

LJM Liberation and Justice Movement 

LRA Lord’s Resistance Army 

xvii 
Table A. Selected Abbreviations and Acronyms (Continued) 

NCF National Consensus Forces 

NCP National Congress Party 

NCRC National Constitutional Review Commission 

NCSC National Civil Service Commission 

NDA National Democratic Alliance 

NEC National Electricity Corporation 

NIF National Islamic Front 

NISS National Intelligence and Security Service 

NPC National Press Council 

NSO National Security Organization (later the NISS, q.v.) 

NSRCC National Salvation Revolutionary Command Council 

NSS National Security Service 

OAU Organization of African Unity 

OIC Organization of the Islamic Conference 

OLS Operation Lifeline Sudan 

ONGC Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (Indian company) 

PAIC Popular Arab and Islamic Conference 

PCP Popular Congress Party 

PDF Popular Defense Forces 

PDP People’s Democratic Party 

PETRONAS Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Malaysian company) 

PPF Popular Police Forces 

RCC Revolutionary Command Council 

RCC–NS Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation 

SAF Sudan Armed Forces 

SANU Sudan African National Union 

SCC Sudan Council of Churches 

SCP Sudan Communist Party 

SD Sudanese pound (old) 

SDD Sudanese dinar 

SDF Sudan Defence Force 

SDG Sudanese pound (new) 

SHRO Sudan Human Rights Organization 

xviii 
Table A. Selected Abbreviations and Acronyms (Continued) 

SLM/A Sudan Liberation Movement/Army 

SMC Sudan Mining Corporation 

SNA Sudanese National Alliance 

SPF Sudan Police Force 

SPLA−N Sudan People’s Liberation Army−North 

SPLM/A Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army 

SPLM−IO Sudan People’s Liberation Movement−In Opposition 

SRC Sudan Railways Corporation 

SRF Sudan Revolutionary Front 

SSCC Southern States Coordination Council 

SSCM Southern Sudan Council of Ministers 

SSCSC Southern Sudan Civil Service Commission 

SSDF South Sudan Defense Force 

SSIM South Sudan Independence Movement 

SSLA South Sudan Legislative Assembly 

SSLF Southern Sudan Liberation Front 

SSLM/A South Sudan Liberation Movement/Army 

SSPS South Sudan Police Service 

SSU Sudan Socialist Union 

SSUDA South Sudan United Democratic Alliance 

SSUM South Sudan Unity Movement 

Sudapet Sudan National Petroleum Corporation 

SudaTel Sudan Telecommunications Company 

SWTUF Sudan Workers Trade Union Federation 

TMC Transitional Military Council 

TNA Transitional National Assembly 

TNC Transitional National Council 

UAE United Arab Emirates 

UDSF United Democratic Salvation Front 

UN United Nations 

UNAMID United Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur 

UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 

UNMIS United Nations Mission in Sudan 

xix 
Table A. Selected Abbreviations and Acronyms (Continued) 

UNOCHA United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 

UPF United Police Forces 

URRP Umma Reform and Renewal Party 

USAP Union of Sudan African Parties 

WHO World Health Organization 

xx 
 

 

Table B. Chronology of Important Events 

ca. 70,000 Human habitation along the Nile in the Paleolithic Era. 

years ago 

8,000–7,000 Neolithic communities are established in settled communities along the Nile in 

B.C. northern Sudan.
 

ca. 2650–2150 Increasing contact between Nubia and Old Kingdom Egypt. 

B.C.
 

ca. 2500 B.C– Era of the Kerma culture in Nubia, known to the ancient Egyptians as Kush.
 

1500 B.C.
 

Eighth cen- Reemergence of the Kingdom of Kush with its capital at Napata.
 

tury B.C.
 

590 B.C. Egyptian Army sacks Napata; the Kushite court relocates to Meroë.
 

ca. A.D. 350 Axumite army destroys Meroë.
 

Sixth century Three kingdoms (Nobatia, Muqurra, and Alwa) emerge in Nubia and facilitate the 

spread of Christianity. 

640 Arab conquest of Egypt and beginning of Muslim contacts with northern Sudan. 

642 and 652	 First Arab-Egyptian campaigns into Nubia. 

1276	 Mamluks of Egypt attack Nubia. 

1316	 Last Christian Nubian king is defeated, and the first Muslim king, a Nubian, accedes 

to the throne of Dongola, capital of Muqurra 

1504	 Establishment of the Islamic Funj Sultanate at Sinnar. 

1820–21	 Egyptian Ottomans conquer much of northern Sudan, abolish the Funj Sultanate, and 

establish Turco-Egyptian control over Sudan. 

1881	 Muhammad Ahmed claims to be the “expected Mahdi” and revolts against the 

Turco-Egyptian administration. 

1884	 General Charles Gordon departs Cairo for Khartoum to become governor-general 

for a second time. 

1885–98	 Era of the Mahdist State. 

1899	 Anglo-Egyptian Condominium established. 

1930	 Adoption of policy to separate northern and southern Sudan. 

1947	 Juba Conference results in southern leaders accepting unification of northern and 

southern Sudan. 

1953	 Anglo-Egyptian Agreement prepares Sudan for self-government. 

1955	 Equatoria Corps mutinies at Torit on August 18, marking the beginning of civil war 

in the South. 

1956 Anglo-Egyptian Condominium comes to an end on January 1, and Sudan becomes 

an independent country. 

1958 General Ibrahim Abbud seizes power on November 17. 

1963 Anya Nya forms and renews armed rebellion in Southern Sudan. 

1969 Ja’far al-Numayri, with the support of the communists, seizes power on May 25. 

xxi 
 

Table B. Chronology of Important Events (Continued) 

1972	 Addis Ababa Accords, signed on February 27, restore peace in Southern Sudan and 

grant the region autonomy. 

1978	 Oil discovered in Southern Sudan. 

1983	 The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), led by John Garang, launches a new 

civil war in Southern Sudan. 

1989	 Lieutenant Colonel Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir seizes power on June 30. 

1995	 The Asmara Declaration of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) acknowledges 

Southern Sudan’s right to self-determination and calls for separation of religion and 

state and for armed struggle to overthrow the National Islamic Front regime. 

1998	 The United States launches a cruise-missile attack on a pharmaceutical plant in 

Khartoum in August, alleging that it was making materials for chemical weapons. 

1999	 Sudan begins to export oil in August. 

2002	 In July Sudan and the SPLA sign the Machakos Protocol in Kenya, the first of several agreements that in 2005 are incorporated into the Comprehensive Peace Agreement Between the Government of the Republic of Sudan and the Sudan People’s 

Liberation Movement/Sudan People’s Liberation Army. The protocol envisions a 

vote in the South for union with or secession from Sudan. 

2003	 Two new rebel groups, the Front for the Liberation of Darfur (later the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army) and the Justice and Equality Movement, launch attacks in 

February throughout Darfur. 

In October Hassan al-Turabi is released after three years in prison. 

2004	 On May 26, Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) sign the 

Protocol on Power Sharing. 

On September 9, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell announces that genocide has 

occurred in Darfur. 

2005	 On January 9, the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A sign the Comprehensive 

Peace Agreement, ending 22 years of civil war in Sudan. The agreement incorporates several previously negotiated accords. 

On March 24, the UN votes to send 10,700 peacekeepers to South Sudan to facilitate 

the redeployment of government troops to the North and to work with the African 

Union to foster peace in Darfur. 

2005	 On August 1, John Garang dies in a helicopter crash. Salva Kiir succeeds to the 

South Sudan presidency and to the vice presidency of the Government of National 

Unity. 

2008	 On January 1, the UN takes over peacekeeping in Darfur from African Union troops. 

The fifth population and housing census in Sudan is conducted April 22–May 6 in 

preparation for the referendum on South Sudan’s future, as called for in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of January 2005. 

2009	 On March 4, al-Bashir is indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes 

in Darfur. 

In September the National Consensus Forces form. 

2010	 In national elections held April 11–15, al-Bashir is reelected president of Sudan with 

68.24 percent of the vote, and Salva Kiir is elected president of South Sudan with 

92.99 percent of the vote. 

xxii 
 

Table B. Chronology of Important Events (Continued) 

2011	 South Sudanese vote January 9–15 in a referendum at the end of the six–year transition period, as called for in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005. Of more 

than 3.8 million votes, 98.8 percent vote to secede from the North. 

On January 30, students begin protests against regime policies in Khartoum. 

In May 19–21, armed clashes begin in Abyei as the Sudan Army moves to occupy 

the region. In late July, the first of more than 1,500 Ethiopian police and troops 

arrive to separate the armed forces of North and South in the contested area. 

On June 5, fighting breaks out in the mountains of South Kordofan as Khartoum 

seeks to stamp out discontent among the Nuba, who sided with the South during the 

civil war. 

On July 9, South Sudan is officially declared independent of Sudan and is known 

henceforth as the Republic of South Sudan. 

On July 14, the Republic of South Sudan is admitted to the United Nations; the Doha 

Document for Peace in Darfur is signed in Doha, Qatar. 

On September 1, fighting begins in Blue Nile State when Khartoum sends its army 

to consolidate control of the region and to drive out the Northern branch of the 

SPLM. Thousands flee into Ethiopia. 

On November 11, the Sudan Revolutionary Front forms. 

2012	 On January 20, South Sudan announces a shutdown of its oil production in a dispute 

with Sudan over oil-transit fees. 

In April fighting breaks out in Abyei between Northern and Southern armed forces. 

On September 27, Sudan and South Sudan sign an agreement covering nine outstanding issues between the two nations, including oil-transit fees and demarcation 

of their common border, but it excludes the status of Abyei, South Kordofan, and 

Blue Nile. 

2013	 On January 5, the National Consensus Forces and the Sudan Revolutionary Front 

sign the New Dawn Charter. 

On April 6, South Sudan resumes pumping oil for export through Northern pipelines. 

In September violent protests erupt in Sudan over cuts to fuel subsidies; protesters 

also call for political reform and a new government. 

On December 15, fighting breaks out between Dinka and Nuer soldiers in Juba after 

President Salva Kiir charges Vice President Riek Machar with attempting a coup; 

beginning of civil war in South Sudan. 

2014	 On January 27, al-Bashir issues a formal call for a “national dialogue” to discuss the 

major issues before Sudan, including peace and political reform. 

On June 10, Salva Kiir and Riek Machar agree to a cease-fire and a transitional government within 60 days; neither goal is achieved. 

xxiii 

Country Profile 

3,000 Nautical Miles 

2,000 

1,000 

Khartoum 

Juba 

EUROPE 

ASIA 

AFRICA 

Denver 

Fargo 

Chicago 

Houston 

Country 

Formal Name: Republic of the Sudan / Republic of South Sudan 

Short Form: Sudan / South Sudan 

Term for Citizen(s): Sudanese / South Sudanese 

Capital: Khartoum / Juba 

Other Principal Urban Centers: Sudan: Omdurman, Khartoum North, 

Port Sudan, Kassala, Al-Obeid, Nyala; South Sudan: Aweil, Bentiu, Bor, 

Malakal, Rumbek, Wau 

xxv 
Date of Independence: January 1, 1956 / July 9, 2011 

Historical Background 

Since antiquity, Sudan’s history has centered around a succession of 

states along the northern Nile and around cultural, military, and political 

relations with the Egyptians to the north. The ancient Egyptians at times 

controlled the northern Sudanese lands of Nubia and Cush and fostered 

an Egyptianized population that ruled Egypt in the early first millennium 

B.C. A few centuries later, the commercial state of Meroë dominated the 

central Nile. In the mid-fourth century A.D., Meroë succumbed to invasion and was succeeded by three states with cultural ties with Egypt, 

including Orthodox Christianity. 

During the fourteenth century, Islam was introduced from Egypt. 

Together with migrations from the north, Islam gradually changed the 

nature of Sudanese society. Islam facilitated the division of the country 

into northern and southern halves, one Arab and Muslim, the other African and animist, a division that persists today. The Funj kingdom centered at Sinnar on the Blue Nile and the sultanate of Darfur in the west 

flourished in and after the sixteenth century. In the early nineteenth century, the Egyptians once more asserted control over much of Sudan. 

They divided the country into provinces and brought the Southern peoples into their administrative system based at Khartoum. Slavery and the 

slave trade intensified during the nineteenth century and instilled in 

Southerners fear and hatred of the Northern Arabs. In the early 1880s, 

an Islamic cleric declared himself the long-awaited Mahdi. He led his 

followers, the Ansar, in a revolt that drove out the Egyptians and their 

Ottoman Turk and British overlords and established his dominion over 

much of northern and central Sudan. 

This Mahdist state lasted until 1898, when the Egyptians and British 

returned, defeated the Ansar, and established a joint administration, the 

Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, which made Sudan in effect a British colony. British colonial officials fostered a system of administration from the 

central Nile region which entailed the neglect of peripheral areas, and separated the Southern provinces of Upper Nile, Equatoria, and Bahr alGhazal from the North. The latter were largely left to their own devices, 

economic and political development being concentrated along the central 

Nile. 

Sudan gained its independence from Britain in 1956. Since then, it has 

alternated between civilian and military government, the latest of which 

is the present regime of Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir. The attempt to 

xxvi 
 

 

impose Islam and sharia on the South aroused Southerners to rebel 

against the central government, first in 1963 and then a second time in 

1983. After a huge loss of life and displacement among Southerners, this 

second rebellion ended in 2005 with the signing of the Comprehensive 

Peace Agreement, which provided for a Government of National Unity 

with separate administrations for the North and the South. It also provided that after a six-year interval, Southerners would decide upon continued unity with Northern Sudan or independence. On January 9, 2011, 

Southerners chose independence, which became effective the following 

July 9. The two countries then began to deal with the issues involved in 

their separation, including boundaries, citizenship, debt, and oil revenues. In 2003 another rebellion broke out in Darfur in protest of economic and political marginalization. After a large loss of life and 

displacement of civilians and despite efforts at peace-making, the Darfur 

war remained unresolved. In 2014 Sudan was engaged in a debate about 

a new constitution and political order and was faced with rebellions in 

Darfur and in South Kordofan and Blue Nile States. In December 2013, 

civil war broke out in South Sudan between its two largest ethnic 

groups, the Dinka and the Nuer, and continued into 2014. 

Geography 

Size: Sudan’s total area equals 2,505,813 square kilometers; land area 

2,376,000 square kilometers; coastline 835 kilometers. Until 2011, it was, 

geographically, the largest country in Africa. The total area of Sudan is 

now 1,861,484 square kilometers. The total area of South Sudan is 

644,329 square kilometers. 

Topography: Sudan is a land of plateaus and plains. Low mountains are 

found behind the Red Sea coast, in the far south, and in the far west. The 

only interior highlands of consequence are the Nuba Mountains west of 

the White Nile. All significant streams flow into the White Nile or Blue 

Nile, which join at Khartoum to form the River Nile. Extensive swamps 

are found in the south, especially along the Bahr al-Ghazal and the Bahr 

al-Jabal, the principal southernmost tributaries of the White Nile. 

Climate: Rainfall ranges from rare and occasional in the far northern 

desert to relatively abundant and frequent (rainy seasons of six to nine 

months) in the southern third of the country. In most years, central 

Sudan has enough rain for agriculture, but a lack of rain the 1970s, 

1980s, and 1990s caused severe drought. Dust storms, often accompanying the arrival of the annual southwesterly rains in May–July, are 

common in central and parts of northern Sudan, reducing visibility and 

causing much discomfort. Mean temperatures and daily maximums are 

xxvii 
generally high; desert temperatures can be quite cool at night. Desertification, deforestation, and land degradation are among severe environmental problems. 

Society 

Population: Sudan: 37.9 million; South Sudan: 11.3 million (both 2013 

World Bank estimates). According to Sudan’s most recent census of 

April 2008, total population was 39.2 million, 30.9 million in Northern 

Sudan and 8.3 million in Southern Sudan; just over 47 percent were aged 

16 years or younger. Population growth peaked in the 1980s at 3.3 percent a year but declined thereafter; in 2008 the annual growth rate was 

estimated at 2.1 percent. Roughly two-thirds of the population lives 

within 300–500 kilometers of Khartoum, with concentration in the Khartoum area. In 2012 life expectancy was 62 years in the North, 55 years in 

the South (World Bank estimates). 

Languages: Sudan is one of the most ethnically and linguistically 

diverse nations in the world. Its people speak more than 400 languages 

and dialects. Until the early 2000s, Arabic was the official language, but 

English was also widely spoken, particularly in the South. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 established Arabic and English as 

equal working languages of government and society, but today Arabic is 

again the official language in the North, and English continues in wide 

use in the South. Other major languages are Bedawiye, a Cushitic tongue 

spoken by the Beja nomads of the East, and the Nilotic languages of the 

Nuer (Naadh) and Dinka (Jieng) spoken in the South. 

Ethnic Groups: Sudan’s population consists of some 600 ethnic groups, 

broadly divided into Muslims and non-Muslims. Among Muslims, about 

40 percent identify themselves as “Arabs” by culture and language and 

reside largely in Northern Sudan. Other Northern but non-Arab groups 

are the Nubians along the northern Nile and in the Kassala area, the Beja 

in the East, and the Fur in the West. Major Southern non-Muslim groups 

are the Dinka (Jieng), Nuer (Naadh), and Shilluk (Collo). The Nuba, a 

separate group culturally and linguistically, reside in the mountains of 

South Kordofan. 

Religion: Islam, Christianity, and traditional African religions are all 

found in Sudan. Perhaps three-fourths of Sudan’s population is Muslim. 

Sudanese are uniformly Sunni, although many are adherents of Sudan’s 

Sufi brotherhoods—Ansar, Khatmiyyah, and Qadiriyyah. Most live in the 

North, East, West, and Center, where they constitute more than 90 percent 

of the population. Estimates of the Christian population range from 4 to 10 

xxviii 
 

 

percent. Denominations include Orthodox Christians, Anglicans, Roman 

Catholics, Presbyterians, and Evangelicals. About 20 percent of the population are followers of indigenous African religions who live largely in the 

South. Common precepts are belief in a high spirit or divinity, spirits as 

forces in nature, and veneration of ancestors. Islamic Law (sharia) applies 

in the North but not in the South. 

Education: In the early 1990s, the al-Bashir regime significantly reorganized primary and secondary education. The education ladder thereafter 

consisted of two years of preschool, eight years of basic (primary) education, and three years of secondary instruction. The curriculum became 

strongly Islamist, and Arabic became the primary language of instruction. 

This system was modified by the 2005 peace agreement to allow separate 

education systems in North and South. Today Arabic continues as the 

language of instruction in the North; in the South, English and indigenous 

languages are used. In 2009–10, 6.3 million pupils were enrolled in basic 

education and 761,200 in secondary; 513,000 students were attending 

public and private universities. As in the past, Northerners continued to 

have greater access to education than Southerners. In 2009 adult literacy 

was estimated at 69 percent for the country as a whole; as of 2011, the 

Southern government reported that 27 percent of its citizens were literate. 

Health: In the early 2000s, available health care was far below what was 

needed. There was a great disparity in health care between urban areas 

and the countryside and between North and South. In the North, the best 

care was available in Khartoum, with at best adequate facilities in other 

urban areas, and little or none in rural regions. Facilities in the South were 

mostly destroyed during the civil war and were being rebuilt in the post2005 era. Not surprisingly, access to health care was far more restricted in 

the South than even in the North. Malnutrition was widespread, and rates 

of infant and maternal mortality were among the highest in the world, 

especially in the South. Diseases include malaria, perhaps the major 

scourge, tuberculosis, typhoid, measles, schistosomiasis, and, additionally 

in the South, river blindness, cholera, guinea worm, and sleeping sickness. The UN estimated HIV/AIDS prevalence among adults in 2013 at 

0.2 percent to 0.3 percent in Sudan, 2.2 percent in South Sudan. 

Economy 

Salient Features: Information on Sudan’s economy is spotty or nonexistent and often lags by years. Sudan has natural and human resources, but 

even so, it remains a poor country. The economy is based on agriculture, 

although the export of oil since 1999 has led to a large increase in national 

income. A limited transport network, a lack of foreign investment, and 

xxix 
 

long wars in the South and in Darfur are among important constraints on 

economic performance. Dependence on imports of capital equipment, low 

export earnings, and imports of petroleum before 1999 led to high foreign 

debt, a continuing problem. Since the early 1990s, the government has 

promoted privatization of state-owned enterprises as one way to stimulate 

the economy, with mixed results. Foreign investment has risen in parallel 

with privatization but was hampered by International Monetary Fund 

(IMF) restrictions in the 1990s and by ongoing U.S. sanctions. Since 1997 

Sudan has implemented a structural adjustment program in cooperation 

with the IMF. The program has helped stabilize the economy and promote 

economic expansion, aided by exports of oil. South Sudan receives virtually all of its revenue from the export of its oil. The informal sector constitutes a large part of the overall economy in Sudan and South Sudan. 

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): In 2013 the World Bank reported 

Sudan’s GDP as US$66.55 billion, and South Sudan’s GDP as US$13.80 

billion. Sudan's GDP grew at a rate of at least 6 percent a year beginning 

in the late 1990s, rising to more than 11 percent in 2006 but declining to 

4.21 percent in 2009, when GDP totaled an estimated US$54.2 billion. 

Its main components were agricultural products, mining and petroleum, 

and services. 

Agriculture: Agriculture and livestock raising were the main sources of 

livelihood for an estimated 80 percent of Sudan’s population in the early 

2000s. Agricultural products accounted for upwards of 95 percent of 

exports until oil exports came on line in 1999. Of an estimated 84 million 

hectares of arable land, the area under permanent cultivation was estimated at 16 to 17 million hectares as of 2002. Agriculture consists of a 

modern market-oriented sector of irrigated and mechanized rain-fed 

farming concentrated in the central part of the country and a traditional 

sector engaged in subsistence activities elsewhere, where water resources 

permit cultivation. Principal modern-sector crops are cotton, peanuts, 

sesame, sorghum, sugarcane, and wheat; subsistence cultivators produce 

mostly sorghum and millet, and also peanuts and sesame. Livestock provides a large part of the livelihood of nearly half of the population, and 

among pastoralists and nomads, cattle and camels are the measure of status and wealth. Sales of livestock—cattle, sheep, goats, and camels— 

have become the fastest growing export sector after oil. The area of forest 

in Sudan has declined sharply since 1990 because of overgrazing, mechanized farming, and desertification. South Sudan has potential for a forest-products industry. 

xxx 
 

Manufacturing: Large-scale manufacturing is dominated by publicly 

owned enterprises. Sugar and textiles were the main products before 

expansion of the oil sector. Petroleum exports in the late 1990s provided 

funds for investment and import of equipment. Telecommunications and 

the growing and processing of sugar greatly benefited from this investment, but textile production has remained far below capacity. The GIAD 

industrial city, established in 2000, consists mostly of armaments and 

automotive industries. Elsewhere, small-scale enterprises produce pharmaceuticals, cement, electrical goods, paints, and textiles. South Sudan 

has little if any manufacturing capacity. 

Minerals: Significant minerals that are being mined include gold, 

extracted in the Red Sea Hills and Nubia since Pharaonic times and since 

2012 in North Darfur; gypsum, also in the Red Sea Hills; and chrome in 

the Ingessana Hills. Asbestos, limestone, marble, manganese, mica, iron 

ore, and uranium ores are among other minerals present in the country. 

Petroleum: Oil was first discovered in the late 1970s. Most extraction 

and reserves are in the South, but exploration is currently underway in the 

North. Further exploration and drilling were hampered and/or suspended 

by civil war and by lack of infrastructure to transport and process petroleum. Production resumed in the late 1990s and was followed by construction of two export pipelines and terminals on the Red Sea. Consortia 

formed by foreign oil companies played a large role in these developments. Proven reserves are 5 billion barrels of oil and 3 trillion cubic feet 

of natural gas. Oil extraction in 2009 averaged ca. 490,000 barrels/day; in 

the first half of 2014, production averaged 260,000 barrels per day, 

150,000 from South Sudan and 110,000 from Sudan. Gas production is 

foreseen in the future. Major refineries are Al-Jayli near Khartoum and 

another at Port Sudan with a joint capacity of ca. 170,000 barrels/day. 

Under the 2005 peace agreement, oil revenues were split between North 

and South. A dispute over transit fees in 2012 contributed to a decline in 

production. 

Energy: In the early 2000s, Sudan’s chief sources of energy were wood, 

charcoal, hydroelectric power, and oil. Expanded use of charcoal and 

wood for fuel as the population has grown has contributed to deforestation and desertification. Sudan depends heavily on hydropower from 

dams on the Nile and its tributaries for electricity production; in 2006, 

hydropower supplied 41 percent of the country’s needs. Steady expansion since then, especially of the 300-megawatt Kajbar Dam and the 

1,250-megawatt Merowe Dam, both on the northern Nile, has led to a 

doubling of generating capacity. There are no hydropower dams in South 

Sudan. 

xxxi 
 

Imports: In 2013 Sudan’s imports amounted to US$9.9 billion. In 2008 

Sudan’s import bill came to US$8.9 billion, largely machinery, transport 

equipment, and capital goods. The largest suppliers were China, Saudi 

Arabia, India, and Egypt. 

Exports: In 2013 Sudan’s exports were US$7.0 billion. In 2008 exports 

amounted to US$12.4 billion, US$11.6 billion of it crude oil or petroleum-based products destined for China and Japan. Since 2000 such 

products have contributed 80 to 90 percent or more of export revenue, far 

surpassing the value of agricultural exports that formerly constituted the 

whole of Sudan’s exports. 

External Debt: Sudan’s foreign debt stood at US$42 billion in June 

2012 according to the government. South Sudan’s debt reportedly stood 

at SSP7.8 billion (US$2.5 billion) in July 2014. Sudan has carried a large 

foreign debt for decades. At the time of separation in July 2011, total foreign debt was about US$38 billion; North and South have not yet negotiated the portion allotted to each. 

Budget: Sudan’s 2014 budget was projected at approximately SDG51.1 

billion (US$9.0 billion). In 2014, South Sudan’s government budget was 

ca. US$5.6 billion, much of it devoted to salaries and security. 

Currency and Exchange Rate: Sudan’s unit of currency is the Sudanese 

pound, SDG, divided into 100 piasters. This (new) pound, introduced in 

January 2007, replaced the Sudanese dinar and the old Sudanese pound. 

On September 1, 2014, the exchange rate was about SDG5.68=US$1.00. 

South Sudan’s currency is the South Sudanese pound, SSP. On June 1, 

2014, the exchange rate was SSP3.1=$US1.00 

Transportation 

Roads: Estimates of the road network in the early 2000s ranged upwards 

of 50,000 kilometers, of which 3,600 kilometers were paved. Gravel 

roads accounted for ca. 3,700 kilometers, and there were an estimated 

45,000 kilometers of mainly seasonal earth road and sand tracks. 

Railroads: The government-owned Sudan Railways Corporation operates 4,578 kilometers of 1.07-gauge single track connecting most of the 

country’s production and consumption centers. The main line runs from 

Wadi Halfa and Port Sudan in the north via Khartoum to Al-Obeid and 

Nyala in the center and west and to Wau in the southwest, with short 

extensions to Sinnar and Kuraymah. An eastern segment connects Kassala 

and Al-Damazin with Sinnir, and a spur runs from Sinnar to al-Gadaref. A 

xxxii 
 

716-kilometer light rail system serves the Gezira agricultural area southeast of Khartoum. Rehabilitation was underway on the lines to Wadi Halfa 

and Port Sudan. Service on the Wau line has been restored after closure 

during the civil war. 

Inland Waterways: Sudan has 4,068 kilometers of navigable rivers, but 

only 1,723 kilometers are open throughout the year. The backbone of the 

system is formed by the White Nile, Blue Nile, and Nile River. Cataracts, 

shallows, a growing number of dams, and seasonal variation in water levels limit river traffic. River transport, which dwindled after the mid-1980s 

when navigation south of Kosti became impossible because of attacks by 

the SPLA, has not recovered. 

Pipelines: Sudan has two major pipelines that carry oil from the Southern oil fields to the Red Sea for export. A 1,610-kilometer line runs from 

the Bashayir terminal near Port Sudan to the Bentiu fields in Unity State 

via Khartoum and the Al-Jayli refinery. The second line is 1,500 kilometers long and runs from Port Sudan to the Melut Basin in Upper Nile 

State. Extensions connect outlying fields to the major lines. Capacity 

exceeds 1 million barrels per day, but refining capacity and other factors 

have constrained this potential. 

Civil Aviation: Sudan Airways provides domestic service from Khartoum to 15 domestic airports and international service from three airports 

to the Middle East and Africa. Juba international airport has flights to 

Khartoum and to capitals of neighboring countries. 

Marine Ports and Shipping: Port Sudan and Sawakin on the Red Sea 

are the major commercial ports; the port of Bashayir handles most oil 

exports. The national merchant marine had 19 vessels in the early 2000s 

that sailed mainly between the Red Sea ports in the Mediterranean and 

Europe. 

Telecommunications: Sudan’s telecommunications network has greatly 

expanded in recent years, albeit from a very low base. In 2008 there were 

only 356,000 landlines, fewer than five lines per 1,000 residents, and 11.2 

million mobile-phone subscriptions, but large parts of the country were 

not covered by mobile-phone networks. Internet users numbered 4.2 million; cyber cafés in larger towns and cities provided most Internet service. 

xxxiii 
Government and Politics 

Political System: Since independence in 1956, Sudan has gravitated 

between civilian and military government. The latest turnover came in 

1989, when Lieutenant Colonel Umar al-Bashir led a coup that overthrew 

the democratically elected government of Sadiq al-Mahdi. Since then, 

Sudan, although officially a republic with a constitution and governing 

authority divided among executive, legislative, and judicial branches, has 

functioned as a highly centralized political system with real power and 

authority exercised by the office of the presidency under al-Bashir. The 

government is dominated by the National Congress Party (NCP) headed 

by al-Bashir. Sudan has traditionally been governed by Arabs of the central Nile who neglected peripheral regions, giving rise in the post-independence era to separatist movements in the South, East, and West 

(Darfur). Corruption in government at all levels is an ongoing problem. 

From 2005 to 2011, Sudan was governed according to provisions of the 

Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005, which ended more 

than two decades of civil war between Northern and Southern Sudan. 

The CPA created the Government of National Unity in Khartoum and an 

autonomous government for Southern Sudan in Juba with its own executive, legislative, and judicial institutions. Southerners took up seats in the 

cabinet and the national legislature. The CPA also provided that after six 

years Southern Sudanese would vote to remain part of Sudan or opt for 

independence. In a referendum in January 2011, 98.8 percent of Southerners who voted chose independence from the North. The separation 

became official on July 9, 2011. Since then, Sudan and South Sudan have 

been governed by interim constitutions. 

Executive Branch: In Sudan, the executive consists of a president 

who is head of state and head of government. He wields wide-ranging 

powers over domestic and foreign policies and is commander in chief 

of the Sudan Armed Forces. He is directly elected by the people of 

Sudan to a five-year term. Al-Bashir has held this office continuously 

since 1993, including during the CPA era. He was last elected in 2010. 

There are also two vice presidents and a council of ministers appointed 

by the president. 

In South Sudan, the executive consists of a president, a vice president, 

and a council of ministers. The president is head of state, head of government, and commander in chief of the armed forces, the Sudan People’s 

Liberation Army (SPLA). His position and powers mirror those of 

Sudan’s presidency. He selects the vice president but must appoint the 

council of ministers with the consent of the national legislature. Since 

xxxiv 
 

2005 Salva Kiir Mayardit has been South Sudan's president, having been 

last elected to a five-year term in 2010. He was first vice president during 

the CPA-era Government of National Unity in Khartoum. 

Legislative Branch: Sudan has a bicameral legislature consisting of the 

National Assembly and the Council of States. South Sudan's legislature 

also has a National Assembly and a Council of States. At present, each 

legislature consists of members elected to five-year terms plus those 

nominated to fill vacancies after the National Unity Government dissolved in 2011. The 2010 elections gave the NCP a majority in Khartoum 

and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) a majority in 

Juba. 

Judicial Branch: The CPA's Interim National Constitution established a 

system of national courts, which Sudan has essentially preserved. The 

Supreme Court is the highest court in the land. It consists of 70 judges 

and has jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters. A Constitutional Court 

of nine judges handles issues relating to constitutional law as well as 

cases of human rights. Courts of appeal hear cases from lower courts 

involving customary law, among other matters. The 2011 transitional 

constitution in the South also established a Supreme Court and courts of 

appeal. Because of a lack of trained personnel, customary courts adjudicated most legal proceedings. For much of Sudan's independence era, 

executive interference in judicial proceedings has been common, particularly by military governments; it is also common in South Sudan. 

Administrative Divisions: Sudan is divided into 15 states, South Sudan 

into 10. Each state has a governor and a council of ministers as well as its 

own legislative and judicial organs. Each is subdivided into smaller 

administrative units; those in the South include payams (districts) and 

bomas (villages). Governors, formerly appointed, were all elected in the 

2010 elections. The administration of the oil-rich and contested area of 

Abyei on the border between North and South was still being negotiated 

as of 2014. 

Legal System: Sudan’s judiciary was based on British laws and courts 

during the colonial period. Beginning in the 1980s, Islamic law (sharia) 

was implemented to one degree or another by successive governments, 

giving rise to much controversy among Muslims and non-Muslims alike. 

After 1991 sharia was in force in Sudan in keeping with the Islamist 

agenda of the National Islamic Front, which became the NCP. The 1998 

constitution established sharia as one of several bases of Sudanese law. 

The legal system today is a mixture of sharia and English law. In the 

xxxv 
South, customary law applies below the state level, and most litigation 

occurs in customary courts. Religious freedom is generally respected. 

Electoral System: National elections were held in 1996 and 2000. In 

both cases, al-Bashir was elected president in elections that major opposition parties boycotted. National elections were next held in April 2010 

under provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Al-Bashir was 

again elected after his two main opponents withdrew at the last minute, 

and Salva Kiir was overwhelmingly elected to the presidency of South 

Sudan, both to five-year terms. The voting age in Sudan is 17 years and 

older; it is 18 years and older in South Sudan. 

Political Parties: All political parties were banned after the 1989 coup 

until 1999. Sudan has a large number of parties or political groups, which 

are regulated by the Political Parties Act of 2007. Major parties are: the 

National Congress Party with al-Bashir at its head; the National Umma 

Party led by Sadiq al-Mahdi, a descendant of the nineteenth-century 

Mahdi; the Democratic Unionist Party led by Muhammad Uthman alMirghani, based on the Khatmiyyah religious order; the Popular Congress 

Party founded in 2000 by Hassan Abdullah al-Turabi; the Sudanese Communist Party led by Muhammad Mukhtar Al-Khatib; and the Reform 

Now Party, led by Ghazi Salah al-Din Atabani. Other important political 

groups are the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and 

Equality Movement, both Darfuri groups; the Beja Congress and the Free 

Lions who are joined in the Eastern Front; the SPLM-N (North), the 

Northern remnant of the southern SPLM; the National Consensus Forces; 

and the Sudanese Revolutionary Front. In South Sudan, the Sudanese 

People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) is the dominant political party, 

with Salva Kiir at its head. There are a number of smaller regionally based 

political parties or groups. 

Foreign Relations: Sudan considers itself part of the African and Arab 

worlds. It has a special interest in all of its nine neighbors, particularly in 

Egypt, where relations date to antiquity, but also in Ethiopia and Uganda, 

headwaters of the Nile and its tributaries. Sudan’s Islamist agenda largely 

determined the nature (friendly or otherwise) of relations with Arab and 

neighboring states during the 1990s. These relations generally improved 

with the decline of Sudan’s Islamist militancy in the 2000s. Sudan and 

Egypt have drawn much closer since the later 1990s, adopting a common 

position in discussions with their African neighbors about sharing the 

Nile's water even as they remain divided over administration of the 

Hala’ib Triangle on their border. Relations with Chad also warmed after 

long years when both countries sponsored insurgent movements in each 

other's territory. 

xxxvi 
Sudan’s perceived support for international terrorism has affected its 

relations with Western countries since the 1990s, especially the United 

States, although the conflicts in the South and in Darfur have also loomed 

large. The United States accused Sudan of playing a role in the bombing 

of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998, acts that led 

the United States to bomb the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum. Although Sudan has since cooperated with the United States on 

international terrorism, the country remains on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism; Sudan is also subject to U.S. economic sanctions 

because of wars in Darfur and the South. 

South Sudan belongs to the United Nations, the African Union, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, and the Intergovernmental 

Authority on Development. It has especially close relations with Uganda 

and the United States, the United States having nurtured its independence 

movement and provided large amounts of economic aid since 2011. 

National Security 

Armed Forces Overview: In 2013 the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) consisted of a large army, a small air force with modern fighter and transport 

aircraft, a small navy, and paramilitary forces. The armed forces have 

faced problems of morale and poorly maintained equipment in the past, 

but since the late 1990s oil revenues have enabled Sudan to finance 

imports of modern weaponry, much of it from China, Egypt, Iran, and 

Russia. Beginning in the late 1990s, Sudan began to manufacture military equipment of its own, including light tanks, light and heavy artillery, 

machine guns, and armored personnel carriers. Security concerns are 

unresolved border issues with South Sudan and ongoing insurgencies in 

Darfur and in South Kordofan and Blue Nile States. 

In the South, the government faced the task of molding the armed groups 

and militias that compose the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) 

into a conventional army. The fighting that began in late 2013 between 

Dinka and Nuer components of the SPLA showed the difficulty of this 

task. The SPLA is composed overwhelmingly of infantry, the South having only a few light aircraft and no navy. The South's security concerns 

are the North and insurgencies in the East and West. 

Sudan: SAF Military Units: The Sudanese army was estimated at 

240,000 in 2013. It is largely a light infantry force of more than 20 divisions supported by specialized units; among these are armored, engineering, and mechanized divisions, special-forces companies, and a bordersecurity brigade. Its equipment includes several hundred heavy and light 

xxxvii 
 

 

tanks, reconnaissance vehicles, heavy artillery, armored personnel carriers, and air-defense guns and missiles, the latter of uncertain serviceability. The navy, with an estimated 1,300 personnel, had barely a dozen 

serviceable craft to patrol coastal and river traffic. Naval commands were 

located at Port Sudan and Khartoum. The 3,000-member air force was 

based mainly in the Khartoum area. It had more than 60 combat aircraft, 

including MiG-29SE and MiG-29UB Fulcrums, A-5 Fantans, and Su-25 

Frogfoots. Among other craft were helicopters (Mi-24/35 Hinds and Mi171s) and C-130H Hercules transports. The missiles of the air-defense 

system were most likely obsolete. The air force, like the army, has in the 

past suffered from lack of maintenance of its equipment. 

South Sudan: SPLA Military Units: In 2013 SPLA ground forces 

numbered an estimated 210,000, divided into nine infantry divisions. 

Main equipment included more than 100 tanks, T-55s and T-72s; support 

artillery, consisting of self-propelled guns, multiple rocket launchers, and 

mortars; and air-defense guns. The SPLA had no air force per se, no 

fighter aircraft, and only a small number of helicopters and transport craft. 

Defense Budget: Sudan’s defense expenditures in 2013 were estimated 

at US$1.52 billion. In 2013 South Sudan’s defense budget was about 

US$714 million. 

Military Service: In Sudan, men and women aged 18–30 are subject to 

compulsory military service for a period of two years. In South Sudan, 

males 18 years and older are eligible to join the SPLA, although the age 

requirement appears not to be strictly enforced. Women are also eligible 

to serve in the South Sudanese military. 

Paramilitary Forces: Since the early 1990s, Sudan has had both paramilitaries and irregular fighters organized into militias. The People’s 

Defense Force, the major government-sponsored paramilitary, was created in 1989 to fight against the SPLA. In 2013 it consisted of an estimated 20,000 active-duty personnel and 85,000 reservists. The janjaweed 

are the most famous and notorious of the militias. They were originally 

Arab cattle-herders armed by the government to fight against rebels in 

Darfur beginning in 2003. Other Arab militias armed by the government, 

variously called murahalin, have fought in Darfur and South Kordofan. 

During the civil war, the government armed several militias in Southern 

Sudan to fight against the SPLA. South Sudan was not reported to have 

paramilitary forces similar to those in the North, although ethnically 

based militias operate in several states. 

xxxviii 
 

Police: Sudan's police functions are divided among several organizations. 

The United Police Forces number about 30,000 and are responsible for a 

wide range of duties, including civil defense, criminal investigations, 

immigration and customs, and traffic control. The Popular Police Forces, 

with an estimated 35,000 members, operate as a politicized militia that 

enforces religious strictures among the Muslim population. The Popular 

Defense Forces consist of auxiliaries who ostensibly relieve the Sudan 

Armed Forces of local defense duties. A Border Intelligence Guard provides intelligence to the armed forces. 

The South Sudan Police Service was created following the signing of the 

CPA in 2005. Since then it has been undergoing restructuring and training by UN agencies, including the UN Mission in South Sudan. 

Human Rights: The Sudanese government in general has a poor humanrights record. International human-rights organizations regularly reported 

restrictions on free speech, assembly, and the press; arbitrary arrest and 

detention; denial of due process in the courts; beating, rape, torture, and 

extrajudicial killing by security forces; and cruel and inhumane treatment 

or punishment. Prison conditions are harsh, especially with regard to food 

and health. Sudanese government armed forces committed massive 

human-rights violations in Darfur after 2003 and in South Kordofan and 

Blue Nile States beginning in 2011, but rebel forces in those states also 

engaged in human-rights abuses. In South Sudan, international organizations have reported human-rights violations by the SPLM, SPLA, and 

militias similar to those in the North. Most recently, government and antigovernment armed forces committed large-scale ethnically based massacres and displacement of civilians in the civil war that began in midDecember 2013. 

xxxix 
xl



Port Sudan

Hala’ib

Dongola

Kassala

Al-Damir

Al-Obeid

Al-Gedaref

Kaduqli

Kosti

Wad

Madani

Malakal

Bor Rumbek

Yambio

Warab

Aweil

Wau

Juba

Torit

Bentiu

Al-Damazin

Sinnar

Al-Junaynah Al-Fashir

Nyala

Khartoum

Red

 Sea

BLUE

NILE

WHITE

NILE

SINNAR

KHARTOUM

ALGEZIRA ALGEDAREF

RED

SEA

NORTHERN

STATE

NILE RIVER

KASSALA

NORTH

KORDOFAN

SOUTH

KORDOFAN

NORTH

DARFUR

SOUTH

DARFUR

WEST

DARFUR

EAST

EQUATORIA

CENTRAL

EQUATORIA

NORTH

BAHR

AL-GHAZAL UPPER

NILE

WEST

 EQUATORIA

JONGLEI

UNITY

WARAB

LAKES

WEST

 BAHR

 AL-GHAZAL

ETHIOPIA

KENYA UGANDA

DEMOCRATIC

REPUBLIC

OF THE CONGO

CHAD

LIBYA

EGYPT

ERITREA

CENTRAL

AFRICAN

REPUBLIC

SAUDI

ARABIA

Boundary representation

not necessarily authoritative

0

0

100 200 Kilometers

100 200 Miles



International

 boundary

State boundary

Administrative

 boundary

National capital

State capital

Populated place

12

18 18

24 30 36

30 36

12

6

Figure 1. Administrative Divisions of Sudan, 2011
 

 

Introduction 

IN MID-2011 THE MAJOR QUESTION about the unified nation-state 

of Sudan was: Whither the “Two Sudans?” Before the January 2011 referendum in the South of Sudan, in which Southerners voted for independence, the question had been whether Sudan would continue as one 

unitary state or would divide into two independent, separate entities. This 

earlier question had preoccupied Sudan for six years, following the 

cease-fire between the North and the South and the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in January 2005, which ended more 

than two decades of civil war. 

From its outset, the CPA foresaw two possible outcomes for the future 

of Sudan: continued unity or separation and independence for the South. 

To allow for each of these possibilities, the CPA provided inter alia for a 

unitary national government composed of officials from both the North 

and the South and the sharing of revenues from export of the country’s oil, 

located almost entirely in the South. It did not, however, provide for 

immediate merging of the military forces, nor did it provide for economic 

development of the South beyond the sharing of the income from oil. 

Whatever the strengths or weaknesses of the CPA, and there were both, 

the course of events during the period of the CPA—2005 to 2011—reinforced the long-term alienation of Southern Sudanese from their Northern 

counterparts to the extent that the option of unity lost whatever traction in 

may ever have had, leaving the option of separation as the only viable 

alternative. As a consequence, the question of the continued unity of the 

Sudanese state was answered in January 2011, when more than 98 percent 

of voters in the referendum opted for independence from Sudan. Henceforth, two states appeared on the African map where heretofore there had 

been only one: the Republic of Sudan (the North), and the Republic of 

South Sudan (the South). 

To long-term observers of Sudan, the outcome of the referendum was 

hardly a surprise. They had long identified several major problems that 

plagued the Sudanese state and that hindered its unity, among them governance, the diversity of Sudan’s peoples, and the concentration of decision-making in Khartoum at the expense of outlying peoples and regions. 

As a unitary state, Sudan contained a wide diversity of peoples spread 

across the enormous expanse of its 2.5 million square kilometers. These 

peoples have different cultures, religions, and physical features. Numbering more than 40 million in 2014, they are divided into some 600 ethnic 

groups or tribes and speak more than 400 languages. Broadly speaking, 

xli 
 

 

they are divided between the Muslim Arabs of the North and the Christian 

and animist Africans of the South. Governing such diversity would pose a 

major task under the best of circumstances—a state of being that Sudan 

can hardly be said to have enjoyed in recent decades, if ever. Since independence from Britain in 1956, Sudan has witnessed alternating periods 

of civilian and military rule, accompanied by incipient or full-scale civil 

war except for the years 1972–83. The latest phase in this cycle began in 

1989 with the arrival of an Islamist government with strong military backing under President Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir and the National 

Congress Party (NCP). 

The northern part of the country has a long tradition of human settlement that stretches back at least into the Late Stone Age. Later, the ancient 

kingdoms of Kush (early second millennium B.C.) and Meroë (sixth century B.C.) flourished on the northern Nile. Beginning by the eighth century A.D., Arabs arrived from Egypt, and with them in due course came 

Islam, which slowly spread in succeeding centuries. The nineteenth century brought the presence of Turks and Egyptians, the Mahdist state, and 

finally, at its end, British colonialists. The colonial period lasted until 1956 

and brought, at least to some parts of the country, a transport infrastructure, minor development, education, and a respected civil service and judiciary. In terms of the economy, geography, and government, it saw the 

creation of the modern nation-state of Sudan, combining the Arab-Islamic 

North with the Nilotic Africans of the South, the Beja groups of the East, 

and the Darfuris of the West. 

The Nilotic peoples of the South have been in place for centuries and 

perhaps much longer. They practice agriculture and pastoralism and live 

for the most part in stateless societies, although there are exceptions, such 

as the Shilluk. Their relations with Northerners in the more recent past can 

best be described as troubled, arising largely from experience with Arab 

slavers who preyed on them, especially in the nineteenth century. This 

experience left a legacy of fear, suspicion, and general ill will among 

Southerners with regard to their Northern neighbors that persisted through 

the colonial period and the years of independence to the present. It is the 

legacy of slaving, along with perceptions of domination and neglect, which 

largely explains the Southerners’ preference for independence in the voting 

in 2011 and the course of relations between North and South since then. 

Since at least the mid-nineteenth century, the Arabs of the mid-northern 

Nile have been at the center of government, formulating economic, military, political, and social policies for the entire country but at the same time 

denying any representation for peoples other than themselves in the governing process. It is this uninterrupted concentration of political authority 

and power at the center among a select group of riverine Northerners that 

has caused so many of Sudan’s problems since independence, first among 

xlii 
 

Southerners and later among Darfuris, Beja, Nubians, the Nuba, and others. This pattern of governance has persisted under President al-Bashir and 

his NCP since 1989. Al-Bashir and the NCP have championed an Islamist 

agenda, including the imposition of Islamic law, the sharia, on the country, 

an agenda that has alienated many Sudanese, regardless of religion. To 

repeat, it is this concentration of resources in the center that has led to the 

desire for secession among peripheral peoples, of whom the first to secede 

now inhabit the independent state of South Sudan. 

Aside from these major factors, a number of new, more immediate 

issues came to the fore at the time of separation in July 2011, resulting 

from the need to divide the assets and liabilities of the former unified state. 

Among these were and in most cases still are the questions of citizenship, 

debt-sharing, division of oil revenues, the demarcation of the border, and 

the status of provinces along the common border (see fig. 2; fig. 3). 

As separation neared, some of the inhabitants on each side of the new 

border faced the question of their status. Northerners in the South tended 

to be traders and government officials, whereas upwards of some 3 million or more Southerners resided in the North, many of them long-term 

residents with little or no connection or identity with the South. It was 

assumed that many of these Southerners would return to their families and 

lands in the South, and, indeed, many began the arduous journey to do just 

that, a process hastened by the declaration of the al-Bashir regime that the 

North would become a full-fledged Islamist state governed by the sharia. 

They returned to a land many of them did not know and where they faced 

an uncertain future with regard to employment and access to land. The 

status of Southerners in the North remained unsettled, despite discussions 

between Northern and Southern leaders. 

The question of how to divide Sudan’s external debt, some US$38 billion in 2011, was another issue that remained unsettled despite attempts at 

negotiation by both sides. A closely related and highly contentious issue 

concerned oil and how to share oil revenues. Almost all oil was found in the 

South, whereas refineries and the pipelines that carried the oil to Red Sea 

ports were located in the North. Moreover, the economies of both successor 

states were highly dependent on the income from oil exports. An agreement 

about how to share oil income and its transportation was obviously imperative—but disagreements over pipeline fees that the South would pay to 

transport its oil and Southern charges that the North was short-changing the 

South in terms of export income led to a total shut-down of oil production 

by the South in January 2012. The standoff between the two sides continued for months, even as their state budgets deteriorated alarmingly. 

One of the most contentious issues concerned the status of three border 

regions—Abyei with its oil fields, the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan 

State, and Blue Nile State. The CPA had provided for what were termed 

xliii 
xliv



BLUE

NILE

Port Sudan

Al-Obeid

Al-Damazin

Bentiu

Malakal

Abyei

Kaduqli

Al-Fashir

Nyala

Khartoum

Abyei al-Arab

Red

 Sea

Nile

White Nile

Blue Nile

Bahr alGhazal

Ba h r

NUBA

MOUNTAINS

BLUE

NILE

WHITE

NILE

SINNAR

KHARTOUM

ALGEZIRA ALGEDAREF

RED SEA

NORTHERN

STATE

NILE

 RIVER

KASSALA

NORTH

KORDOFAN

SOUTH

KORDOFAN

NORTH

DARFUR

SOUTH

DARFUR

WEST

DARFUR ETHIOPIA

CHAD

LIBYA

EGYPT

ERITREA

SOUTH

SUDAN

CENTRAL

AFRICAN

REPUBLIC

SAUDI

ARABIA



Boundary representation

not necessarily authoritative

0

0

50 100 150 Kilometers

50 150 Miles 100





Areas of North–South

 conflict or dispute

National capital

City/Town

Oil pipeline

Heglig oilfield 

International

 boundary

Administrative

 boundary

Undetermined

 boundary

State boundary



“popular consultations,” presumably plebiscites, to determine whether the 

inhabitants of each region wished to join the North or the South after July 

2011. The consultations were either postponed repeatedly or, in the case of 

Blue Nile, barely begun, however, and as the CPA era came to an end, the 

final status of these regions was unsettled. As predicted, all three became 

flashpoints between the North and the South. 

Beyond these three territories loomed the much longer-running conflict in Darfur that began in 2003 over charges of economic and political 

neglect. The region was well known for violence and mayhem involving 

insurgents on the one hand and government forces and allied militias on 

the other, some of the latter the infamous janjaweed (see Glossary), or 

armed raiders. A peacekeeping mission, the United Nations−African 

Union Mission in Darfur, was in place by 2008, but unfortunately there 

was little peace to keep. According to a 2013 UN estimate, 2.3 million 

people had been displaced by a decade of conflict and insecurity, driven 

Figure 2. Sudan, 2014
xlv

into camps or exile. After 2009 the level of violence declined, but it rose 

in 2013 as the janjaweed militias, by now virtually independent of government control, and the rebels engaged in renewed raiding and at times 

killing of civilians. A new element was clashes among Arab militias in 

North Darfur over control of gold mines. In August 2013, the al-Bashir 

government created a new militia, the Rapid Support Forces, to help the 

Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) in its campaigns against rebels in Darfur and 

South Kordofan. This new militia fought with success, but it earned a reputation for brutality against civilians in Darfur. 

Several ethnic-based insurgent groups are involved in the conflict in 

Darfur, the major ones being the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army 

(SLM/A), now broken into two factions, and the Justice and Equality 

Movement (JEM). There have been attempts at peace agreements, notably 

in Abuja (2006) and Tripoli (2007). The most recent effort is the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur, signed in Doha, Qatar, on July 14, 2011, by a 

third group, the Liberation and Justice Movement, joined in April 2013 by a 



BLUE

NILE

Al-Damazin Al-Damazin

Abyei

Juba

Malakal

Bentiu

Kaduqli

Al-Damazin

Abyei

Wau

Rumbek

Melut Abyei Bahr al-Arab

Sobat

al-Ghazal Bahr

Bahr al-Jabal

White Nile

Blue Nile

NUBA

MOUNTAINS

EAST

EQUATORIA

CENTRAL

EQUATORIA

NORTH

BAHR

AL-GHAZAL

UPPER

NILE

BLUE

NILE

WEST

EQUATORIA

JONGLEI

UNITY

WARAB

LAKES

WEST

 BAHR

 AL-GHAZAL

ETHIOPIA

SUDAN

KENYA

CENTRAL

AFRICAN

REPUBLIC

DEMOCRATIC

REPUBLIC

OF THE CONGO UGANDA



Boundary representation

not necessarily authoritative

0

0

50 100 150 Kilometers

50 150 Miles 100





Areas of North–South

 conflict or dispute

National capital

City/Town

Oil pipeline

Heglig oilfield 

International

 boundary

Administrative

 boundary

Undetermined

 boundary

State boundary



Figure 3. South Sudan, 2014
 

 

 

JEM splinter. These accords have been signed by one or another rebel 

group but none has been accepted by all. The Doha Document is a framework agreement that addresses a number of issues in the Darfur conflict, 

among them a regional governing authority, wealth sharing, and representation in the national executive and legislature. Although backed by the UN 

and the African Union, the SLM and JEM have refused to sign on, 

demanding more autonomy within the region and a democratic and secular 

national government, among other objections. Negotiations under the Doha 

framework were underway in 2014, even as conflict continued in Darfur. 

South Sudan 

At independence on July 9, 2011, the people and government of the 

new Republic of South Sudan faced the task of constructing a new nation 

almost literally from the ground up. It was composed of a congeries of 

major and minor ethnic groups, the largest being the Dinka and the Nuer, 

with little intergroup cohesion. Its political system was mostly undeveloped. Its economy was largely informal and lacking in almost every 

aspect of development in terms of transportation, telecommunications, 

and industrial infrastructure. It had some of the lowest rates of literacy and 

health-care delivery in the world, all the result of the near-total neglect of 

Southern Sudan over the last century or more. The CPA era had seen 

some improvement in all of these areas, notably in the creation of some 

centralized state institutions and with the inflow of oil revenue from the 

National Unity Government in Khartoum. Still, the task that lay before the 

people of South Sudan was immense. 

The South inherited embryonic state institutions from the CPA era, 

consisting of a presidency, a parliament, and the beginnings of executiveand judicial-branch agencies. Two of the major tasks were the writing of 

a constitution, a process still underway in 2014, and the creation of a 

national army out of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and 

smaller regionally based militias, some of which had fought against the 

SPLA during the civil war. Among major problems were charges of corruption and nepotism in the central government, and a feeling of exclusion from participation in affairs of the new state among various ethnic 

groups, for example, in the writing of the new constitution and in access 

to state employment. 

The security situation in the South was also precarious. The present 10 

states of the South witnessed much of the warfare during the second civil 

war from 1983 to 2005, some of it involving rivalries and fighting among 

different groups of Southerners. The legacy of this fighting, and the arms 

associated with it, continued after independence in the form of intercommunal violence as well as of skirmishing along the border with Sudan in 

the north and west. The most violent state was Jonglei, where fighting 

xlvi 
Southern Sudanese celebrate their country’s independence on July 9, 2011, in Juba. 

Copyright Getty Images 

xlvii 
 

was ongoing between the Lou Nuer and the Murle groups in the months 

preceding independence. Between January 2011 and September 2012, 

the UN recorded at least 302 attacks in the province, resulting in 2,500 

deaths. Some of the worst violence occurred in Pibor County, the Murle 

heartland, where the Lou Nuer and the Murle engaged in long-standing 

tit-for-tat cattle rustling that sometimes turned deadly, as it did in January 

2011 and in early January 2012. There were charges that local and 

national officials were involved in fomenting the violence. 

In response to the violence, the South Sudan government initiated a 

disarmament campaign in Jonglei in March 2012, but the Murle charged 

that in the process SPLA soldiers engaged in beatings, murder, rape, and 

torture. Such charges played into the hands of a local rebel leader, David 

Yau Yau, whose rebellion was the result of long-standing Murle grievances against the SPLA and of Yau Yau's disappointment over a lost election. Despite Yau Yau’s rebellion, militia activity in South Sudan declined 

after 2011. In April 2013, President Salva Kiir Mayardit extended an offer 

of amnesty to six rebel leaders, including Yau Yau, who reconciled with 

the government in January 2014. Meanwhile, the cattle-raiding in Jonglei 

continued, with a report of upwards of 11,000 Nuer involved in a raid on 

the Murle in July. 

 The violence in Jonglei and elsewhere in the South tested the capabilities of the SPLA, given that it was itself composed of militiamen from 

the very ethnic groups often involved in the violence. It was also beyond 

the capabilities of the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South 

Sudan (UNMISS), the remnant of the UN supervisory force for the whole 

of Sudan before separation. In an effort to deal with intercommunal violence across South Sudan, President Kiir appointed a national reconciliation committee in April 2013 and handed its leadership to prominent 

clerics. Clerical mediation enabled David Yau Yau to end his rebellion. 

Another problem requiring immediate attention was settling returnees 

from the North. Numbering some 2 million since the signing of the CPA in 

2005, they flooded back into a homeland many, if not most, had never 

known. On the one hand, they were unprepared for the dire straits of the 

South; on the other hand, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement 

(SPLM) government faced the problem of settling them and of providing 

employment. To the returnees were added more than 350,000 internally 

displaced persons resulting from intercommunal conflict, and a quarter 

million refugees fleeing conflict in Blue Nile and South Kordofan States in 

the North. In and after 2011, international aid agencies were active in dealing with all three groups. 

Aid agencies were also active in the fields of education and health, as 

was the government in Juba, the capital. UN statistics showed that primary-school enrollments had doubled since the signing of the CPA in 

xlviii 
 

2005, but completion rates were still quite low. Adult literacy was also 

low, a major factor accounting for the lack of skilled manpower. The 

South was plagued by major curable diseases such as yellow fever, 

malaria, and sleeping sickness; rates of maternal and child mortality were 

high; and malnutrition was common. Nearly one-third of Southerners had 

no access to primary health care in 2011 according to the UN, a consequence of the scarcity of trained medical personnel to serve a population 

estimated at about 10 million. A wide range of other issues facing the new 

government included ensuring a steady flow of income from oil, questions about press freedom, substandard prison conditions, and continued 

integration of former rebel fighters into a unified SPLA. 

A final problem facing the Southern leadership was perhaps the most 

difficult and yet the most important to solve—the creation of a national 

identity and a sense of unity among Southerners. Before separation in 

2011, Southerners had been unified in their opposition to the North, but 

following independence, a new sense that they belonged together in their 

own separate nation was called for if South Sudan were to develop into a 

mature nation-state. Events in and after mid-2013, however, showed how 

far Southerners were from a unified whole. 

There had been dissension within the SPLM/A since its creation, but in 

mid-2013 these divisions burst into the open in a new and dangerous form 

along both personality and ethnic lines. At issue was the need for responsible leadership and good governance. One of the basic divisions within the 

SPLM/A was that between the Dinka and the Nuer, with the latter alleging 

domination of the movement by the Dinka under first John Garang and 

then Salva Kiir, both Dinkas. In the post-independence interim government, Salva Kiir served as president, and Riek Machar Teny, a Nuer, as 

vice president. Machar had long sought to lead the SPLM; his ambition 

made him a rival with a large constituency within the SPLM/A. 

Tension between the two leaders grew to the point that on July 23, Kiir 

dismissed Machar from office along with several members of the cabinet. 

Aside from rivalry between the two leaders, the dismissals reflected discontent within the SPLM and other Southern groups over the lack of transparency and participation in the government. There were in addition 

allegations of corruption and of high-handedness in governing on the part 

of Kiir and the top tier of SPLM officials. Following his dismissal, Machar 

announced that he would challenge Kiir for the chairmanship of the 

SPLM with the intent of becoming the SPLM candidate for the presidency 

in the upcoming 2015 elections. Machar and his followers became known 

as the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM−IO). 

In mid-December, fighting broke out in Juba between Dinka and Nuer 

units of the presidential guard following what the government termed an 

attempted coup, which it blamed on Machar, a charge he denied. The 

xlix 
 

 

 

fighting spread beyond the capital to Jonglei State and then into Upper 

Nile and Unity States in early 2014, leading to attacks and massacres by 

one group and its allies on the other, with bloody incidents in Bor, Bentiu, 

and elsewhere. Cease-fire agreements of January 23 and May 9 arranged 

in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental 

Authority on Development (IGAD—see Glossary), a northeast Africa 

regional organization, failed, as both sides continued to fight, seeking 

advantage through control of territory and resources, especially oil installations and income, before engaging in serious negotiations. After demands 

from IGAD and the international community, a third cease-fire agreement 

was signed in Addis Ababa on June 10. It called for immediate negotiations on substantive issues, inclusion of all stakeholders in the peace talks, 

access for humanitarian relief efforts, and a transitional government of 

national unity to be in place within 60 days. 

The June agreement held forth the prospect of peace and a new government in South Sudan in the near future. After a delay over differences 

regarding representation in the stakeholder organizations, both sides 

began talks in early August, but they failed to establish a transitional government in Juba by the August 10 deadline. By then, the toll of half a year 

of fighting was evident: thousands killed, 1 million internally displaced, 

destruction of infrastructure, and the specter of devastating famine. 

Clearly, the viability of South Sudan was in question in mid-2014, given 

the deep-seated hostility between the SPLM/A and SPLM/A-IO and their 

allied groups. It was also clear that a common identity and sense of unity 

among all Southerners remained distant goals. 

Northern Sudan 

The situation facing the North, the Republic of Sudan, in 2011 was 

almost as dire for, as in the South, the al-Bashir regime faced major challenges on the economic, military, political, and regional fronts. The economy had long suffered from mismanagement, but the separation of the 

South dealt a major blow to the Northern economy by nullifying the 

shared income from oil exports that had flowed during the period of the 

CPA. Then, a dispute with the South over pipeline and port fees led the 

South in January 2012 to shut down all oil production and, therefore, all 

exports through Northern pipelines, an act with grave consequences for 

both Northern and Southern finances. Deprived of oil income, the NCP 

government resorted to austerity measures as a way to confront a shrinking economy, rising prices, and inflation. There was also the looming 

external debt. 

On the political side, the NCP continued its monopolized control of the 

national government and the military. It faced only weak opposition from 

long-established political parties such as the Umma Party and the Demol 
 

 

cratic Unionist Party (DUP), but now it confronted a new protest movement among urban youth. Inspired in part by the “Arab Spring” across 

North Africa, young educated Sudanese engaged in street demonstrations 

in major cities, protesting austerity measures and the lack of employment 

and calling for a more open and democratic political system, one in which 

they sought a voice. The regime responded with repression, a policy that 

gradually succeeded in squelching the demonstrations but that failed to 

address the demands of the young protesters. 

Aside from the young, the regime faced more serious and organized 

opposition from both the political and military fronts. Beginning in late 

2008, the major elements of the political opposition joined together to form 

the National Consensus Forces (NCF). The membership includes the 

Umma led by Sadiq al-Mahdi, the Popular Congress Party of Hassan 

Abdallah al-Turabi, the Democratic Unionist Party of Muhammad Uthman 

al-Mirghani, and various smaller political groups, plus women’s and youth 

organizations. The NCF program as issued in July 2012 favors a transitional government of national unity, a new national constitution, and settlement of disputes in Darfur, Blue Nile, and the Nuba Mountains by dialogue, 

not war. On the military side, conflict broke out in the Nuba Mountains of 

South Kordofan even before South Sudan declared its independence, and 

then subsequently in Blue Nile State. In both areas, local forces had joined 

with the SPLA against Khartoum during the civil war. Now, in 2011, they 

sought a degree of autonomy and political reform within the North. When 

the “popular consultations” called for by the CPA stalled in both regions 

and these remnants of the SPLA consequently refused to disarm, the SAF 

invaded South Kordofan on June 5 and Blue Nile on September 1. The 

SPLA remnants in the Nuba Mountains succeeded in repulsing the SAF, 

but in Blue Nile they were driven to the borderlands with Ethiopia and 

South Sudan, the fighting in each area eventually settling mostly into a 

stalemate. These Northern insurgents renamed themselves the SPLM/A−N 

(North) and on November 11 announced formation of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF). They were joined by the major Darfuri opposition 

forces—the Justice and Equality Movement/Army and the two factions of 

the Sudan Liberation Movement—and in April 2012, by the Beja Congress 

in the East. The SRF stood for the overthrow of the al-Bashir regime by 

force and its replacement with a more inclusive political system. 

On January 5, 2013, representatives of the SRF and the NCF signed an 

agreement in Kampala, Uganda, that essentially combined their programs. 

Known as the New Dawn Charter, the document called for the replacement 

of the NCP government by peaceful, constitutional means if possible, otherwise by force; a democratic and federal system of government; and the 

separation of religion and state, among other provisions. The charter, being 

a repudiation of NCP rule under al-Bashir, provoked a swift response. The 

li 
 

 

 

regime vehemently denounced it, labeled its signatories traitors, and 

promptly arrested some of the signers upon their return to the country. 

Perhaps most significantly, continued governance from the center to 

the exclusion of Darfur, South Kordofan, Blue Nile, and the East, meant 

that the cycle of violence associated with peripheral peoples and regions 

would perpetuate itself and continue to take its toll on the energies and 

resources of all sides. Indeed, the issue of governance and exclusion from 

the functions and offices of state lay at the heart of the rebellions among 

the peoples of Sudan’s borderlands. Until the aspirations of these peoples 

were addressed, Sudan was unlikely to find peace. There was even the 

prospect of the emergence of a “New South,” a region stretching from 

Darfur in the west through Abyei and South Kordofan to Blue Nile State 

in the east that would supplant the SPLM/A-dominated South as a region 

in permanent rebellion against the governing elite in Khartoum. 

While the NCP continued to hold the reins of power and to forcefully 

repress protest movements and rebellions, the party even before 2011 was 

hardly a unified whole. Corruption and nepotism have long characterized 

NCP rule, factors that produced discontent and resentment. Now, in the 

post-referendum and post-separation era, added to the range of issues facing the party and regime was the charge of having “lost” the South. 

Against this background, divisions over state policy and the future of the 

NCP surfaced among the party’s rank and file, broadly divided into two 

camps. On the one hand were those who favored some type of reform of 

the party to ensure its survival; on the other hand were those who saw no 

need to make changes or concessions of any kind, despite the challenges 

that confronted the party and regime. Nonetheless, members of both 

camps remained committed Islamists and appeared to accept al-Bashir’s 

vision of Sudan as a state that would be “Arab” in culture, Islamist in religious conviction, and governed by the sharia—this despite Muslim Sudanese who were not Islamists and the wide variety of Sudanese who were 

neither Muslim nor “Arab.” 

Discontent within the NCP as well as in the armed forces became evident in November 2012, when the regime announced the arrest of one or 

more senior party leaders and more than a dozen senior army officers, 

heretofore considered loyal Islamists, whom it accused of planning a coup. 

Among those detained was Salah Gosh, the former head of national intelligence and later a presidential adviser for security. The next month, the 

regime announced the arrest of several more military leaders on charges of 

plotting a coup, a step that raised questions about the extent of the disaffection with NCP policies. Even as the government foiled these attempts at 

regime change, whether actual or alleged, they appeared to be clear evidence of peer rivalries within the NCP and of significant discontent in the 

army. An alternative—and peaceful—avenue of change might lie in 

lii 
 

 

national elections, scheduled for April 2015, in which al-Bashir announced 

that he would not be a candidate. 

The general discontent within the party, the armed forces, and the country at large commanded the attention of the regime in and after mid-2013. 

In an effort to further reduce the budget deficit resulting from the loss of oil 

revenue in 2011, the regime once again cut fuel subsidies on September 

23, 2013. The reduction led to 10 days of violent demonstrations as the 

urban and rural poor, students, and now the middle class, united by economic grievances related to subsidies, inflation, and unemployment, took 

to the streets. There were calls not only to restore the fuel subsidy but also 

to bring down the regime. The protests were the most serious the al-Bashir 

government had ever faced. More than 200 protesters were killed as the 

security forces restored order, according to Amnesty International; the 

regime put the figure at less than half of that. 

In April, al-Bashir had made a proposal for a broad political dialogue 

about the future of the country. In late January 2014, clearly in response to 

the September outburst, he repeated his proposal in a formal presentation 

before supporters and opponents of the government. He called for an economic and political “renaissance” for Sudan that would address four 

issues: peace on all fronts, political freedom, poverty reduction, and Sudanese national identity, of which peace was first and foremost. Major opposition leaders such as al-Turabi and Sadiq al-Mahdi reacted skeptically to 

the proposal but subsequently proved more receptive. The NCF, SRF, and 

other critics, however, demanded that the government first create an environment conducive to dialogue, before they would participate, by taking 

such steps as declaring a cease-fire on all fronts, ensuring humanitarian 

access to all war zones, and agreeing to a national coalition government to 

administer the dialogue process. Finally, there were calls to postpone the 

national elections scheduled for 2015 in view of the unsettled state of 

affairs throughout the country. 

The government rejected these demands. It did, however, permit political parties to function more freely in early 2014, although arrests of opposition figures, including Sadiq al-Mahdi in May when he alleged atrocities 

by Rapid Support Forces in Darfur, and press censorship continued. At 

mid-year, the regime and opposition groups such as the NCF and SRF 

continued to spar over the parameters of a national dialogue, even as fighting was ongoing in Darfur and as government forces attacked SPLA−N 

positions in South Kordofan. On July 24, a national dialogue committee, 

composed of representatives of the government and government-approved 

opposition parties, announced that the national dialogue would begin in 

early August with a meeting of a national conference, which all political 

parties and rebels were invited to attend. The opposition parties and rebels, 

however, declined to participate until their demands, including a general 

liii 
 

 

 

cease-fire and a national-unity government, had been met. Whether any of 

the proposed discussions would lead to a meaningful national dialogue and 

eventual political reforms in Sudan was an open question in mid-2014. 

The Two Sudans in 2013–14 

At the time of separation in mid-2011, several major issues were outstanding between the two Sudans, among them a demarcated border, citizenship, and international debt. None, however, was more contentious 

than oil. The CPA provided for shared revenues, and the income from oil 

exports became crucial to government budgets in both countries, especially the South, where it composed some 98 percent of government revenue. Almost all of the oil lay in the South except for oil fields in or close to 

Abyei, claimed by both North and South. Refineries and the pipelines that 

carried the oil to Port Sudan, however, lay in the North. Almost immediately a dispute arose over pipeline transit fees, with Khartoum demanding 

much higher rates than the South was prepared to pay. When Khartoum 

diverted some oil as compensation for what it considered unpaid fees, and 

given the poor state of relations between North and South, the Southern 

government shut down oil production in January 2012. 

The impact on state budgets was devastating, and it was uncertain how 

long the loss of income from oil could be sustained. Both states enacted 

austerity measures, which set off inflation and were partly responsible for 

anti-regime protests in Northern cities. In early April, fighting broke out in 

Abyei over control of the enclave and its oil resources, and there were 

fears that the clashes could widen into full-scale war between North and 

South. Abyei was one of a range of outstanding issues discussed during 

subsequent meetings between Khartoum and Juba, but the two governments could not agree on their respective representation in an interim legislature, on the scheduling of a referendum on the future of the region as 

called for in the CPA, or on who would be eligible to vote in it. In 2011 the 

UN created the Interim Security Force for Abyei and repeatedly extended 

its mandate. In June 2014, the force numbered 4,109 uniformed personnel, nearly all of them Ethiopian peacekeepers. 

Under pressure from the African Union and Western nations, Khartoum 

and Juba agreed on a formula for oil transit fees in August 2012, which 

became one of nine parts of an agreement on outstanding issues concluded 

on September 27. Transit fees for Southern oil were set at an average of 

US$10 per barrel. In addition, the South agreed to pay US$3.03 billion to the 

North during the next three and one-half years as compensation for revenue 

lost during the shutdown. Other agreements provided for nationals of each 

country to freely reside in, work, and own property in the other country; for 

withdrawal of all forces to their own side of the border; for establishment of 

a 14-mile (22.5-kilometer) wide demilitarized border zone to be supervised 

liv 
 

 

 

 

by a joint border verification and monitoring mission; for opening of 10 border-crossing corridors to facilitate trade; for the immediate joint demarcation 

of the border between North and South on the basis of the January 1, 1956, 

border line; and for joint efforts to obtain debt relief for Sudan’s international 

debt as at the time of separation, or, failing that, to apportion the debt 

between the two nations. 

Despite pledges of good will, the two sides still found it difficult to work 

together. Among contentious issues, the September agreement did not settle the status of Abyei or other disputed border lands, and each side continued to accuse the other of supporting rebels in its territory. Nonetheless, the 

two sides negotiated a follow-on accord in mid-March 2013 that set a twoto three-week timetable for implementation of the provisions of the September agreement. Both sides began to withdraw their forces from the 

demilitarized zone along their de facto border, and on April 6, South Sudan 

resumed pumping oil destined for Northern pipelines. Even so, issues such 

as border demarcation and charges of support for each side's rebels continued to hinder full implementation of the September agreement. Negotiations about these as well as other outstanding issues between North and 

South were ongoing as of mid-2014. 

The restoration of the oil-sharing regime and the consequent budgetary 

support it would provide to North and South, together with the remaining 

provisions of the September 2012 agreement, held forth the prospect of 

cooperation and peace between the two countries. But domestic developments within each in 2013 and 2014 eclipsed efforts to reach any such 

accommodation. The North, shaken by violent protests, was in the midst 

of a debate about political reform and of negotiations with rebels of the 

“New South.” The South was embroiled in a virtual civil war that threatened the very existence of the country. In mid-2014, it was difficult to predict what the future might hold for either country, given the state of affairs 

within each and the long history of troubled relations between them. 

* * * 

Updated information on Sudan and South Sudan can be obtained from 

reports issued by the International Crisis Group, Middle East Research and 

Information Project (MERIP), Sudd Institute, United Nations Integrated 

Regional Information Networks (IRIN), United States Institute of Peace, 

and Woodrow Wilson Center. Other good sources on current developments in Sudan and South Sudan include Africa Confidential (London), 

Economist Intelligence Unit (London), Gulf News (Bahrain), New York 

Times, and Sudan Tribune (Paris). 

September 1, 2014 LaVerle Berry 

lv 

Chapter 1. Historical Setting 
Tomb of the Mahdi in Omdurman 
SUDAN IS DIVIDED BETWEEN its Arab heritage, identified with 

the North, and its African heritage in the South. The two groups are 

divided along linguistic, religious, racial, and economic lines, and the 

cleavage has generated ethnic tensions, clashes, and civil war. Moreover, the South’s geographical isolation has hindered that region’s political, economic, and social development. Imperial Britain acknowledged 

the North–South division by establishing separate administrations for 

the two regions. Independent Sudan further reinforced this cleavage by 

treating African Southerners as a minority group. 

Another factor that has affected Sudan’s evolution is the country’s 

relationship with Egypt. Contact between the peoples of Sudan and 

Egypt dates to at least the eighth millennium B.C. and has been virtually 

continuous ever since. Modern relations between the two countries began 

in 1820, when an Egyptian army invaded Sudan. Egypt eventually controlled Sudan’s Red Sea coast and extended its influence toward Ethiopia 

and East Africa’s Great Lakes region. Egyptian rule ended in 1885 but 

left a mark on Sudan’s political and economic systems. The emergence 

of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium in 1899 reinforced the Cairo– 

Khartoum links. After Sudan gained independence in 1956, Egypt continued to exert influence over developments in Sudan. 

Similarly, the period of British control (1899–1955) has had a lasting impact on Sudan. In addition to pacifying and uniting the country, 

Britain modernized Sudan by facilitating economic development and 

by establishing democratic institutions of national government. Even 

in the early 2000s, many of Sudan’s political and economic institutions owed their existence to British models. 

Lastly, the civil war in the South has shaped Sudan’s postindependence history. This conflict has retarded the country’s social and economic development, encouraged political instability, and led to an 

endless cycle of weak and ineffective military and civilian governments. The conflict continued to affect Sudan’s people and institutions 

into the early twenty-first century. 

Early History 

Archaeological excavations along the Nile River south of Aswan, 

Egypt, have confirmed human habitation in the Nile valley during the 

Paleolithic Era that spanned more than 60,000 years of Sudanese history. By the eighth millennium B.C., people of a Neolithic culture had 

settled into a sedentary way of life along the river, living in fortified 

3 
 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

mud-brick villages, where they supplemented hunting and fishing on 

the Nile with grain gathering and cattle herding. Contact with Egypt 

probably occurred early in the culture’s development because of the 

steady movement of people along the Nile. Skeletal remains suggest a 

blending of African and Mediterranean populations during the Neolithic period (eighth to third millennia B.C.) that has remained relatively stable until the present, despite gradual infiltration by other 

peoples. 

Kush 

Since the time of the Roman Empire, the region of northern Sudan 

from roughly the second cataract on the Nile as far as the fourth cataract, or even farther south, has been known as Nubia. The ancient Egyptians, however, called the land south of the second cataract Kush (also 

seen as Cush) and referred to its inhabitants as “the wretched Kush.” 

For more than 2,000 years after the Old Kingdom (ca. 2650–2150 

B.C.), Egyptian economic and political activities greatly influenced the 

course of the central Nile region’s history. Even during periods when 

Egyptian political power in Kush waned, the Egyptians exerted profound cultural and religious influence on the indigenous people. 

Trade developed naturally among the peoples of the Nile valley. 

Egyptian caravans carried grain to northern Sudan and returned with 

gold, ivory, incense, hides, and carnelian (a stone prized both in jewelry 

and for arrowheads). Egyptian traders especially valued gold as well as 

slaves, who became servants, concubines, or soldiers. The Egyptians 

sent military expeditions into Kush during the Old Kingdom, yet no 

attempt was made to establish a permanent footing in the area until the 

Middle Kingdom (ca. 2040–1640 B.C.), when the Egyptians built forts 

along the Nile as far as Semna, south of the second cataract, to protect 

gold mines in the area. 

Asian nomads known as the Hyksos invaded Egypt and brought the 

Middle Kingdom to an end around 1640 B.C. Egyptian links with 

northern Sudan were severed, and the Nile River forts were abandoned. By then a distinct indigenous Bronze-Age culture, centered on 

the city of Kerma, had developed and had evolved into the kingdom of 

Kush in the region around the third cataract, near present-day Dongola 

(see fig. 4). The kingdom of Kush was almost certainly one of the earliest kingdoms in sub-Saharan Africa. It eventually dominated some 

700 kilometers along the Nile, and its power made it a major rival of 

Egypt. Kerma’s culture and traditions of power influenced northern 

Sudan for a millennium and enjoyed a revival during the first millennium B.C. at Napata, near present-day Kuraymah. About 1500 B.C, 

after the Egyptians revived during the New Kingdom (ca. 1540–1075 

4 
 

Historical Setting 

B.C.), the pharaohs defeated Kush and made it an Egyptian province. 

Egyptian administrative control extended as far south as the fourth cataract; tributary districts extended east to the Red Sea and south nearly 

to the confluence of the Nile and the Atbarah Rivers. Egypt exacted 

tribute in gold and slaves from local chiefs and ensured their loyalty 

by drafting their children to serve as pages at the pharaoh’s court. 

Once Egypt had established control over Kush, officials and priests 

joined military personnel, merchants, and artisans and settled in the 

region. The ancient Egyptian language became widely used in everyday activities. The Kushite elite adopted Egyptian gods and built temples like the one dedicated to the sun god Amun at Napata. The 

temples remained centers of official religious worship until the coming 

of Christianity to the region in the sixth century A.D. 

By the eleventh century B.C., the New Kingdom’s authority had 

diminished, giving way to divided rule in Egypt and ending Egyptian control of Kush. In the eighth century B.C., Kush reemerged as an independent kingdom ruled from Napata by monarchs who gradually extended 

their influence into Egypt. Long after Egyptian influence declined as 

Egyptians themselves succumbed to foreign domination, the Kushite elite 

continued to regard themselves as champions of genuine Egyptian cultural 

and religious values. About 750 B.C., a Kushite king called Kashta conquered Upper Egypt and became ruler of Thebes. 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 nearly a century. 

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 B.C.), the last Kushite pharaoh, withdrew to Napata, where Kushite kings not only continued to rule but 

extended their dominions to the south and east. 

Meroë 

An Egyptian army sacked Napata in 590 B.C., compelling the Kushite 

court to move south to a more secure location at Meroë, just south of the 

Atbarah–Nile confluence. For several centuries, the Meroitic kingdom 

developed independently of Egypt, which passed successively under Persian, Greek, and Roman domination. During the height of Meroë’s 

power in the second and third centuries B.C., the kingdom extended over 

a region from the third cataract in the north to Soba, near present-day 

Khartoum, in the south. 

The pharaonic tradition persisted among rulers at Meroë, who raised 

stelae to record the achievements of their reigns and erected pyramids to 

contain their tombs. These objects and the ruins of palaces, temples, and 

baths at Meroë attest to a centralized political system that commanded 

5 
Sudan: A Country Study 

6

Semna

Faras

Aswan

Kerma

Napata

Dongola

Meroë

Soba

Sinnar Al-Fashir Aksum

Red

Sea

Nile

Nile

Nile

White

Blue Nile

Atbarah

C1

C3

C4

C6

C5

C2

ETHIOPIA

EGYPT

ALWA

MEROË

MUQURRA

NOBADIA

FUNJ DARFUR

BAHR

AL-GHAZAL

ARABIA

K U S H

0

0

100 200 Kilometers

100 200 Miles

FUNJ

Present-day international

 boundary

Region/States

Cataracts

Sites/Cities



Figure 4. Ancient and Medieval Sudan
 

 

Historical Setting 

the labor of a large workforce, including skilled artisans. A well-managed irrigation system supported a higher population density than was 

possible during later periods. By the first century B.C., the use of hieroglyphs had given way to a Meroitic script, which adapted the Egyptian 

writing system to the indigenous language that is related to the presentday Nubian spoken in this region. Meroë’s succession system was not 

necessarily hereditary. The matriarchal royal family member deemed 

most worthy often became ruler, the queen mother’s role in the selection 

process being crucial to a smooth succession. The crown appears to 

have passed from brother to brother (or sister), and only when no siblings remained from father to son. 

Although Napata remained Meroë’s religious center, northern Kush 

fell into disorder as it came under pressure from the Blemmyes, predatory nomads from east of the Nile who were probably ancestors of the 

present-day Beja. However, the Nile continued to give the region access 

to the Mediterranean world. Additionally, Meroë maintained contact 

with Arab and Indian traders along the Red Sea coast and incorporated 

Hellenistic and Hindu cultural influences into its daily life. Metallurgical technology, especially ironworking, developed at Meroë, knowledge 

of which may have been transmitted westward across the savanna belt 

to West Africa from Meroë’s iron smelteries. 

Meroë’s relations with its northern neighbors were not always peaceful. In 23 B.C. a Roman army razed Napata in response to Meroitic incursions into Upper Egypt. The Roman commander quickly abandoned the 

area, however, judging it too poor to warrant colonization. 

By the beginning of the Christian era, a people known as the Noba 

or Nuba had occupied northern Kush. (The term Nubia, by which much 

of northern Sudan is known today, derives from the name of this people.) The Noba are believed to have been one of several well-armed 

bands of warriors who sold protection to the Meroitic population; eventually they intermarried and established themselves among the Meroitic 

people as a military aristocracy. Until nearly the fifth century, Rome 

subsidized the Noba and used Meroë as a buffer between Egypt and the 

Blemmyes. The cause of Meroë’s decline, including the role of invading peoples, is still subject to debate, but it has traditionally been associated with the expansion of Aksum, a trading state in modern Eritrea 

and Ethiopia to the east of Sudan. About A.D. 350, an Aksumite army 

captured and destroyed Meroë city, ending the kingdom’s independent 

existence. 

Christian Nubia 

By the sixth century, three states had emerged as heirs to the 

Meroitic kingdom, all subject to Byzantine influence. Nobadia in the 

7 
 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

north had its capital at Faras, in what is now Egypt; to its south, the 

kingdom of Muqurra was centered at (Old) Dongola, a city on the Nile 

about 100 kilometers south of modern Dongola; and Alwa, in the heartland of old Meroë farther south, had its capital at Soba. In all three 

kingdoms, warrior aristocracies ruled over local Nubian populations. 

Tradition holds that about 540, a Christian missionary arrived in 

Nobadia and began to preach the gospel, but it is possible that conversions began earlier under the aegis of Coptic missionaries from Egypt. 

The Nubian kings accepted the Monophysite Christianity practiced in 

Egypt and acknowledged the spiritual authority of Alexandria’s Coptic patriarch over the Nubian church. Bishops named by the Coptic 

patriarch and consecrated in Egypt directed the church’s activities and 

wielded considerable secular power. The church sanctioned sacerdotal 

kingship, confirming the royal line’s legitimacy; in return, the monarchs protected the church’s interests. The queen mother’s role in the 

succession process paralleled that of Meroë’s matriarchal tradition. 

Because women transmitted the right to succession, a renowned warrior not of royal birth might be nominated to become king through 

marriage to a woman in the line of succession. 

The spread of Christianity opened channels to Mediterranean civilization and renewed Nubia’s cultural and religious ties with Egypt. The 

church encouraged literacy in Nubia through its Egyptian-trained 

clergy and schools, but the use of Greek in the liturgy eventually gave 

way to the Nubian language, written in an indigenous script that combined elements of old Meroitic and Coptic. Coptic, however, often 

appeared in ecclesiastical and secular circles, and Nubians apparently 

used colloquial Greek as late as the twelfth century. After the seventh 

century, Arabic gained importance in the Nubian kingdoms, especially 

as a medium for commerce. 

The Christian Nubian kingdoms achieved their peak of prosperity 

and military power in the ninth and tenth centuries. However, Muslim 

Arab invaders, who conquered Egypt in 640, posed a threat to them; it 

may have been this threat that compelled Nobadia and Muqurra to 

merge into the kingdom of Dongola some time before 700. Although 

the Arabs soon abandoned attempts to overcome Nubia by force, Muslim domination of Egypt made it difficult to communicate with the 

Coptic patriarch or to obtain Egyptian-trained clergy. As a result, the 

Nubian church became isolated from the rest of the Christian world. 

The Coming of Islam 

Islam eventually changed the nature of Sudanese society and contributed to the country’s division into North and South. Islam also fostered 

political unity, economic growth, and educational development among 

8 
Royal tombs at Meroë, circa 300–200 B.C.
 

A temple at Naqa, southwest of Meroë, circa first century A.D.
 

Courtesy Robert O. Collins
 

9 
 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

its adherents. However, these benefits did not extend beyond urban and 

commercial centers. Muslims maintain that Islam (literally, submission) 

unites the individual believer, the state, and society under God’s will 

(see Islam: Tenets and Practice, ch. 2). Islamic rulers, therefore, exercise 

temporal and religious authority. Islamic law (sharia) derived primarily 

from the Quran, encompasses all aspects of the lives of believers, called 

Muslims (“those who submit” to God’s will). 

Within a decade of the Prophet Muhammad’s death in 632, Arab 

armies had carried Islam into North Africa and had begun to impose 

political control over conquered territories. The Arabs invaded Nubia 

in 642 and again in 652, when they laid siege to Dongola. The Nubians put up a stout defense, however, and forced the Arabs to accept an 

armistice and to withdraw their forces. 

The Arabs 

Contact between Nubians and Arabs long predated the coming of 

Islam, but the Arabization of the Nile valley was a gradual process that 

took nearly 1,000 years. Arab nomads continually wandered into the 

region in search of fresh pasturage, and Arab seafarers and merchants 

traded in Red Sea ports for spices and slaves. After a successful expedition as far as Dongola in 652, Egypt’s Arab commander, Abdallah 

ibn Sa’ad, concluded the first in a series of regularly renewed treaties 

with the Nubians that governed relations between the two peoples for 

more than 600 years. So long as Arabs ruled Egypt, there was peace 

on the Nubian frontier; however, when non-Arabs acquired control of 

the Nile delta, Egyptian–Nubian relations became troubled. 

The Arabs realized the commercial advantages of peaceful relations with the Nubians and used the treaties to ensure that travel and 

trade proceeded unhindered across the frontier. The treaties also contained security provisions whereby both parties agreed that neither 

was obliged to come to the defense of the other in the event of an 

attack by a third party. Both parties agreed to an exchange of annual 

tribute as a gesture of good will, the Nubians in slaves and the Arabs 

in grain. This formality was only a token of the trade that developed 

between the two, not only in these commodities but also in the horses 

and manufactured goods that the Arabs brought to Nubia and in the 

ivory, gold, gems, gum arabic (from Acacia senegal), and cattle they 

carried back to Egypt or shipped to Arabia. 

Traditional genealogies trace the ancestry of most of the Nile valley’s mixed population to Arab tribes that slowly migrated into the 

region beginning in about the ninth century. Even many non-Arabicspeaking groups claim descent from Arab forebears. According to 

Sudanese tradition, the two most important Arabic-speaking groups to 

10 
 

Historical Setting 

emerge in Nubia were the Ja’aliyyin and the Juhayna (see Ethnic 

Groups, ch. 2). Both showed physiological continuity with the indigenous pre-Islamic population. In this historical but overly generalized 

view, the Ja’aliyyin have been seen as sedentary farmers and herders or 

as townspeople settled along the Nile and in Al-Gezira (also seen as AlJazirah, the land between the White Nile and the Blue Nile). The 

Juhayna, by contrast, have been seen as nomads, composed of a family 

of tribes that include the Kababish, Baqqara, and Shukriyyah. Both 

Ja’aliyyin and Juhayna formed a series of tribal sheikhdoms that succeeded the crumbling Christian Nubian kingdoms and that were in frequent conflict with one another and with neighboring non-Arabs. In 

some instances, as among the Beja, the indigenous people absorbed 

Arab migrants who settled among them. Acceptance of Islam facilitated the long-term Arabizing process, as did intermarriage and contact 

with Arab merchants and settlers. Exemption from taxation in regions 

under Muslim rule also proved a powerful incentive to cultural and religious conversion. 

The Decline of Christian Nubia 

The Nubian kingdoms maintained their political independence and 

their commitment to Christianity until the thirteenth century. In the 

early eighth century and again in the tenth century, Nubian kings 

attacked Egypt to force the release of the imprisoned Coptic patriarch 

and to relieve fellow Christians suffering persecution under Muslim 

rulers. In 1276, however, Egyptian Mamluks, an elite caste of oftenunruly soldier-administrators, intervened in a dynastic dispute, ousted 

Dongola’s monarch, and delivered the crown and silver cross that 

symbolized Nubian kingship to a rival claimant. Thereafter, the Mamluks intervened repeatedly in Dongola’s affairs. 

Because of frequent intermarriage between Nubian nobles and the 

kin of Arab sheikhs, the lineages of the two elites merged, and the 

Muslim heirs took their places in the royal line of succession. In 1315 

a Muslim prince of Nubian royal blood became king of Dongola. A 

“dark age” enveloped Nubia in the fifteenth century, during which 

political authority fragmented and slave raiding intensified. Meanwhile, Arab tribes were gradually migrating south from Egypt along 

the Nile, bringing Islam with them. Communities in the river valley 

and savannah, fearful for their safety, formed tribal organizations and 

adopted Arab protectors. The Nubian Christian population slowly 

dwindled; even so, Muslims probably did not constitute a majority in 

the old Nubian areas until the fifteenth or sixteenth century. 

11 
Sudan: A Country Study 

The Rule of the Kashif

For several centuries, Arab caliphs in Cairo governed Egypt 

through a warrior caste called the Mamluks. In the thirteenth century, 

the Mamluks seized control of the state and created a sultanate that 

ruled Egypt until the early sixteenth century. Repeated military expeditions weakened Dongola, but the Mamluks failed to establish direct 

rule over Nubia. In 1517 the Turks conquered Egypt and incorporated 

the country into the Ottoman Empire as a province. 

Ottoman forces pursued fleeing Mamluks into Nubia, which the 

Mamluks had claimed as a dependency. Although the Ottomans established administrative structures in ports on the Red Sea coast, they 

exerted little authority over the interior. Instead, they relied on military kashif (leaders), many of whom were Mamluks who had made 

peace with the Ottomans and who controlled their virtually autonomous fiefs as agents of the Turkish pasha in Cairo. The rule of the 

kashif lasted 300 years. Concerned with little more than tax collecting 

and slave trading, the kashif terrorized the population and fought 

among themselves for title to territory. 

The Funj 

At the same time that the Ottomans brought northern Nubia into 

their orbit, a new power, the Funj, arose farther south and supplanted 

the Christian kingdom of Alwa. In 1504 a Funj leader, Amara Dunqas, founded the Black Sultanate at Sinnar (also seen as Sennar and 

Sannar) that eventually became the keystone of the Funj Empire. By 

the mid-sixteenth century, Sinnar controlled Al-Gezira and commanded the allegiance of vassal states and tribal districts north to the 

third cataract and south to the swampy grasslands along the Nile. 

The Funj state consisted of a loose confederation of sultanates and 

dependent tribal chieftaincies drawn together under the suzerainty of 

Sinnar’s sultan, who received tribute, levied taxes, and expected his vassals to supply troops in time of war. He also settled local disorders and 

resolved internal disputes in the vassal states. The Funj stabilized the 

region and interposed a military bloc separating the Arabs in the north, 

the Ethiopians in the east, and the non-Muslim Africans in the south. 

The sultanate’s economy depended on the slave trade, farming, 

and herding. Sinnar apportioned tributary areas into tribal homelands, 

each one termed a dar, in which the sultan granted the local population the right to use arable land. The diverse groups that inhabited 

each dar eventually regarded themselves as units of tribes; movement 

from one dar to another entailed a change in tribal identification. 

Tribal distinctions in these areas in modern Sudan can be traced to 

12 
Historical Setting 

this period. An appointed chieftain governed each dar according to 

customary law, paid tribute to the Sinnar sultan, and collected taxes. 

In the mid-seventeenth century and at the height of its power, Sinnar repulsed the northward advance of the Nilotic Shilluk people up 

the White Nile and compelled many of them to submit to Funj authority. After this victory, Sultan Badi II Abu Duqn (1642–81) sought to 

centralize the government of the confederacy at Sinnar by creating an 

army of slaves that would free Sinnar from dependence on vassal sultans for military assistance and that would provide a means to enforce 

the Sinnar sultan’s will. The move alienated the Funj warrior aristocracy, who in 1718 deposed the reigning sultan and placed one of their 

own ranks on the throne. The eighteenth century witnessed another 

brief period of expansion, but civil war and the demands of defending 

the sultanate had overextended the warrior society’s resources and 

sapped its strength. In 1761 a court vizier, Muhammad Abu al-Kaylak, who had led the Funj army in wars, staged a palace coup and relegated the sultan to a figurehead role. Sinnar’s hold over its vassals 

diminished, and by the early nineteenth century, more remote areas 

ceased to recognize even the nominal authority of the sultan. 

The Fur 

Darfur was the Fur homeland. Renowned as cavalrymen, Fur clans 

frequently aided, and as frequently opposed, their kin, the Kanuri of 

Borno, in modern Nigeria. After a period of disorder in the sixteenth 

century, Sulayman Solong (1596–1637) became Darfur’s first sultan. 

He decreed Islam to be the official religion; however, large-scale religious conversions did not occur until the reign of Ahmad Bakr (1682– 

1722), who imported teachers, built mosques, and compelled his subjects to become Muslims. In the eighteenth century, several sultans 

consolidated the dynasty’s hold on Darfur, established a capital at AlFashir, and challenged the Funj for control of Kordofan (also seen as 

Kurdufan). 

The sultans operated the slave trade as a monopoly. They levied taxes 

on traders and export duties on slaves sent to Egypt and took a share of 

the slaves brought into Darfur. Some household slaves advanced to 

prominent positions in the courts of sultans. The power exercised by 

these slaves provoked a violent reaction among the traditional class of 

Fur officeholders in the late eighteenth century. The rivalry between the 

slave and traditional elites caused recurrent unrest throughout the nineteenth century. 

13 
 

 

 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

Southern Groups 

There is little documentation on southern Sudan before the early 

nineteenth century and the subsequent extension of slave raiding into 

the South. Information about the peoples of this region before that 

time is based largely on oral history. According to these traditions, the 

Nilotic peoples—the Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk, and others—entered 

southern Sudan some time before the tenth century. During the period 

from the fifteenth century to the nineteenth century, tribal migrations, 

largely from the area of Bahr al-Ghazal, brought these peoples to their 

present locations. Some, such as the Shilluk, developed a centralized 

monarchical tradition that enabled them to preserve their tribal integrity in the face of external pressures in the nineteenth and twentieth 

centuries. Others, including the Dinka and Nuer, were stateless groups 

organized around local chieftaincies. The non-Nilotic Azande, who 

entered southwestern Sudan in the sixteenth century, established the 

region’s largest state. In the eighteenth century, the militaristic Avungara entered Sudan and quickly imposed their authority over the 

poorly organized and militarily weaker Azande. Avungara power 

remained largely unchallenged until the arrival of the British at the 

end of the nineteenth century. 

Geographic barriers protected the Southerners from Islam’s 

advance, enabling them to retain their cultural and social heritage and 

their political and religious institutions. During the nineteenth century, the slave trade brought Southerners into closer contact with 

Sudanese Arabs and resulted in a deep hatred for the Northerners. 

The Turkiyyah, 1821–85 

As part of the Ottoman Empire from 1517, Egypt was divided into 

several provinces, each of which was placed under a Mamluk governor responsible to the pasha in Cairo, who answered to the Ottoman 

government. During about 280 years of Ottoman rule, some 100 

pashas succeeded each other. In the eighteenth century, their authority 

became tenuous as rival Mamluk governors became the real power in 

the land. Struggles among the governors continued until 1798, when 

the French invasion of Egypt altered the situation. Combined British 

and Turkish military operations forced the withdrawal of French 

forces in 1801. In 1805 the Ottomans appointed Muhammad Ali as 

Egypt’s pasha to restore order. 

Muhammad Ali used 10,000 Albanian troops provided by the Ottomans to purge Egypt of the Mamluks. Some fled south and, in 1811, 

established a state at Dongola as a base for their slave raiding. In 1820 

the sultan of Sinnar informed Muhammad Ali that he was unable to 

14 
Historical Setting 

expel the Mamluks. The pasha therefore deployed 4,000 troops to 

Sudan, cleared it of Mamluks, accepted Sinnar’s surrender from the 

last Funj sultan, Badi IV, and reclaimed the territory for Egypt. 

The Egyptian occupation of Sudan was initially disastrous. Under 

the new government established in 1821, known as the Turkiyyah or 

Turkish regime, soldiers lived off the land and levied high taxes on the 

population. They also destroyed many ancient Meroitic pyramids 

searching for gold. Furthermore, slave trading increased in the Funj 

heartland, causing many inhabitants to flee to escape the traders. Within 

a year of the pasha’s victory, 30,000 Sudanese slaves were taken to 

Egypt for induction into the army. However, so many perished from 

disease and the unfamiliar climate that the remaining slaves could be 

used only in garrisons in Sudan. 

The new regime became less harsh as the military occupation 

became more secure. The Egyptians saddled the country with a parasitic 

bureaucracy, however, and expected the population to be self-supporting. Nonetheless, farmers and herders gradually returned to Al-Gezira. 

The Turkiyyah won the allegiance of some tribal and religious leaders 

by granting them a tax exemption. Egyptian soldiers, Sudanese slave 

soldiers, and mercenaries from various Ottoman domains manned garrisons in Khartoum, Kassala, Al-Obeid (also seen as Al-Ubayyid), and at 

several smaller outposts. The Egyptians divided Sudan into provinces, 

which were subdivided into smaller administrative units that usually 

corresponded to tribal territories. In 1835 Khartoum became the seat of 

the governor-general; many garrison towns also developed into administrative centers in their respective regions. At the local level, sheikhs 

and traditional tribal chieftains assumed administrative responsibilities. 

The pasha’s government introduced new commercial and criminal 

codes in Egypt and Sudan in the 1850s, which were administered in 

secular courts. The change reduced the prestige of the qadis, Islamic 

judges whose sharia courts were confined to dealing with matters of 

personal status. The Turkiyyah also encouraged a religious orthodoxy 

favored in the Ottoman Empire. The government built mosques and 

staffed religious schools and courts with teachers and judges trained at 

Cairo’s Al-Azhar University. The government favored the Khatmiyyah (see Glossary), a traditional religious order, because its leaders 

cooperated with the regime. But Sudanese Muslims condemned the 

official orthodoxy as decadent because it had rejected popular beliefs 

and practices. 

The Egyptians encouraged economic development in Sudan 

through state monopolies that exported slaves, ivory, and gum arabic. 

In some areas, tribal land, which had been held in common, became 

the private property of the sheikhs, who sometimes sold it to buyers 

15 
Sudan: A Country Study 

outside the tribe. But the slave trade was the most profitable business 

in Sudan and was the focus of Egyptian interests in the country until 

its gradual suppression in the 1860s. 

Slavery had been an institution of Sudanese life throughout history, 

but Southern Sudan, where slavery particularly flourished, was long 

considered an area beyond Cairo’s control. Because Sudan was close 

to Middle Eastern slave markets, it was a natural supplier of captives. 

Consequently, the slave trade in the South intensified in the nineteenth 

century and continued after the British had suppressed slaving in much 

of sub-Saharan Africa. Annual raids resulted in the capture of countless thousands of Southern Sudanese and the destruction of the 

region’s economy and stability. The horrors associated with the slave 

trade generated European interest in Sudan. 

Until 1843 Muhammad Ali maintained a state monopoly on slave 

trading. Thereafter, authorities sold licenses to private traders who 

competed with government slave raids. In 1854 Cairo ended state participation in the slave trade and in 1860, in response to European pressure, prohibited the slave trade altogether. However, the Egyptian army 

failed to enforce the prohibition against the private armies of the slave 

traders. The introduction of steamboats and firearms enabled slave 

traders to overwhelm local resistance and prompted the creation of 

southern “bush empires” by Baqqara Arabs. 

Muhammad Ali’s successors, Abbas I (1849–54) and Said (1854– 

63), lacked leadership qualities and paid little attention to Sudan, but 

Isma’il (1863–79) revitalized Egyptian interest in the country. In 1865 

the Ottoman Empire ceded the Red Sea coast and its ports to Egypt; 

two years later, the Ottoman sultan granted Isma’il the title of khedive 

(sovereign prince). Egypt organized and garrisoned the new provinces 

of Upper Nile, Bahr al-Ghazal, and Equatoria and, in 1874, conquered 

and annexed Darfur. Isma’il named Europeans to provincial governorships and appointed Sudanese to more responsible government positions. Responding to British pressure, Isma’il took steps to eliminate 

the slave trade in Northern Sudan. Attempts to build an army on the 

European model that would no longer depend on slaves for manpower, 

however, caused unrest. Army units mutinied, and many Sudanese 

resented the quartering of troops among the civilian population and the 

use of Sudanese forced labor on public projects. Efforts to suppress the 

slave trade also angered the urban merchant class and the Baqqara 

Arabs, who had grown prosperous by selling slaves. 

Isma’il modernized the Sudanese military and proposed to extend 

Egyptian rule into the southern region. In 1869 British explorer Sir 

Samuel Baker received a commission as governor of Equatoria Province with orders to annex all territory in the White Nile’s basin and to 

16 
 

 

 

 

General Charles George Gordon, 

from an engraving by 

Henry Bryan Hall 

Courtesy Library of Congress 

Prints and Photographs Division 

suppress the slave trade. In 1874 Charles George Gordon, a British 

officer, succeeded Baker, disarmed many slave traders, and hanged 

those who defied him. By the time he became governor-general in 

1877, Gordon had weakened the slave trade in much of the South. 

Unfortunately, Isma’il’s Southern policy lacked consistency. In 

1871 he had named a notorious Arab slave trader, Rahma Mansur alZubayr, as governor of the newly created province of Bahr al-Ghazal. 

Al-Zubayr used his army to pacify the province and to eliminate his 

competition in the slave trade. In 1874 he invaded Darfur and then 

offered the region as a province to the khedive. Later that year, alZubayr defied Cairo when the khedive attempted to relieve him of his 

post and defeated an Egyptian force sent to oust him. Gordon, after he 

became Sudan’s governor-general, ended al-Zubayr’s slave trading, 

disbanded his army, and sent him back to Cairo. 

The Mahdiyyah, 1885–98 

Sudanese developments during this period cannot be understood 

without reference to the British position in Egypt. In 1869 the Suez 

Canal opened and became Britain’s economic lifeline to India and the 

Far East. To defend this waterway and ensure its profitability, the British government sought a greater role in Egyptian affairs, in 1873 supporting a program whereby an Anglo-French debt commission assumed 

responsibility for managing Egypt’s fiscal affairs. This commission 

eventually forced Khedive Isma’il to abdicate in favor of his more politically acceptable son, Tawfiq (in power, 1879–92). 

17 
Sudan: A Country Study 

After Isma’il’s removal in 1879, Gordon, who had been appointed 

by him, resigned as governor-general of Sudan in 1880. Gordon’s successors lacked direction from Cairo and feared the political turmoil that 

had engulfed Egypt; consequently, they failed to continue the policies 

he had put into place. The illegal slave trade revived, although not sufficiently to satisfy the merchants whom Gordon had put out of business. The Sudanese army suffered from a lack of resources, and 

unemployed soldiers from disbanded units troubled garrison towns. 

Tax collectors arbitrarily increased taxation. 

Into this troubled atmosphere stepped Muhammad Ahmad ibn alSayyid Abdallah, a faqir or holy man who combined personal magnetism with religious zealotry and who was determined to expel the Turks 

and restore Islam to its early purity. The son of a Dongola boatbuilder, 

Muhammad Ahmad joined the Sammaniyyah order. Later, as a sheikh 

of the order, he spent several years in seclusion and gained a reputation 

as a mystic and teacher. In 1880 he became a Sammaniyyah leader. 

Muhammad Ahmad’s sermons attracted an increasing number of 

followers. Among them was Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, a Baqqara 

from southern Darfur, whose planning capabilities were to prove of 

great value. Muhammad Ahmad revealed himself as al-Mahdi al-Muntazar (“the awaited guide in the right path,” usually seen as the 

Mahdi—see Glossary), sent from God to redeem the faithful and prepare the way for the second coming of the Prophet ‘Isa (Jesus). The 

Mahdist movement that he founded demanded a return to the simplicity 

of early Islam, abstention from alcohol and tobacco, and the strict 

seclusion of women. 

In May 1881, the Mahdi proclaimed a jihad against the Turkiyyah 

while he was at Aba Island, a Mahdist base on the White Nile south of 

Khartoum. At the time, Sudanese authorities dismissed him as a religious fanatic. After denouncing tax collectors, the Mahdi and his followers, known as the Ansar, fled to Kordofan to avoid arrest. Once there, he 

gained a large number of recruits, especially among the Baqqara, and the 

support or neutrality of all religious orders except the pro-Egyptian 

Khatmiyyah. Merchants and Arab tribes who had depended on the slave 

trade, along with the Hadendowa Beja, rallied to the Mahdi’s cause. 

Early in 1882, the Ansar, armed with spears and swords, overwhelmed a 7,000-man Egyptian force near Al-Obeid and seized their 

rifles and ammunition. The Mahdi then laid siege to Al-Obeid and 

starved it into submission. The 30,000-man Ansar army then defeated 

an 8,000-man Egyptian relief force at Sheikan. Next, the Mahdi captured Darfur and imprisoned Rudolf Slatin, an Austrian in the khedive’s service, who later became the first Egyptian-appointed governor 

of Darfur Province. 

18 
 

 

 

 

Historical Setting 

The Ansar advance and the Beja rising in the east imperiled communications with Egypt and threatened to cut off garrisons at Khartoum, 

Kassala, Sinnar, and Sawakin (also seen as Suakin) and in the South. 

To avoid being drawn into a costly intervention, the British government ordered an Egyptian withdrawal from Sudan. Gordon, who had 

been reappointed governor-general, arranged to supervise the evacuation of Egyptian troops and officials and all foreigners from Sudan. 

However, after reaching Khartoum in February 1884, Gordon realized 

that he could not extricate the garrisons. As a result, he called for reinforcements from Egypt to relieve Khartoum and recommended that alZubayr, an old enemy whom he recognized as an excellent military 

commander, succeed him so disaffected Sudanese could have a leader 

other than the Mahdi to whom they could rally. London rejected this 

plan, but Gordon argued that Sudan was essential to Egypt’s security 

and that allowing an Ansar victory would invite the movement to 

spread elsewhere. 

British popular support for Gordon eventually forced Prime Minister William Gladstone to deploy a relief force under Lord Garnet 

Joseph Wolseley’s command. A “flying column” sent from Wadi 

Halfa on the Egyptian frontier bogged down at Abu Tulayh (commonly called Abu Klea), where the Hadendowa Beja broke the British 

line. An advance unit sent by river arrived at Khartoum on January 28, 

1885, only to learn that two days earlier the Ansar had slaughtered the 

garrison, killed Gordon, and delivered his head to the Mahdi’s tent. 

Kassala and Sinnar fell soon after, and by late 1885 the Ansar had 

moved into the southern region. In all Sudan, only Sawakin, reinforced 

by Indian army troops, and Wadi Halfa remained in Anglo-Egyptian 

hands (see fig. 5). 

The Mahdiyyah (Mahdist regime) imposed traditional Islamic laws. 

Sudan’s new ruler also authorized the burning of lists of pedigrees and 

books on law and theology because of their links to the old order. The 

Mahdiyyah is known as the first genuine Sudanese nationalist government. The Mahdi maintained that his movement was not a religious 

order that could be accepted or rejected at will but rather a universal 

regime that challenged man to join or to be destroyed. The Mahdi also 

convinced his followers that loyalty to him was essential to true 

Islamic belief. Moreover, service in the jihad replaced the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, as a duty incumbent on the faithful. Almsgiving 

became the tax paid to the state. The Mahdi justified his policies by 

claiming he had received instructions from God in visions. 

19 
Sudan: A Country Study 

20

Dongola Abu Hamad

Barbar

Atbarah

Tushki

Aswan

Wadi Halfa

Abu Tulayh

Khartoum Omdurman

Kassala

Gondar

Qallabat

Akordat

Sawakin

Sinnar

Fashoda

Aba Al-Obeid Island

Umm

Diwaykarat

Boundary representation

not necessarily authoritative

Red

Sea

Lake

Tana

Nile

Blue Nile

 Nile

White

ETHIOPIA

DARFUR KORDOFAN

AL-

 GEZIRA

EGYPT

0

0

100 200 Kilometers

100 200 Miles

DARFUR

Present-day inter-

 national boundary

Maximum extent of

 Mahdist-controlled

 territory, 1891

Populated place

Region



The Khalifa

Six months after Khartoum’s capture, the Mahdi died of typhus. The 

task of establishing and maintaining a government fell to three of his 

deputies. Rivalry among these caliphs continued until 1891, when 

Abdallahi Ibn Muhammad, with the help primarily of the Baqqara 

Arabs, emerged as leader of the Mahdiyyah. Abdallahi—called the 

Khalifa (successor)—purged the Mahdiyyah of members of the Mahdi’s 

family and many of his religious disciples. Originally, the Mahdiyyah 

Figure 5.The Mahdist State, 1885–98
 

 

 

Historical Setting 

was a jihadist state, run like a military camp. Sharia courts enforced 

Islamic law and the Mahdi’s precepts, which had the force of law. After 

consolidating his power, the Khalifa created an administration and 

appointed Ansar (who were usually Baqqara Arabs) as amirs over each 

of the several provinces. The Khalifa also ruled over rich Al-Gezira. 

Although he failed to restore this region’s commercial well-being, he 

organized workshops to manufacture ammunition and to maintain river 

steamboats. 

Regional relations remained tense throughout much of the Mahdiyyah period, largely because of the Khalifa’s commitment to jihad as 

the means to extend his version of Islam throughout the world. For 

example, the Khalifa rejected an offer of an alliance against the Europeans by Ethiopia’s Yohannes IV, a Christian monarch. In 1888 a 60,000­

man Ansar army invaded Ethiopia and penetrated as far as Gondar, capturing prisoners and booty. The Khalifa’s refusal to conclude peace 

prompted an Ethiopian attack on Qallabat in March 1889; however, 

after Yohannes IV fell in battle, the Ethiopians withdrew. The same 

year, the Khalifa’s best general invaded Egypt, but British-led Egyptian 

troops defeated him at Tushki, a victory that ended the Ansar’s reputation of invincibility. The Belgians prevented the Mahdi’s men from 

conquering Equatoria, and in 1893 the Italians repulsed an Ansar attack 

at Akordat in present-day Eritrea, forcing the Ansar to withdraw from 

Ethiopia. 

The Reconquest of Sudan 

Herbert Kitchener (later Lord Kitchener) assumed command of the 

Egyptian army in 1892 and began preparations for the reconquest of 

Sudan. The British decision to occupy Sudan resulted in part from 

international considerations. By the 1890s, British, French, and Belgian territorial claims had converged at the Nile’s headwaters. Britain 

feared that other colonial powers would take advantage of Sudan’s 

instability to acquire Sudanese territory previously annexed to Egypt. 

Britain also wished to secure control of the Nile’s waters, upon which 

Egypt depended, and to safeguard a planned irrigation dam at Aswan. 

The British government authorized Kitchener to launch a campaign in 

1895. The Anglo-Egyptian Nile Expeditionary Force included 25,800 

men, 8,600 of whom were British; the remainder belonged to Egyptian 

units that included six battalions recruited in Southern Sudan. An armed 

river flotilla escorted the force, which also had artillery support. The British established their headquarters at Wadi Halfa and extended their 

defenses around Sawakin. Kitchener launched the campaign in March 

1896. In September he captured Dongola. The British then built a railroad from Wadi Halfa to Abu Hamad, and a southward extension parallel 

21 
 

Sudan: A Country Study 

to the Nile as far as Barbar, to transport military forces. Anglo-Egyptian 

units fought a sharp action at Abu Hamad, but there was little other significant resistance until Kitchener reached Atbarah and defeated the 

Ansar. Thereafter, Kitchener’s soldiers marched and sailed to Omdurman, where the Khalifa made his last stand. 

On September 2, 1898, the Khalifa committed his 52,000-man army 

to a frontal assault against the Anglo-Egyptian force massed on the plain 

outside Omdurman. The outcome was never in doubt. During the fivehour battle, about 11,000 Mahdists died, whereas Anglo-Egyptian losses 

amounted to 48 dead and fewer than 400 wounded. Mopping-up operations required several years, but organized resistance ended when the 

Khalifa died in fighting at Umm Diwaykarat, in Kordofan, in November 

1899. Many Sudanese welcomed his demise, as Sudan’s economy had 

been all but destroyed during his reign and the population had declined 

by approximately one-half because of famine, disease, persecution, and 

warfare. Moreover, none of the country’s traditional institutions or loyalties remained intact. Mahdism had divided tribes, religious brotherhoods had been weakened, and orthodox religious leaders had vanished. 

In the meantime, a major colonial incident had occurred in Southern 

Sudan. The French, in a race with the British to claim territory in Central Africa, sent an expeditionary force across Southern Sudan, arriving 

on the Nile at Fashoda, just north of modern Malakal, in July 1898 and 

claiming the Upper Nile region for France. Following defeat of the 

Mahdi’s army, Kitchener and his Anglo-Egyptian force marched south 

along the Nile and confronted the French, provoking a major diplomatic and military crisis. In the negotiations that followed, the French 

decided that considerations in Europe outweighed those in Sudan and 

withdrew westward, leaving Britain in control of the Upper Nile basin. 

The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, 1899–1955 

In January 1899, the Anglo-Egyptian Agreement restored Egyptian 

rule in Sudan but as part of the Condominium, or joint authority, exercised by Britain and Egypt. The agreement designated the territory 

south of the twenty-second parallel as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. 

However, it failed to clarify the juridical relationship between the two 

Condominium powers or to provide a legal basis for continued British 

presence in the South. Britain assumed responsibility for governing the 

territory on behalf of the khedive. 

Article 2 of the agreement specified that “the supreme military and 

civil command in Sudan shall be vested in one officer, termed the Governor-General of Sudan. He shall be appointed by Khedival Decree on 

the recommendation of Her Britannic Majesty’s Government and shall 

be removed only by Khedival Decree with the consent of Her Britan22 
Lord Kitchener, from a 

recruitment poster 

Courtesy Library of Congress 

Prints and Photographs Division 

nic Majesty’s Government.” The British governor-general reported to 

the Foreign Office through its resident agent in Cairo. In practice, however, he exercised extraordinary powers and directed the Condominium government from Khartoum as if it were a colonial administration. 

Sir Reginald Wingate succeeded Kitchener as governor-general in 

1899. In each province, two inspectors and several district commissioners aided the governor. Initially, most administrative personnel 

were British army officers seconded to the Egyptian army. Starting in 

1901, however, British civilian administrators formed the nucleus of 

the Sudan Political Service. Egyptians filled middle-level posts, while 

Sudanese gradually acquired lower-level positions. 

Initially, the governor-general and provincial governors exercised 

great latitude in governing Sudan. After 1910, an executive council, 

whose approval was required for all legislation and budgetary matters, assisted the governor-general. This council included the inspector-general; the civil, legal, and financial secretaries; and two to four 

other appointed British officials. The executive council retained legislative authority until 1948. 

After restoring authority, the British dedicated themselves to the creation of a modern government. Jurists adopted penal and criminal procedural codes similar to those in force in British India. Commissions 

established land-tenure rules and adjusted claims in dispute because of 

grants made by successive governments. Land taxes remained the basic 

23 
 

Sudan: A Country Study 

form of taxation, and, for the first time in Sudan’s history, the rate of 

taxation was fixed. The 1902 Code of Civil Procedure continued the 

Ottoman separation of civil law and sharia, but it also created guidelines for the operation of sharia courts as an autonomous judicial division under a chief qadi appointed by the governor-general. Religious 

judges and other sharia court officials were invariably Egyptian. 

There was little resistance to the Condominium, but there were cases 

of intertribal warfare, banditry, or revolts of short duration. For example, Mahdist uprisings occurred in February 1900, 1902–3, 1904, and 

1908. In 1916 Abdallah al-Suhayni, who claimed to be the Prophet Isa, 

launched an unsuccessful jihad. 

The problem of the Condominium’s undefined borders was a greater 

concern. A 1902 treaty with Ethiopia fixed the southeastern boundary 

with Sudan. Seven years later, an Anglo-Belgian treaty determined the 

status of the Lado Enclave in the South, establishing a border with the 

Belgian Congo (present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo). The 

western boundary proved more difficult to resolve. The status of Darfur, formerly under Egyptian control, was the issue. When the Mahdiyyah disintegrated, Sultan Ali Dinar reclaimed Darfur’s throne, which 

had been lost to the Egyptians in 1874; with British approval, he continued to hold the throne under Ottoman suzerainty on condition that he 

pay annual tribute to the khedive. When World War I broke out, Ali 

Dinar proclaimed his loyalty to the Ottoman Empire and responded to 

its call for a jihad against the Allies. Britain deployed a force against 

Ali Dinar, who died in subsequent fighting. In 1916 the British annexed 

Darfur to Sudan and terminated the Fur sultanate. 

During the Condominium period, economic development occurred 

only in the Nile valley’s settled areas. Among other things, the British 

extended telegraph and rail lines to link key points in Northern Sudan 

but not to more remote areas. Port Sudan opened in 1906, replacing 

Sawakin as the country’s principal port. In 1911 the government and the 

Sudan Plantations Syndicate launched the Gezira Scheme to provide 

high-quality cotton for Britain’s textile industry (see Agriculture, ch. 3). 

An irrigation dam near Sinnar, completed in 1925, brought a much larger 

area in Al-Gezira under cultivation. Planters sent cotton by rail from Sinnar to Port Sudan for shipment abroad. The Gezira Scheme made cotton 

the mainstay of the country’s economy and turned the region into 

Sudan’s most densely populated area. It also brought the issue of the 

Nile’s waters to the fore. In 1929 Egypt and Sudan, under British auspices, concluded the Nile Waters Agreement, which recognized Egypt’s 

historical rights to the Nile’s water, allocated the annual flow between 

the two countries, and gave Egyptians the right to review future irrigation or power projects on the Nile or its tributaries in Sudan. 

24 
The Mahdi’s tomb in Omdurman, as seen from the house of the Khalifa, 2009 

Copyright Brian McMorrow 

In 1922 Britain approved Egypt’s declaration of independence. However, the 1923 Egyptian constitution made no claim to Egyptian sovereignty over Sudan. Subsequent Anglo-Egyptian negotiations foundered 

on the Sudan question. Nationalists rioted in Egypt and Sudan, where 

some supported union with Egypt. In November 1924, Sir Lee Stack, 

governor-general of Sudan and sirdar (commander in chief, AngloEgyptian army), was assassinated in Cairo. Britain ordered all Egyptian 

troops, civil servants, and public employees withdrawn from Sudan. In 

1925 the authorities formed the 4,500-man Sudan Defence Force (SDF) 

under Sudanese officers to replace Egyptian units. 

Sudan was relatively quiet in the late 1920s and 1930s. During this 

period, the colonial government favored indirect rule, that is, administration through indigenous leaders, as a governing system. Traditional 

leaders were the sheikhs of villages, tribes, and districts in the North and 

tribal chiefs in the South. The number of Sudanese recognizing them 

and the degree of authority they held varied. The British first delegated 

judicial powers to sheikhs to enable them to settle local disputes and 

then allowed them to administer local governments under the supervision of British district commissioners. 

Mainstream political development, however, occurred among local 

leaders and Khartoum’s educated elite. In their view, indirect rule 

25 
Sudan: A Country Study 

prevented the country’s unification, exacerbated tribalism in the 

North, and served to insulate the less-advanced South against Arab 

influence. Indirect rule also implied government decentralization, 

which alarmed the educated elite who had careers in the central 

administration and envisioned an eventual transfer of power from 

British colonial authorities to their class. Although nationalists and 

the Khatmiyyah opposed indirect rule, the Ansar, many of whom 

enjoyed positions of local authority, supported the concept. 

Britain’s Southern Policy 

From the beginning of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, the British sought to modernize Sudan by applying European technology to its 

underdeveloped economy and by replacing its authoritarian institutions with ones that adhered to liberal English traditions. However, 

Southern Sudan’s remote and undeveloped provinces—Equatoria, 

Bahr al-Ghazal, and Upper Nile—received little attention until after 

World War I, except for efforts to suppress tribal warfare and the slave 

trade. The British justified this policy by claiming that the South was 

not ready for exposure to the modern world. To allow the South to 

develop along indigenous lines, the British, therefore, closed the 

region to outsiders, thus keeping it isolated and backward. A few Arab 

merchants controlled the region’s limited commercial activities, while 

Arab bureaucrats administered whatever laws existed. Christian missionaries, who operated schools and medical clinics, provided limited 

social services. 

The earliest Christian missionaries were the Verona Fathers, a 

Roman Catholic religious order that had established Southern missions 

before the Mahdiyyah. Other missionary groups included Presbyterians from the United States and the Anglican Church Missionary Society. The government eventually subsidized mission schools because 

mission graduates usually gained posts in the provincial civil service. 

Many Northerners regarded missions as tools of British imperialism. 

Some Southerners attended schools in British East Africa (present-day 

Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania) rather than in Khartoum, thereby exacerbating the North–South division. 

British authorities treated the three provinces in the South as a separate region. The colonial administration, as it consolidated its position 

in the 1920s, detached the South from the rest of Sudan for all practical 

purposes. The period’s Closed Districts Ordinance barred Northern 

Sudanese from entering or working in the South and reinforced the 

separate-development policy. Moreover, the British gradually replaced 

Arab administrators and expelled Arab merchants, thereby severing the 

South’s last economic contacts with the North. The colonial adminis26 
 

 

 

 

Historical Setting 

tration discouraged Islam and Arab customs and dress but attempted to 

revitalize African customs and tribal life that the slave trade had disrupted. Finally, a 1930 directive stated that blacks in the Southern provinces were to be considered as a people distinct from Northern Muslims 

and that the region eventually should be integrated into Britain’s East 

Africa colonies. 

The economy suffered in the South because of the region’s isolation. 

Moreover, there was a continual struggle between British officials in the 

North and their counterparts in the South, as those in the former category opposed recommendations that Northern resources be diverted to 

spur Southern economic development. Personality clashes between 

officials in the two branches in the Sudan Political Service also impeded 

the South’s growth. Those individuals who served in the Southern provinces tended to be military officers with previous Africa experience 

who were on secondment to the colonial service. They usually were distrustful of Arab influence and were committed to keeping the South 

under British control. By contrast, Northern officials tended to be Arabists often drawn from the diplomatic and consular service. Whereas 

Northern provincial governors conferred regularly with the governorgeneral in Khartoum, their three Southern colleagues met to coordinate 

activities with the governors of the British East African colonies. 

The Rise of Sudanese Nationalism 

Sudanese nationalism as it developed after World War I was an 

Arab and Muslim phenomenon based in the Northern provinces. 

Nationalists opposed indirect rule and advocated a centralized national 

government in Khartoum responsible for both regions. Nationalists 

also believed Britain’s Southern policy divided Sudan and prevented 

its unification under an Arabized and Islamic ruling class. Ironically, 

however, a non-Arab led Sudan’s first modern nationalist movement. 

In 1921 Ali Abd al-Latif, a Muslim Dinka and former army officer, 

founded the United Tribes Society that called for an independent 

Sudan based on power sharing between tribal and religious leaders. 

Three years later, Ali Abd al-Latif’s movement, reconstituted as the 

White Flag League, sponsored demonstrations in Khartoum. His arrest 

and subsequent exile in Egypt sparked a Sudanese army battalion 

mutiny, the suppression of which temporarily crippled the nationalist 

movement. 

In the 1930s, nationalism reemerged as educated Sudanese sought to 

restrict the governor-general’s power and to obtain Sudanese participation in the executive council’s deliberations. However, Britain and 

Egypt refused to modify the Condominium agreement. Moreover, the 

British saw themselves as the protector of the Sudanese from Egyptian 

27 
 

Sudan: A Country Study 

domination. The nationalists feared that friction between the Condominium powers might eventually result in the attachment of Northern 

Sudan to Egypt and of Southern Sudan to Uganda and Kenya. Although 

they settled most of their differences in the 1937 Treaty of Alliance, 

which set a timetable for the end of British military occupation, Britain 

and Egypt failed to agree on Sudan’s future status. 

Nationalists and religious leaders disagreed about whether Sudan 

should seek independence or union with Egypt. The Mahdi’s son, Abd 

al-Rahman al-Mahdi, supported independence, whereas Ali al-Mirghani, the Khatmiyyah leader, favored union with Egypt. Coalitions 

supported by each of these leaders formed rival wings of the nationalist movement. Radical nationalists and the Khatmiyyah later created 

the Ashigga Party, subsequently renamed the National Unionist Party 

(NUP), to advance the cause of Sudanese–Egyptian unification. The 

moderates favored Sudanese independence in cooperation with Britain and, together with the Ansar, established the Umma Party. 

The Road to Independence 

As World War II proceeded, Italian forces invaded Sudan in mid1940 from Italian East Africa (present-day Ethiopia, Eritrea, and 

Somalia) and captured Kassala, but the SDF prevented an advance on 

Port Sudan. In January 1941, the SDF, expanded to 20,000 troops, 

recaptured Kassala and joined the British offensive that routed the Italians in Eritrea and liberated Ethiopia. Some Sudanese units later contributed to the British Eighth Army’s victory in North Africa. 

In the postwar years, the Condominium government made several 

changes. In 1942 the Graduates’ General Conference, a quasi-nationalist movement composed of educated Sudanese, demanded a pledge of 

self-determination after the war, abolition of the Closed Districts Ordinance, an end to the separate curriculum in schools in the South, and 

more Sudanese in the civil service. The governor-general rejected 

these demands but agreed to a government-supervised transformation 

of indirect rule into a modernized system of local government. Sir 

Douglas Newbold, the executive council’s civil secretary, helped 

establish a parliamentary government and the administrative unification of North and South. In 1948, over Egyptian objections, Britain 

authorized the partially elected Legislative Assembly, representing 

both regions, to supersede the advisory executive council. 

Because the pro-Egyptian NUP boycotted the 1948 Legislative 

Assembly elections, pro-independence groups dominated the assembly. 

In 1952 leaders of the Umma-dominated legislature negotiated the SelfDetermination Agreement with Britain. The legislators adopted a constitution that provided for a prime minister and council of ministers 

28 
 

 

 

 

Historical Setting 

responsible to a bicameral parliament. The new government would 

assume responsibility in all areas except military and foreign affairs, 

which remained in the British governor-general’s hands. The Egyptians, demanding recognition of their sovereignty over Sudan, repudiated the Condominium agreement and declared their reigning monarch, 

Faruq, king of Sudan (see fig. 6). 

After seizing power in Egypt and overthrowing the Faruq monarchy 

in late 1952, Colonel Muhammad Naguib resolved the problem of Egyptian sovereignty over Sudan. Cairo previously had linked discussions on 

Sudan’s status to an agreement on the evacuation of British troops from 

the Suez Canal. Naguib separated the two issues and accepted Sudanese 

self-determination. In February 1953, London and Cairo signed the 

Anglo-Egyptian Agreement, which allowed for a three-year transition 

period from Condominium rule to self-government. During the transition 

phase, British and Egyptian troops would withdraw from Sudan. The 

Sudanese then would decide their future status in a plebiscite. Naguib’s 

concession seemed justified when parliamentary elections in late 1952 

gave a majority to the pro-Egyptian NUP, which had called for an eventual union with Egypt. In January 1954, a new government emerged 

under NUP leader Isma’il al-Azhari. 

The South and the Unity of Sudan 

During World War II, some British colonial officers questioned the 

viability of the separation of the Southern provinces from Northern 

Sudan. British officials also had become more sensitive to Arab criticism of the policy in the South. In 1946 the Sudan Administrative Conference determined that Sudan should be administered as one country. 

Conference delegates also agreed to readmit Northern administrators to 

posts in the South, abolish the trade restrictions imposed under the 

Closed Districts Ordinances, and allow Southerners to work in the 

North. Additionally, Khartoum nullified the prohibition against Muslim 

proselytizing in the South and introduced Arabic in the South as the 

official administration language. 

Some British officials in the South accused Northerners of unduly 

influencing the conferees and of refusing to examine reasons for 

retaining the separate-development policy. These officers argued that 

Northern domination of the South would result in a Southern rebellion. Khartoum convened a conference at Juba to resolve these issues 

and to assure Southerners that a postindependence government would 

safeguard Southern political and cultural rights. 

Despite these promises, many Southerners expressed concern that 

Northerners would overwhelm them. In particular, they resented the 

imposition of Arabic as the official language of administration, which 

29 
Sudan: A Country Study 

30



EQUATORIA EQUATORIA

Sawakin

Kassala

Sinnar Al-Fashir

Malakal

Khartoum

Wadi

Halfa

Al-Obeid

Juba

Port Sudan

Red

 Sea

Nile

Blue Nile

Atbarah

Bahr al-Jab a l

White Nile

Bahr al-Arab

DARFUR

KHARTOUM

NORTHERN

Hala’ib

Triangle

KASSALA

KORDOFAN

EQUATORIA

UPPER

NILE

BLUE

NILE

BAHR

AL-GHAZAL

AlGezira

Boundary representation

not necessarily authoritative

0

0

100 200 Kilometers

100 200 Miles

DARFUR

Al-Gezira



International

 boundary

Administrative

 boundary

Province boundary

North–South

 demarcation line

National capital

Populated place

Province name

Geographic region



shut most English-speaking Southerners out of the civil service, and 

the replacement of trusted British district commissioners with unsympathetic Northerners. After the government replaced several hundred 

colonial officials with Sudanese, only four of whom were Southerners, 

the Southern elite abandoned hope of a peaceful, unified, independent 

Sudan.

Figure 6. Anglo–Egyptian Sudan, circa 1950

Source: Based on information from Harold MacMichael, The Sudan, London, 1954, and K. 

D. D. Henderson, The Making of the Modern Sudan, London, 1953.
 

Historical Setting 

Southern hostility toward the Northern Arab majority surfaced violently in August 1955 when Southern army units mutinied to protest 

their transfer to garrisons under Northern officers. The rebellious 

troops killed several hundred Northerners, including government officials, army officers, and merchants. Khartoum quickly suppressed the 

revolt and executed 70 Southerners for sedition. But this harsh reaction failed to pacify the South, as some mutineers escaped to remote 

areas and organized resistance to the Arab-dominated government. 

Independent Sudan 

The al-Azhari government, hoping to promote unity with Egypt, set 

aside the agenda for self-determination proposed by the Condominium 

powers. After realizing that popular opinion had shifted against unification with Egypt, however, al-Azhari reversed the NUP’s stand and supported Sudanese independence. In August 1955, he called for the speedy 

withdrawal of foreign troops and requested that the Condominium powers sponsor a plebiscite in advance of the scheduled date. Independence 

was achieved, however, by a simple declaration adopted unanimously 

by the Sudanese parliament on December 19, 1955. On January 1, 1956, 

Sudan became an independent republic. 

The Politics of Independence 

Sudan gained independence without a permanent constitution. 

Instead, the Constituent Assembly adopted a document known as the 

Transitional Constitution that replaced the governor-general as head 

of state with a five-member Supreme Commission elected by a parliament composed of an indirectly elected Senate and a popularly 

elected House of Representatives. The Transitional Constitution also 

allocated executive power to the prime minister, who was nominated 

by the House of Representatives and confirmed in office by the 

Supreme Commission. 

Although it achieved independence without conflict, Sudan inherited 

many problems from the Condominium. One of the most important was 

the status of the civil service. The government placed Sudanese in the 

administration and provided compensation and pensions for British officers of the Sudan Political Service who left the country; it retained those 

who could not be replaced, mostly technicians and teachers. Southerners 

resented the replacement of British administrators in the South with 

Sudanese from the North. Many Southern leaders, opposed to violence, 

hoped to win constitutional concessions as a bulwark against what they 

perceived as Arab imperialism. Most Southerners supported provincial 

autonomy and warned that failure to win legal concessions would drive 

the South to rebellion. 

31 
 

Sudan: A Country Study 

The parliamentary regime introduced plans to expand the country’s 

education, economic, and transportation sectors. To achieve these 

goals, Khartoum needed foreign economic and technical assistance, to 

which the United States made an early commitment. Talks between the 

two governments began in 1957, and in July 1958 the parliament ratified a U.S. aid agreement. Washington hoped this agreement would 

reduce Sudan’s reliance on a one-crop (cotton) economy and facilitate 

the development of the transportation and communications sectors. 

Prime Minister al-Azhari formed a coalition government in February 

1956, but he alienated the Khatmiyyah by supporting secular government policies. In June some Khatmiyyah members who had defected 

from the NUP established the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) under 

al-Mirghani’s leadership. The Umma and the PDP cooperated to bring 

down the al-Azhari government. With support from the two parties and 

backing from the Ansar and the Khatmiyyah, Abdallah Khalil put 

together a coalition government. 

Major issues confronting Khalil’s government included agreeing on 

a permanent constitution, stabilizing the South, encouraging economic 

development, and improving relations with Egypt. Strains within the 

Umma–PDP coalition hampered the government’s ability to accomplish these goals. The Umma, for example, wanted the constitution to 

institute a presidential government on the assumption that Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi would be elected the first president. Consensus was lacking about the country’s economic future. A poor cotton harvest 

followed the 1957 bumper cotton crop, which Sudan had been unable to 

sell at a good price in a glutted market. This downturn depleted Sudan’s 

reserves and caused unrest over government-imposed economic restrictions. The Umma called for reliance on increased foreign aid to overcome these problems and finance future development projects. The 

PDP, however, opposed this strategy because it promoted unacceptable 

foreign influence in Sudan. Despite these differences, the Umma–PDP 

coalition lasted for the remaining year of the parliament’s tenure. Moreover, after the parliament adjourned, the two parties promised to maintain a common front for the 1958 elections. 

The electorate gave a plurality in both houses to the Umma and an 

overall majority to the Umma–PDP coalition. The NUP, however, 

won nearly one-quarter of the seats. In the South, the vote brought a 

rejection of the men who had cooperated with the government and a 

victory for advocates of autonomy within a federal system. 

After the new parliament convened, Khalil again formed an Umma– 

PDP coalition government. Unfortunately, factionalism, corruption, 

and vote fraud dominated parliamentary deliberations at a time when 

the country needed decisive action on the proposed constitution and the 

32 
 

 

 

 

Historical Setting 

South’s future. Another issue that divided the parliament concerned 

Sudanese–U.S. relations. In 1958 Khalil signed a technical assistance 

agreement with the United States. The parliament approved the agreement despite opposition from many PDP delegates. 

Factionalism and bribery in parliament, coupled with the government’s inability to resolve Sudan’s many social, political, and economic 

problems, increased popular disillusion with democratic governance. 

Specific complaints included Khartoum’s decision to sell cotton at a 

price above world market prices that resulted in low sales. Import restrictions imposed to take pressure off depleted foreign-exchange reserves 

caused consternation among town dwellers accustomed to buying foreign goods. Moreover, an Egyptian embargo on imports of cattle, camels, and dates caused suffering among rural Northerners. Egypt also 

criticized Khalil and suggested that it might support a coup. Meanwhile, 

reports circulated in Khartoum that the Umma and the NUP were near 

agreement on a new coalition that would exclude the PDP and Khalil. 

On November 17, 1958, the day parliament was to convene, Khalil 

staged a coup. The takeover was planned in conjunction with leading 

Umma members and the army’s two senior generals, Ibrahim Abbud 

and Ahmad Abd al-Wahab, who became leaders of the military regime. 

Abbud pledged to resolve all disputes with Egypt, including the longstanding problem of the status of the Nile. He abandoned previous 

unrealistic policies regarding the sale of cotton and appointed a constitutional commission to draft a permanent constitution. Abbud maintained, however, that political parties only served as vehicles for 

personal ambitions and that they would not be reestablished when civilian rule was restored. 

The Abbud Military Government, 1958–64 

The coup removed political decision making from the control of 

civilian politicians. To rule the country, Abbud created the Supreme 

Council of the Armed Forces, which included officers affiliated with 

the Ansar, such as Abd al-Wahab, and the Khatmiyyah, such as Abbud. 

Even so, under the military regime, the influence of the Ansar and the 

Khatmiyyah lessened. The strongest religious leader, a posthumous son 

of the Mahdi and leader of the Ansar, Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi, died in 

1959. His son and successor, the elder Sadiq al-Mahdi, failed to enjoy 

the respect accorded his father. When Sadiq died two years later, Ansar 

religious and political leadership divided between his brother, Imam alHadi al-Mahdi, and his son, the younger Sadiq al-Mahdi. 

The regime benefited during its first year in office from successful 

marketing of the cotton crop and the settlement of a dispute with Egypt 

over sharing the Nile’s waters. But despite early successes, opposition 

33 
 

Sudan: A Country Study 

elements remained powerful. In 1959 dissident military officers made 

three attempts to replace the regime with a “popular government.” 

Although the coup leaders were sentenced to prison, discontent within 

the military continued to plague the government. The Sudan Communist Party (SCP), which had supported the coup attempts, gained a reputation as antigovernment. To compound its problems, the Abbud 

regime lacked dynamism and the ability to stabilize the country. Its failure to place capable civilian advisers in senior positions, launch a credible economic and social development program, and gain the army’s 

support encouraged political turbulence. 

Abbud’s Southern policy proved to be his undoing. The government suppressed expressions of religious and cultural differences and 

bolstered attempts to Arabize society. For example, in February 1964, 

Abbud expelled foreign missionaries from the South and then closed 

parliament to cut off outlets for Southern complaints. Southern leaders 

had renewed in 1963 the armed struggle against the government that 

had continued sporadically since 1955. The rebellion was then spearheaded by guerrilla forces known as the Anya Nya (snake venom). 

Return to Civilian Rule, 1964–69 

Abbud’s inability to quell growing Southern discontent or to 

improve the economic and education sectors led to protests by University of Khartoum students and faculty, civil servants, and trade unionists. Attempts to silence these protests resulted in the so-called October 

Revolution of 1964, which centered on a general strike that spread 

throughout the country. After several days of rioting that brought many 

deaths, Abbud dissolved the government and the Supreme Council of 

the Armed Forces. Strike leaders, former politicians, and army commanders who planned the transition from military to civilian rule 

selected a nonpolitical senior civil servant, Sir al-Khatim al-Khalifa, as 

prime minister to head a transitional government. 

The new civilian regime, which operated under the 1956 Transitional Constitution, tried to end political factionalism by establishing 

a coalition government. Although the new government allowed all 

political parties to operate, only five of 15 posts in al-Khatim’s cabinet went to party politicians. The prime minister gave two positions 

to nonparty Southerners and the remaining eight to members of the 

National Front for Professionals, the party of the strike leaders; the 

eight included several communists. 

Eventually two political parties represented the South. The Sudan 

African National Union (SANU), founded in 1963 and led by William Deng and Satunino Lohure, a Roman Catholic priest, operated 

among refugee groups and guerrilla forces. Deng’s wing of SANU 

34 
 

 

Historical Setting 

(known locally as SANU–William) and the second party, the Southern Front, coalesced in 1965 and agreed to participate in upcoming 

parliamentary elections. During the next four years, SANU became a 

voice in parliament for Southern regional autonomy within a unified 

state. Exiled SANU leaders balked at Deng’s moderate approach and 

formed the Azania Liberation Front based in Uganda. 

Anya Nya leaders remained aloof from political movements. The 

guerrillas were fragmented by ethnic and religious differences. Additionally, conflicts surfaced within Anya Nya between older leaders and 

younger, better-educated men such as Joseph Lagu, a former Sudanese 

army captain, who eventually became a guerrilla leader, largely because 

of his ability to obtain arms from Israel. 

The government scheduled national elections for March 1965 and 

announced that the new parliament’s task would be to prepare a constitution. The deteriorating security situation in the South precluded 

elections in that region, a situation that caused disagreements between 

political parties about whether to hold elections in the North or to 

postpone them until the whole country could vote. The PDP and SCP, 

both fearful of losing votes, wanted to postpone the elections as did 

Southern elements loyal to Khartoum. Their opposition forced the 

government to resign. The president of the reinstated Supreme Commission, who had replaced Abbud as chief of state, announced that the 

elections would be held wherever possible. The PDP rejected this 

decision and boycotted the elections. 

The 1965 election results were inconclusive and led in June to a 

coalition cabinet headed by Umma leader Muhammad Ahmad Mahjub; 

al-Azhari, the NUP leader, became the Supreme Commission’s permanent president and head of state. The Mahjub government had two 

goals: progress toward solving the Southern problem and removal of 

communists from positions of power. The army launched a major offensive to crush the Southern rebellion, in the process augmenting its reputation for brutality. Southerners reported atrocities against civilians, 

especially at Juba and Wau. Sudanese army troops also burned churches 

and huts, closed schools, and destroyed crops and cattle. As for his second objective, Mahjub secured parliamentary approval of a decree that 

abolished the SCP and deprived 11 communists of their seats. 

In October 1965, the Umma–NUP coalition collapsed because of a 

disagreement over whether Mahjub, as prime minister, or al-Azhari, as 

president, should conduct Sudan’s foreign relations. Mahjub remained 

in office until his resignation in July 1966 after a parliamentary vote of 

censure, an act that produced a split in Umma. The traditional wing led 

by Mahjub, under the spiritual leadership of Imam al-Hadi al-Mahdi, 

opposed the party’s majority. The latter group professed loyalty to the 

35 
 

Sudan: A Country Study 

imam’s nephew, the younger Sadiq al-Mahdi, a great-grandson of the 

Mahdi and the official Umma leader, who rejected religious sectarianism. Support from the majority Umma and NUP allies ensured that 

Sadiq became prime minister. 

Sadiq wanted to foster economic development and to make peace 

with the Southern insurgents. He also wanted to replace the Supreme 

Commission with a president and a Southern vice president and proposed autonomy for the South. But neither Sadiq nor Mahjub, who 

returned to power in May 1967, was able to implement meaningful 

policies to deal with Sudan’s overriding problems because of continual political opposition and maneuvering in parliament. Sadiq survived a coup attempt in December 1966 by communists and a small 

army unit. Another notable development came in December 1967, 

when the PDP and NUP formed the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) 

under al-Azhari’s leadership. 

The al-Numayri Era, 1969–85 

On May 25, 1969, the Free Officers’ Movement seized power. At 

the conspiracy’s core were nine officers led by Colonel Ja’far alNumayri, who had been implicated in plots against the Abbud regime. 

Al-Numayri’s coup preempted plots by other groups, most of which 

involved armed factions supported by the SCP, Arab nationalists, or 

conservative religious groups. He justified the coup on the grounds 

that civilian politicians had paralyzed the decision-making process and 

had failed to resolve the country’s economic and regional problems 

and to devise a permanent constitution. 

The Revolutionary Command Council 

The coup leaders constituted themselves as the 10-member Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), which possessed collective executive authority under al-Numayri’s chairmanship. The RCC established 

a “democratic republic” dedicated to advancing “Sudanese socialism.” 

The RCC also suspended of the Transitional Constitution, abolished all 

government institutions, banned political parties, and nationalized 

many industries, businesses, and banks. Furthermore, al-Numayri 

arrested 63 civilian politicians and forcibly retired senior army officers. 

Babikir Awadallah, the former chief justice who had been privy to 

the coup, was appointed prime minister and presided over a 21-member cabinet that included only three RCC officers, among them its 

chairman, al-Numayri, who also served as defense minister. The cabinet’s other military members held the portfolios for internal security 

and communications. Nine members of the Awadallah regime were 

allegedly communists, including one of the two Southerners in the 

36 
 

Historical Setting 

cabinet, John Garang de Mabior, minister of supply and later minister 

for Southern affairs. Others identified themselves as Marxists. Since 

the RCC lacked political and administrative experience, the communists played a significant role in shaping its policies and programs. In 

November al-Numayri replaced Awadallah as prime minister. However, Awadallah remained RCC deputy chairman and foreign minister 

and an important link with leftist elements. 

Conservative forces, led by the Ansar, posed the greatest threat to 

the RCC. Imam al-Hadi al-Mahdi had withdrawn to the Aba Island 

Mahdist stronghold in the Nile, near Kosti, in the belief that the government had decided to strike at the Ansar movement. The imam had 

demanded a democratic government, the exclusion of communists 

from power, and an end to RCC rule. In March 1970, hostile Ansar 

crowds prevented al-Numayri from visiting the imam. Fighting subsequently erupted between government forces and as many as 30,000 

Ansar. When the Ansar ignored an ultimatum to surrender, army units 

attacked Aba Island, killing some 3,000 people. The imam escaped 

only to be killed while attempting to cross the border into Ethiopia. The 

government exiled Sadiq al-Mahdi to Egypt to prevent him from succeeding his uncle as head of the Ansar. 

After neutralizing the conservative opposition, the RCC consolidated 

its position with the intent of phasing out communist participation in the 

government. The SCP’s orthodox wing, led by party secretary-general 

Abd al-Khaliq Mahjub, demanded a popular-front government with 

communists participating as equal partners. By contrast, the National 

Communist wing supported cooperation with the government. Soon 

after the Aba Island incident, al-Numayri deported Mahjub; when he 

returned illegally, al-Numayri arrested him. In March 1971, al-Numayri 

placed communist-influenced trade unions under government control 

and banned communist-affiliated student, women’s, and professional 

organizations. Additionally, he announced plans to form a national 

political movement to be called the Sudan Socialist Union (SSU), 

which would control all political parties, including the SCP. After this 

speech, the RCC arrested the members of the SCP’s central committee 

and other leading communists. 

The SCP, however, retained a covert organization that launched a 

coup against al-Numayri on July 19, 1971, led by Major Hisham alAtta. Three days later, loyal army units rescued al-Numayri and arrested 

al-Atta and his confederates. Al-Numayri blamed the SCP for the coup 

and arrested hundreds of communists and dissident military officers. 

The government subsequently executed some of these individuals and 

imprisoned many others. Having survived the SCP-inspired coup, alNumayri then reaffirmed his commitment to establishing a socialist 

37 
 

Sudan: A Country Study 

state. A provisional constitution, published in August 1971, described 

Sudan as a “socialist democracy” and provided for a presidential form 

of government to replace the RCC. A plebiscite the following month 

elected al-Numayri to a six-year term as president. 

The Southern Problem 

The origins of the civil war in the South date to the 1950s. On 

August 18, 1955, the Equatoria Corps, a military unit composed of 

Southerners, mutinied at Torit. Rather than surrender to Sudanese 

authorities, many mutineers disappeared into hiding with their weapons, marking the beginning of the first war in the South. By the late 

1960s, the war had resulted in the deaths of about 500,000 people. 

Several hundred thousand more Southerners hid in the forests or 

escaped to refugee camps in neighboring countries. 

By 1969 the rebels had developed foreign contacts to obtain weapons and supplies. Israel, for example, trained Anya Nya recruits and 

shipped weapons via Ethiopia and Uganda to the rebels. Anya Nya 

also purchased arms from Congolese rebels and international arms 

dealers with monies collected in the South and from among Southern 

Sudanese exile communities in the Middle East, Western Europe, and 

North America. The rebels also captured arms, equipment, and supplies from government troops. Militarily, the 5,000–10,000-man Anya 

Nya controlled much of the countryside in the South and operated 

from remote camps, while government forces occupied the region’s 

major towns. However, rebel units were too small and scattered to be 

highly effective in any single area. 

Government operations against the rebels declined after the 1969 

coup. However, when negotiations failed to result in a settlement, Khartoum increased troop strength in the South to about 12,000 in 1969 and 

intensified military activity. Although the Soviet Union and Sudan concluded an arms agreement worth between US$100 million and US$150 

million in August 1968, by May 1969 there had been no deliveries of 

T–55 tanks, armored personnel carriers, or aircraft. However, Sudan 

obtained some Soviet-manufactured weapons from Egypt. By late 

1969, the Soviet Union had shipped unknown quantities of 85mm antiaircraft guns, 16 MiG–21s, and five Antonov–24 transport aircraft. During the next two years, the Soviet Union delivered an impressive array 

of equipment, including T–54, T–55, T–56, and T–59 tanks; and BTR– 

40 and BTR–152 light armored vehicles (see Foreign Military Assistance, ch. 5). 

In 1971 Joseph Lagu, who had become leader of Southern forces, 

proclaimed the creation of the Southern Sudan Liberation Movement 

(SSLM). Anya Nya leaders united behind him, and nearly all exiled 

38 
 

Historical Setting 

Southern politicians supported the SSLM. Although the SSLM created a 

governing infrastructure in many areas, real power remained with Anya 

Nya, with Lagu at its head. Al-Numayri hoped to end the war in the 

South by granting regional self-government and undertaking economic 

development there. The two sides held talks in Addis Ababa, and on 

March 27, 1972, Khartoum and the SSLM signed the Addis Ababa 

Agreement. This agreement guaranteed autonomy for a Southern region 

composed of three provinces, Equatoria, Bahr al-Ghazal, and Upper 

Nile, under a regional president appointed by the national president on 

the recommendation of an elected Southern Regional Assembly. The 

High Executive Council, or cabinet, named by the regional president 

was responsible for governing the region, except that the national government retained authority over such areas as defense, foreign affairs, 

currency and finance, and economic and social planning. Southerners, 

including Anya Nya veterans, would be incorporated into a 12,000-man 

Southern command of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) under equal 

numbers of Northern and Southern officers. The accords also recognized Arabic as Sudan’s official language and English as the South’s 

principal language. 

Although many SSLM leaders opposed the settlement, Lagu approved 

its terms and agreed to a cease-fire. Khartoum issued a decree legalizing 

the agreement and creating an international commission to ensure the 

well-being of refugees returning to the South; Khartoum also announced 

an amnesty, retroactive to 1955. March 27 was thereafter celebrated as 

National Unity Day. 

Political Developments 

After the settlement in the South, al-Numayri attempted to mend 

fences with Muslim religious groups in the North through such measures as administrative decentralization, popular with the Ansar, who 

favored rural over urban areas; reaffirmation of Islam’s special position 

in the country; recognition of sharia as the source of all legislation; and 

the freeing of some members of religious orders. However, reconciliation with conservative groups eluded al-Numayri. They organized outside Sudan under Sadiq al-Mahdi’s leadership and in 1974 coalesced 

into a new movement called the National Front. Among their members 

were the NUP and the Islamic Charter Front, then the political arm of 

the Muslim Brotherhood (see Glossary), an Islamic activist movement. 

Al-Numayri formed a Constituent Assembly in August 1972, in order 

to draft a permanent constitution, which it had done by the following 

May. The document provided for a continuation of presidential government, recognized the SSU as the only authorized political organization, 

and supported regional autonomy for the South. Although it cited Islam 

39 
 

 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

as Sudan’s official religion, Christianity was recognized as the faith of a 

large number of Sudanese citizens (see Christianity, ch. 2). In May 1974, 

a People’s Assembly of 250 representatives was seated on the basis of 

the new constitution. 

There was discontent with al-Numayri’s policies and increased military influence in government despite these measures. The tension escalated as a result of food shortages and the settlement in the South, 

which many Muslim conservatives regarded as a surrender. Unsuccessful coup attempts occurred in 1973 and 1974 and again in July 1976, 

the latter Ansar-inspired and supported by the conservative opposition 

in the National Front. Government soldiers killed more than 700 rebels 

in Khartoum in response and arrested scores of dissidents, including 

many prominent religious leaders. This unrest notwithstanding, in 1977 

Sudanese voters reelected al-Numayri for a second six-year term as 

president. 

National Reconciliation 

Al-Numayri and his opponents adopted more conciliatory policies 

following the 1976 coup attempt. In early 1977, al-Numayri and Sadiq 

al-Mahdi met in Port Sudan and signed an eight-point agreement that 

readmitted the opposition to national life in return for the National 

Front’s dissolution. The agreement also restored civil liberties, freed 

political prisoners, reaffirmed Sudan’s nonaligned foreign policy, and 

promised to reform local government. In keeping with this “national 

reconciliation,” the government released about 1,000 detainees and 

granted an amnesty to Sadiq, who renounced multiparty politics and 

urged his followers to work within the regime’s one-party system. The 

SSU then admitted former National Front supporters into its ranks. 

Returning exiles from the old Umma Party, DUP, and Muslim 

Brotherhood were permitted to stand as independent candidates in 

national elections held in February 1978, winning 140 of 304 seats in 

the People’s Assembly. Their success led to disillusion and weakened 

discipline among SSU deputies. The end of the SSU’s political monopoly, coupled with rampant corruption at all government levels, undermined al-Numayri’s ability to govern Sudan. Al-Numayri adopted a 

more dictatorial leadership style to preserve his regime. He ordered the 

State Security Organisation to imprison thousands of opponents and 

dissidents without trial and dismissed or transferred independentminded ministers and senior military officers, selecting replacements 

on the basis of loyalty rather than competence (see Internal Security 

Agencies, ch. 5). In June 1983, al-Numayri sought to counter the 

South’s growing political power by redividing it into its former constituent provinces of Equatoria, Bahr al-Ghazal, and Upper Nile; he had 

40 
 

Historical Setting 

suspended the Southern Regional Assembly almost two years earlier. 

The Southern-based Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) 

and its military wing, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), 

which emerged in mid-1983, unsuccessfully opposed this redivision 

and called for the creation of a new united Sudan. 

Al-Numayri proclaimed sharia as the basis of the Sudanese legal 

system in September 1983. His decrees, known as the September 

Laws, were bitterly resented by secularized Muslims and the nonMuslim Southerners. The SPLM denounced sharia and the executions 

and amputations ordered by religious courts. Meanwhile, the security 

situation in the South had deteriorated so much that by the end of 

1983 virtual civil war had resumed. In Khartoum, a general strike in 

early 1985 over rising food, gasoline, and transport costs paralyzed 

the country. 

Economic Developments since Independence 

The 30 years since independence had witnessed several notable economic developments by the mid-1980s. In November 1959, Egypt and 

Sudan signed the Agreement for the Full Utilization of the Nile Waters 

(Nile Waters Treaty). The treaty increased Sudan’s share of the Nile’s 

flow over that allocated in the 1929 Nile Waters Agreement (4 billion 

cubic meters/year—bcm/yr) to 18.5 bcm/yr, and increased Egypt’s 

allotment from 48 bcm/yr to 55.5 bcm/yr. It cleared the way for construction of a new dam at Aswan and provided for Egyptian compensation to Sudan for flooding in Nubia caused by the Aswan High Dam 

and for the relocation of the affected population. Negotiated without 

the participation of other riparian states, the treaty has led to years of 

cooperative activities and discussions among all Nile basin states over 

the equitable sharing of the Nile’s waters since it was signed. 

In the Al-Gezira area, more land had been brought under cultivation 

during the 1950s and early 1960s, aided by the new agreement between 

Egypt and Sudan that increased Sudan’s allotment of the Nile’s waters. 

During the same period, new irrigation projects relying on pumped 

water were established, mostly on the Blue Nile. Beginning in the early 

1960s, Nubians displaced by construction of the Aswan High Dam in 

Egypt were resettled west of Kassala on land watered by a new dam on 

the Atbarah, where they cultivated cotton, peanuts, and sugarcane. In 

1966 a large dam was constructed at Roseires on the Blue Nile, initially 

for irrigation and later for electricity generation. In the mid-1970s, two 

large-scale projects for growing and processing sugar were developed 

on the White Nile close to Kosti. One, the Kananah Sugar Project, was 

among the largest such operations in the world. Another large-scale 

undertaking was the Jonglei Canal (see Glossary), designed to increase 

41 
 

Sudan: A Country Study 

the northward flow of the White Nile by diverting part of the Nile’s 

water around the Al-Sudd swamp. 

Exploration for petroleum deposits began in 1959 along the Red 

Sea littoral. No oil was found, but a refinery operating on imported 

petroleum was built at Port Sudan in 1964. Exploration resumed in the 

mid-1970s and met with greater success in what are today the states of 

Upper Nile and West Kordofan. By the early 1980s, the region was 

producing more than 12,000 barrels per day, and there were proposals 

for a pipeline and a second refinery at Kosti. All exploration and production ceased in 1984, however, after attacks by Southern guerrillas 

on the oil installations. Similar attacks brought construction of the Jonglei Canal to a halt as well. 

The Transitional Military Council 

The combination of the South’s redivision, the introduction of sharia throughout the country, the renewed civil war, and growing economic problems—the same issues that would bedevil successive 

governments—all contributed to al-Numayri’s downfall. On April 6, 

1985, a group of military officers led by Lieutenant General Abd alRahman Siwar al-Dhahab overthrew al-Numayri, who took refuge in 

Egypt. Three days later, al-Dhahab authorized formation of a 15-man 

Transitional Military Council (TMC) to rule Sudan. The TMC suspended the constitution; dissolved the SSU, secret police, parliament, 

and regional assemblies; dismissed regional governors and their ministers; and released hundreds of political detainees. Al-Dhahab also 

promised to negotiate an end to the civil war and to relinquish power 

to a civilian government within 12 months. Although the general populace welcomed and supported the new regime, it soon became evident that al-Dhahab lacked the skills to resolve Sudan’s economic 

problems, restore peace to the South, and establish national unity. 

Sudan’s economy was in shambles by the time al-Dhahab seized 

power, and its international debt totaled some US$9 billion. Agricultural and industrial projects funded by the International Monetary 

Fund (IMF) and the World Bank remained in the planning stages. 

Most factories operated at less than 50 percent of capacity, while agricultural output had dropped by 50 percent since 1960. Moreover, famine threatened Southern and Western Sudan. 

The TMC failed to resolve these problems. The al-Dhahab government refused to accept IMF economic austerity measures, resulting in 

an IMF declaration of Sudan’s bankruptcy. The TMC also failed to 

secure alternative international investment, to control a soaring rate of 

inflation, or to obtain international food aid to prevent an estimated 

400,000 to 500,000 deaths. Although al-Dhahab attempted concilia42 
 

 

Historical Setting 

tion with the South, his refusal to repeal sharia negated his overtures 

and convinced SPLM leader John Garang that the central government 

still sought to subjugate the South. Even so, the two sides signed the 

Koka Dam Declaration in Ethiopia in March 1986, which called for a 

Sudan “free from racism, tribalism, sectarianism, and all causes of discrimination and disparity,” repeal of sharia, and a constitutional conference. Despite general acceptance of the declaration, al-Dhahab 

deferred its implementation because of opposition from Muslim conservatives over repeal of sharia. Meanwhile, fighting between the 

SPLA and government forces continued in the South. 

The TMC proved similarly unable to foster a national political consensus. In April 1985, negotiations between the TMC and the Alliance 

of Professional and Trade Unions resulted in the establishment of a 

civilian cabinet. Although it contained three Southerners who belonged 

to the Southern Sudanese Political Association, the cabinet failed to 

win the loyalty of most Southerners, who believed the TMC was only 

continuing the failed policies of the deposed al-Numayri. The multiplicity of political parties added to the difficulties. In the aftermath of 

al-Numayri’s overthrow, approximately 40 parties registered with the 

TMC and announced their intention to participate in national politics. 

They ranged from those committed to revolutionary socialism to those 

that supported Islamism. Of the latter, the National Islamic Front 

(NIF), led by Hassan Abdallah al-Turabi, had succeeded the Islamic 

Charter Front as the main vehicle for the Muslim Brotherhood’s political aspirations. Policy disagreements over sharia, the civil war, and the 

country’s future direction made for a confused political scene. 

In this troubled atmosphere, al-Dhahab sanctioned the promised 

April 1986 general election, which the authorities spread over a 12-day 

period and postponed in 37 constituencies in the South because of the 

civil war. Sadiq al-Mahdi’s Umma Party won 99 seats, while the DUP, 

led now by Khatmiyyah leader Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani, 

gained 64 seats, and al-Turabi’s NIF obtained 51 seats. Regional political parties from the South, the Nuba Mountains, and the Red Sea Hills 

won lesser numbers of seats. The SCP and other radical parties failed to 

score any significant victories. 

Sadiq al-Mahdi and Coalition Governments 

Sadiq al-Mahdi formed a coalition government in June 1986, with 

the Umma, DUP, NIF, and four parties from the South. Unfortunately, 

Sadiq proved to be a weak leader and incapable of governing Sudan. 

Party factionalism, corruption, personal rivalries, scandals, and political instability characterized his government. After less than a year in 

office, Sadiq dismissed the government because it had failed to draft a 

43 
Sudan: A Country Study 

new penal code to replace sharia, reach an agreement with the IMF, 

end the civil war in the South, or attract remittances from Sudanese 

expatriates. 

To retain the support of the DUP and the Southern political parties, 

Sadiq formed another in a series of ineffective coalition governments, 

all of which suffered from the same overriding weaknesses as the first. 

Al-Mirghani of the DUP and al-Turabi of the NIF were deeply 

involved in the political maneuverings surrounding these governments. As a prime example, in November 1988 al-Mirghani and the 

SPLM leadership on their own signed an agreement in Addis Ababa 

that included provisions for a cease-fire in the South, freezing of sharia, lifting the state of emergency, and abolition of all foreign political 

and military pacts. The parties to the agreement also proposed to convene a constitutional conference to decide Sudan’s political future. 

The NIF opposed this agreement because of its stand on sharia. When 

the government opposed the agreement, the DUP withdrew from the 

coalition. Senior military officers then presented Sadiq with an ultimatum demanding that he make the coalition government more representative and that he announce terms for ending the civil war. 

Responding to this pressure, Sadiq dissolved the government on 

March 11, 1989, and created a new coalition that included Umma, the 

DUP, and representatives of Southern parties and trade unions. The 

NIF refused to join the government because it was not committed to 

enforcing sharia. Sadiq claimed that his new government was committed to ending the civil war through implementation of the November 

1988 DUP–SPLM agreement. He also promised to provide food relief 

to famine areas, reduce the government’s international debt, and build 

a national political consensus. His inability to deliver on these promises eventually caused his downfall. 

Umar al-Bashir and the Islamist Revolution 

On June 30, 1989, a group of 15 military officers, including Colonel 

(later Lieutenant General) Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, overthrew 

the Sadiq government and established the National Salvation Revolutionary Command Council (NSRCC) to rule Sudan. The NSRCC 

banned all political parties; abolished the constitution, national assembly, and trade unions; and arrested government leaders and more than 

100 military officers. Al-Bashir’s long-term agenda included fomenting 

an Islamist revolution, distancing Sudan from its traditional Western 

allies and enhancing relations with Arab countries, ending the war 

against the SPLA, and improving the country’s economy by developing 

the oil sector. Several Arab countries, including Chad, Egypt, Libya, the 

44 
Historical Setting 

People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, and Saudi Arabia, immediately recognized the new government. 

Al-Bashir moved quickly and decisively against real and imagined 

opponents. Among other actions, he purged the armed forces, police, 

judiciary, and civil service and dismissed from government posts supporters of Umma and the DUP, both of which opposed the government’s 

Islamist policies. He also detained many opposition politicians, including Sadiq al-Mahdi. In March 1990, security forces arrested 57 people, 

including army officers and civilians, for attempting a coup d’état. On 

April 23, al-Bashir ordered the execution of 28 army officers for plotting 

a coup; in April 1991, another 20 military officers were executed for 

similar reasons. The government also authorized the police to arrest suspected subversives without a warrant and to hold them in security buildings known as “ghost houses,” without filing criminal charges against 

them. The use of torture was commonplace. 

Such tactics, however, failed to extinguish popular dissent. In 

November 1990, trade unions and students staged antigovernment demonstrations in Khartoum, Wad Madani, Atbarah, and Al-Obeid. In mid1993, because of their opposition to al-Bashir, the authorities arrested 21 

Umma activists, including three former ministers, preachers at Ansari 

mosques, and the Ansar Affairs Organization’s director of guidance. In 

October 1993, there were three days of rioting in Omdurman, Wad 

Madani, and Al-Obeid because of food shortages and price rises. The 

following month, University of Khartoum students protested over 

alleged vote rigging that resulted in supporters of the NIF winning all 40 

seats in the students’ union. Nonetheless, despite this unrest and growing international criticism of its human-rights record, the government 

refused to moderate its policies. 

In early 1992, the NSRCC announced its intention to disband. To 

govern the country until national elections could be held, it created two 

temporary bodies, a Transitional National Council (TNC) and a 300­

member Transitional National Assembly (TNA). Both were dominated 

by personalities and policies of the National Congress Party (NCP), successor to the NIF as of 1991. On October 16, 1993, the NSRCC officially dissolved itself amidst much fanfare about its intention to make 

reforms aimed at preparing the country for presidential, legislative, and 

local elections to be organized on the basis of the nine states into which 

the NSRCC had divided the country in 1991 (see fig. 7). Al-Bashir, who 

had been NSRCC chairman, became Sudan’s president, while his deputy, Major General Zubayr Muhammad Salih, became vice president. 

The new government announced that its policies would continue to be 

based on the “Islamic cultural scheme” and that “commitment” to Islam 

was obligatory. This institutional arrangement continued until March 

45 
Sudan: A Country Study 

46

1996, when national elections transformed the TNA into a 400-member 

National Assembly and al-Bashir was elected to a five-year term as 

president.

The regime took its first major step toward Islamization on December 31, 1990, when it imposed a version of sharia on Northern Sudan 

that was more stringent and more rigorously enforced than that decreed 

by President al-Numayri in September 1983. Islamic courts, composed 

largely of NIF members, administered and enforced sharia laws. A new 

penal code introduced in 1991 explicitly mandated the death penalty for 

Khartoum

Al-Damir

Al-Fashir

Al-Obeid

Wau

Juba

Kassala

Wad

Madani

Malakal

Red

 Sea

DARFUR

KORDOFAN

BAHR AL-GHAZAL

AL-ISTIWAI

A’ALI AN-NIL

ASH

SHAMALI ASH

SHARQI

ALAWSAT

AL-KHARTOUM

EGYPT

LIBYA

CHAD

ETHIOPIA

KENYA

ZAIRE

CENTRAL

AFRICAN

REPUBLIC

SAUDI

ARABIA

UGANDA

Boundary representation

not necessarily authoritative

0

0

50 100150 Kilometers

50 150 Miles 100



International

 boundary

Administrative

 boundary

State boundary

National capital

State capital

24 30 36

24 30 36

18 18

12

6

12

6

Figure 7. Administrative Divisions of Sudan, 1991
Historical Setting 

anyone who advocated apostasy. The government also restricted the 

rights of women in public life and employment. During 1989–91, for 

example, newly enacted laws prohibited women from selling food or tea 

after 5 p.m. and from working in coffeehouses and cafeterias. Women 

also were required to sit in the rear of buses to avoid sitting in front of 

men. The Popular Police Force Act (1992) gave organizations such as 

the Public Order Police, Popular Police Forces, Popular Committees, 

and the Guardians of Morality civic group authority to punish women 

for such offenses as “scandalous conduct” or “immodest dress.” The following year, Khartoum issued Decree 155, which authorized execution 

of anyone who operated a group of two or more persons for the procurement of prostitutes. 

The government also discriminated against non-Muslims by excluding them from senior-level positions in the civil service, judiciary, and 

military. Clerics subjected non-Muslim Sudanese to traditional hudud 

(see Glossary) criminal punishments. Protests by the Sudan Council of 

Churches and the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference against these 

and other discriminatory practices fell on deaf ears. In late 1991, two 

bishops and two diocesan administrators issued a pastoral letter that 

encouraged Christian resistance to Islamization. The following January, Sudanese authorities, claiming that the letter posed a threat to 

national security and could cause civil strife, confiscated all copies of 

the letter and subjected several bishops, including Archbishop of Khartoum Gabriel Wako, to harsh interrogations. Khartoum also impeded 

humanitarian relief deliveries to some non-Muslim populations and 

expelled all Christian missionaries from southern Kordofan. 

There was a significant deterioration in Sudan’s human-rights record 

throughout the mid- and late 1990s, a development that prompted a 

series of reports from the United Nations (UN), Amnesty International, 

Human Rights Watch, and African Rights. However, some allegations 

against Khartoum, concerning the use of chemical weapons and widespread slave raids, proved to be false or greatly misrepresented in the 

Western media. Ironically, there was little criticism of the SPLA and 

other rebels groups that also committed widespread human-rights violations, such as the execution of government troops who had surrendered and the abduction or enslavement of young boys to serve as 

porters for the SPLA. 

In October 1994, Gaspar Biró, the UN representative for Sudan, issued 

a report that accused Khartoum of bombing civilian targets in the South, 

recruiting child soldiers, and interfering with food-relief shipments. The 

regime rejected the report as “outrageous, repetitive, untruthful and politicized.” In December the UN adopted a resolution that censured Khartoum 

for its many abuses. In January 1995, Amnesty International launched a 

47 
 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

six-month campaign against Sudan’s poor human-rights record. Among 

other things, Khartoum was accused of purging its opponents in the civil 

service, trade unions, judiciary, and educational institutions. Amnesty 

International also accused rebel groups in the South, including the SPLA, 

of committing human-rights violations. Al-Bashir rejected an Amnesty 

International recommendation to establish an international civilian monitoring group. 

In mid-1995, the London-based African Rights organization reported 

that the SAF, frequently supported by the Popular Defense Forces, the 

military wing of the NIF, repeatedly attacked civilians and moved many 

of them into protected villages (critics claimed they were concentration 

camps) to isolate them from the SPLA. African Rights also drew attention to the fact that government forces destroyed food stocks and animals; raped women; and kidnapped, tortured, or killed anyone suspected 

of disloyalty. According to the U.S. Department of State’s 2000 annual 

report on human rights, the SPLM/A also had a record of committing 

extrajudicial killings, beatings, rape, arbitrary detention, and forced conscription. The report alleged that SPLM/A officials were guilty of, or 

complicit in, theft of property of nongovernmental organizations and 

UN agencies operating in the South. 

The most controversial aspect of Khartoum’s human-rights record 

concerned reports of its involvement in slave raids as an extension of its 

war policy in the South. By the 1990s, there were widespread accounts 

of armed men identified as government forces raiding and kidnapping 

Southerners, especially women and children, who were marched north 

and absorbed into Arab households or sold to traders. Such reports 

brought international condemnation and calls for action. In October 

1999, Zurich-based Christian Solidarity International (CSI) announced 

that since 1995 it had bought the freedom of 15,447 “slaves” from Arab 

middlemen for US$50 per fugitive. CSI’s activities and those of similar 

organizations elicited criticism from several sources. Others alleged that 

CSI was merely rewarding kidnappers for their illicit activities, while a 

Canadian report in February 2000 maintained that CSI allowed the 

SPLA to use fraudulent slave redemptions to raise money for buying 

arms and ammunition. The al-Bashir government characterized the 

alleged “slaving” as merely intertribal scuffling and refused to cooperate 

with calls for international inquiries. 

There was no indication by the turn of the century that the regime, 

the SPLA, or other rebel groups were prepared to take steps to cease 

their abuse of the population in the South. Human-rights issues in 

Sudan also remained a highly contentious and politicized subject for 

most Western countries. 

Umma, the DUP, trade unions, and the secular professional elite 

remained active in the capital despite the regime’s harsh tactics. Outside 

48 
 

 

Historical Setting 

Khartoum, the Christian peoples of the Nuba Mountains constituted the 

strongest opposition. Nonetheless, divisions and endless squabbling 

among these groups ensured that none of them posed a serious threat to 

the government. Some 11 political parties, 51 professional unions, and 

51 trade unions signed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) charter on October 21, 1989. Throughout the mid-1990s, the NDA tried 

unsuccessfully to persuade its members to put aside their differences, 

adopt a common strategy to overthrow al-Bashir, and establish a democratic government. On December 5, 1994, Eritrea severed diplomatic 

relations with Sudan because of Khartoum’s support of Eritrean Islamic 

Jihad, an opposition group, and subsequently invited the NDA to move 

its headquarters into the former Sudanese embassy in Asmara. Despite 

Eritrean training, the NDA failed to improve its military capabilities, 

even though the SPLA had joined the alliance. 

Al-Bashir continued in the late 1990s to rely on divide-and-rule tactics against the opposition, especially the SPLA. On April 21, 1997, for 

example, Khartoum signed a peace agreement with six Southern factions opposed to the SPLA and its leader, John Garang (the South Sudan 

Independence Movement, SPLA–Bahr al-Ghazal Group, Equatoria 

Defense Force, Independence of Bor Group, Independence Movement 

for Southern Sudan, and Union of Sudan African Parties). On September 20, 1997, Lam Akol, leader of the SPLA–United faction, also signed 

a peace accord with Khartoum. 

Al-Bashir attended to the moribund petroleum sector, enlisting foreign assistance for its revival. In 1995 he concluded agreements with 

the People’s Republic of China and with Qatar for further development 

of Sudan’s oil fields, and proposals were floated to upgrade the refinery 

at Port Sudan and to build a pipeline from the Southern oil fields to that 

facility, despite continuing insecurity in the South. Both projects were 

underway by the late 1990s, as was a new refinery at Al-Jayli, north of 

Khartoum, which was being constructed by the China National Petroleum Company (see Petroleum, ch. 3). The pipeline, more than 1,600 

kilometers long, was completed in August 1999, largely with financing 

from Argentine, British, Canadian, Chinese, and Malaysian companies. 

Petroleum exports via the new pipeline began in late 2000. Improvements such as these drew protests from international human-rights 

groups, which alleged that increased oil revenues would help finance 

the civil war in the South. In an effort to promote trade, particularly 

with Sudan’s Arab neighbors, a free-trade zone was established in 2000 

along part of the Red Sea coast (see Manufacturing, ch. 3). 

As he neared the end of a decade in power, al-Bashir remained head 

of state and in command of the armed forces, but the ideological underpinnings of the regime and the driving force of the Islamist movement 

clearly lay with al-Turabi, the speaker of the National Assembly, and 

49 
Sudan: A Country Study 

his sympathizers. The relationship between the two leaders gradually 

evolved into rivalry for control of the state and its institutions (see The 

Al-Bashir Era, ch. 4). On March 28, 1998, the National Assembly ratified a draft constitution stating that sharia law and custom constituted 

the basis of the country’s legal system and declaring Sudan a 25-state 

federation. Then on May 8, some 96 percent of Sudanese who voted 

endorsed the constitution, which al-Bashir signed into law on June 30, 

exactly nine years after his coup d’état. The SPLM rejected the document because of its “religious nature” and because it defined Sudan as a 

federation rather than a confederation. 

Elections for the National Assembly and the presidency were 

scheduled for December 1999, and in late 1998 al-Bashir signed the 

Political Association Act, which allegedly restored multiparty politics. 

Umma and the DUP dismissed the legislation as a sham and called for 

the establishment of a transitional government of national unity. Even 

so, in early 1999 the registration of political parties began, and eventually Umma, the DUP, and a host of other organizations such as the 

Muslim Brotherhood, Socialist Popular Party, Islamic Movement, and 

Sudanese National Party, signed up. 

Al-Bashir declared a three-month state of emergency on December 

13, 1999, in response to a proposed constitutional amendment allowing 

the National Assembly to remove the president, a proposal sponsored 

by al-Turabi and his legislative allies. Al-Bashir saw the amendment as 

intended to ensure al-Turabi’s complete ascendance—an initiative he 

preempted with the emergency decree. It enabled al-Bashir to dissolve 

the National Assembly, thereby eliminating al-Turabi from any role in 

the government, although he retained much influence throughout the 

country, and to postpone the national elections. In response to unrest 

among al-Turabi’s followers, al-Bashir extended the state of emergency through 2000 in a successful effort to consolidate his standing as 

the unquestioned master of Sudan. 

Hassan al-Turabi and the Islamization of Sudan 

Hassan al-Turabi, a British- and French-educated Islamic scholar, 

was the driving force behind the NIF and the chief architect of the 

Islamization of Sudan’s government and society. He was also tolerant 

toward international terrorism. Throughout the 1989–99 period, his 

relationship with al-Bashir vacillated between confrontation and cooperation. Shortly after seizing power, al-Bashir jailed al-Turabi, who had 

been active in the Muslim Brotherhood, for six months and then placed 

him under house arrest. In mid-1991, al-Turabi regained his freedom 

after declaring his willingness to work with the al-Bashir regime. 

50 
Al-Khabir Mosque and an open-air market in central Khartoum, undated photograph 

Copyright Getty Images 

51 
 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

Al-Turabi spent much time between 1992 and 1994 promoting his 

Islamist ideas in several countries, including Afghanistan, Britain, Eritrea, Italy, Qatar, and the United States. His speeches and interviews 

generated considerable interest in the Arab world but inflamed passions 

in Western countries that opposed his support of radical Islamist doctrines. Critics frequently abused al-Turabi, verbally and otherwise, for 

his views. On May 25, 1992, for example, a Sudanese Muslim named 

Hashim Badr al-Din, who was a karate expert, attacked al-Turabi at 

Canada’s Ottawa Airport. He spent several weeks recovering from his 

injuries in a Canadian hospital and a clinic in Switzerland. For the next 

six months, al-Turabi was rarely seen in public. However, in November 

1993, he traveled to Afghanistan to mediate conflicts between Afghan 

warlords. 

Al-Turabi established the Popular Arab and Islamic Conference 

(PAIC) in Khartoum in April 1991 and became its secretary-general. 

Some 300 delegates from 45 nations attended the inaugural conference 

and urged all Muslims to oppose U.S. involvement in the 1990–91 Gulf 

War and attempts to isolate Sudan, to facilitate the Islamic revolution, 

and to coordinate anti-imperialist activities. The al-Bashir government 

called PAIC’s formation “the most significant event since the collapse of 

the Caliphate” and an alternative to the endless bickering between the 

League of Arab States (Arab League) and the Organization of the Islamic 

Conference (OIC). PAIC held its second conference in Khartoum, during 

December 2–4, 1993, with about 450 delegates from 60 countries in 

attendance. Among other things, they discussed ways to contend with 

“American hegemony” and to marginalize the OIC. Approximately 300 

delegates from 80 countries attended PAIC’s third meeting in Khartoum, 

which ran from March 30 to April 2, 1995. Al-Turabi caused a controversy by claiming that the “typical ascetic religious clergy is no longer 

viable in modern times.” He also accused Amnesty International of being 

in the pay of British intelligence and recommended the creation of an 

Islamic human-rights organization and the adoption of an Islamic 

human-rights charter. The three PAIC meetings represented the apex of 

al-Turabi’s efforts to unify and radicalize the Islamic world. By the late 

1990s, however, PAIC had become moribund, and al-Turabi’s influence 

throughout the Arab world had waned. 

At the same time, the al-Turabi–al-Bashir relationship became 

increasingly strained as the two sought to marginalize one another. An 

unexpected tragedy occurred on February 12, 1998, when an aircraft 

crashed on landing near Nasir in Upper Nile and killed First Vice President Zubayr Muhammad Salih and seven other senior government officials. This accident prompted the largest cabinet reshuffle since al-Bashir 

had seized power. As a result, al-Turabi became even more of a political 

52 
 

 

 

 

Historical Setting 

force in the government as NIF loyalists gained 16 out of 24 ministerial 

portfolios. He tried to use this influence to reduce the power of the presidency by urging moribund parties such as the DUP and Umma, both of 

which opposed al-Bashir, to rejoin the political process. Throughout 

1999 al-Turabi succeeded in maintaining control over the ruling party 

and continued his efforts to marginalize al-Bashir. The political maneuvering between the two men reached its climax in December when alTurabi arranged for an assembly vote that would have amended the constitution to allow al-Bashir’s removal by a two-thirds vote. On December 

12, al-Bashir, who still enjoyed the support of the SAF and the security 

forces, ended this scheming by dismissing al-Turabi from his post as 

speaker, dissolving the assembly, and declaring a state of emergency. 

Sudan and International Terrorism 

The most controversial aspect of Sudan’s Islamization experiment 

concerned its links to international terrorism. Even before al-Bashir 

seized power, there were terrorist incidents in Sudan, two of which 

involved U.S. government employees. On March 1, 1973, the Black 

September Palestinian terrorist group murdered U.S. ambassador Cleo 

A. Noel, Jr., U.S. deputy chief of mission George Curtis Moore, and 

Belgian chargé d’affaires Guy Eid. Sudanese authorities arrested the 

terrorists and tried them on murder charges, but, in June 1974, released 

them to the custody of the Egyptian government. On April 16, 1986, 

gunmen from the Libyan Embassy in Khartoum shot and wounded a 

U.S. Embassy employee. Two years later, the Abu Nidal organization 

bombed Khartoum’s Acropole Hotel and Sudan Club. No Americans 

were injured. 

Sudan’s links with international terrorism expanded significantly 

after al-Bashir and the NIF came to power in 1989. Al-Turabi cultivated relations with the Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden in hopes of 

securing funding for his scheme to spread political Islam throughout 

the world. In 1991 bin Laden, his family, and scores of fighters from 

Afghanistan arrived in Khartoum. Among his other activities, bin 

Laden established several companies in the agricultural, financial, 

road construction, and tanning sectors. None were successful because 

bin Laden used them primarily as conduits to move cash to finance 

terrorist activities. 

Sudanese authorities arrested Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, a Venezuelan 

terrorist known as “Carlos the Jackal,” in August 1994 and turned him 

over to French security officials. Khartoum maintained that the Carlos 

incident proved that it had no links to international terrorism, an assertion disputed by the United States. Meanwhile, Sudan and France 

denied the turnover involved any trade-offs. However, relations between 

53 
 

 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

the two countries improved dramatically, especially with regard to economic and military cooperation. Examples of the changed climate came 

when Paris financed the purchase of four Airbus planes for Sudan Airways and interceded on Sudan’s behalf to improve its relations with the 

IMF and the UN. France also provided military aid to Sudan for use 

against the SPLA. In October 1994, Sudan established a council on economic affairs in Paris. In late 1995 and early 1996, several French companies signed mining and telecommunications contracts with Sudan. 

The next manifestation of Sudan’s links with international terrorism 

occurred on June 26, 1995, when Islamist gunmen tried to assassinate 

President Husni Mubarak of Egypt as he arrived in Addis Ababa to 

attend the opening of an Organization of African Unity (OAU; now 

African Union) summit. Although the assassins fired a dozen rounds at 

Mubarak’s limousine, he was unharmed in the attack and immediately 

returned to Cairo, but the fracas claimed the lives of two Ethiopian 

police officers and two assailants, while several people sustained injuries. Three days later, the Ethiopian police identified the chief suspect as 

Seraj Mohammed Husayn, a Sudanese. They speculated that the other 

assassins were Egyptian Islamic militants, who were subsequently 

arrested or killed in Addis Ababa or who escaped to Sudan. Mubarak 

angrily accused Khartoum generally and al-Turabi specifically of having masterminded the assassination plot, but he doubted that there had 

been direct Sudanese government involvement. Al-Bashir expressed 

regret for the incident, but both he and al-Turabi denied any Sudanese 

involvement in the attack. 

Sudanese–Egyptian relations quickly deteriorated as a result of the 

incident. On June 27, there were clashes between Sudanese and Egyptian forces in the disputed Hala’ib Triangle that claimed the lives of two 

Sudanese (see Egypt, ch. 4). The following day, Mubarak expelled 70 

Sudanese police from jointly guarded posts in the Hala’ib Triangle. On 

June 29, he warned that there could be reprisals against the “band of 

criminals” in power in Sudan, a threat that brought warnings to prepare 

for war in Khartoum. On July 1, nonetheless, a senior Egyptian foreign 

ministry official announced that Egypt would not attack Sudan but 

would punish the country by nonmilitary means should investigators 

find a link between Khartoum and the failed attack in Addis Ababa. 

The international community also took action against the al-Bashir 

regime for its involvement in the incident. On September 11, 1995, the 

OAU passed a resolution demanding that Sudan turn over three suspects implicated in the attempted assassination. When Khartoum 

refused to comply with the resolution, the UN Security Council 

adopted a resolution on January 31, 1996, that encouraged Sudan to 

implement the OAU resolution within 60 days. In April the Security 

54 
 

 

Historical Setting 

Council responded to Khartoum’s continued refusal to honor these resolutions by adopting another resolution that directed Sudan to extradite 

the three suspects and to sever its links with international terrorism. 

Additionally, the UN asked member and nonmember states to reduce 

staff levels at Sudanese diplomatic missions and consular posts and to 

restrict the movement of Sudanese government personnel in their countries. Other penalties included restricting the entry into or transit 

through their territories of Sudanese government and military officials, 

and calling on all international and regional organizations to refrain 

from holding conferences in Sudan. In July the Security Council authorized the imposition of an air embargo to compel Khartoum to hand 

over the three suspects, but this proposal was eventually scuttled on 

humanitarian grounds. Meanwhile, Sudanese–Ethiopian relations 

remained strained until November 1999, when the two countries agreed 

to reactivate their joint commission of ministers. 

A proliferation of U.S. intelligence reports in 1990–96 indicated that 

Khartoum planned to attack U.S. targets in Sudan and elsewhere. As a 

result, in 1993 the United States placed Sudan on its list of state sponsors of terrorism and evacuated dependents of U.S. embassy personnel 

from Khartoum. In 1996 U.S. intelligence reported that Sudan wanted 

to kill Anthony Lake, then adviser for national-security affairs to President William J. Clinton. Eventually in 1998, the New York Times 

reported that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had withdrawn more 

than 100 of its reports that had linked Sudan with the Lake assassination plot and international terrorism because its source had fabricated 

the information. 

Operatives of the international terrorist organization al-Qaeda 

bombed the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam on August 7, 

1998. Two days later, Sudan’s foreign minister, Mustafa Uthman 

Isma’il, announced that his government had approved U.S. requests to 

use its airspace to evacuate American diplomats and citizens from Kenya 

and to provide emergency aid to survivors of the bombings. However, 

despite this aid and the absence of any credible evidence linking Sudan 

to the attacks, Washington accused Khartoum of being involved in the 

bombings. 

On August 20, the United States launched a cruise-missile strike 

against Al-Shifa Pharmaceutical Industries in Khartoum North. President 

Clinton and other senior U.S. officials justified the action by claiming 

that the factory had been producing Empta, a precursor to the VX nerve 

gas; that Osama bin Laden either owned or had invested in the plant; that 

Al-Shifa did not produce any medicine or drugs; that the factory was a 

high-security facility guarded by the Sudan Armed Forces; and that Iraq 

had shipped weapons of mass destruction to Sudan. The international 

55 
 

 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

press was highly skeptical of these assertions. The Observer (London) 

reported that the allegations were “a catalogue of U.S. misinformation, 

glaring omissions and intelligence errors about the function of the plant.” 

The Washington Post, New York Times, and Times (London) expressed 

similar doubts. In October, a survey team, headed by Thomas Tullius, 

chairman of Boston University’s chemistry department, reported that it 

had found no traces of chemical weapons compounds at the plant. 

Salah Idris, the owner of Al-Shifa, sued the U.S. government in 

American courts in 1999. He demanded an apology for the attack, 

release of US$24 million of his assets frozen in U.S. banks, and US$30 

million in compensation for his destroyed factory. Idris also hired Kroll 

Associates, an international security company, to investigate U.S. allegations that the plant produced chemical weapons and had links to Iraq. 

The company was unable to substantiate either accusation. In May the 

United States unfroze his assets but refused to admit it had made a mistake in bombing his plant. By late 1999, the terrorism issue and the war 

in Southern Sudan, ensured that relations between Khartoum and 

Washington remained cool. 

The Peace Process in Southern Sudan 

Al-Bashir had promised, when he seized power, to initiate peace 

talks to end the civil war in the South because many senior SAF officers 

had come to believe that a decisive military victory over the SPLA was 

impossible. Within days, Khartoum announced a one-month cease-fire, 

offered amnesty to all rebels, and invited SPLA commander John 

Garang to join the peace process. Al-Bashir also said he had no objection to the separation of the South provided it would accept a federal 

system of government, although Khartoum later denied that he had 

made this statement. In August 1989, Garang unveiled a peace initiative 

that called for the formation of a broad-based government of national 

unity and an army composed of SPLA and SAF personnel. He also 

wanted to convene a national constitutional conference to resolve the 

country’s “fundamental problems” and to draft a new constitution in 

preparation for “free general elections.” 

Al-Bashir failed to respond to Garang’s statement but instead 

announced that there would be a national peace conference in Khartoum. 

However, the SPLA refused to attend because al-Bashir advocated a federal solution to the North–South problem. Despite these setbacks, there 

were two peace initiatives by early 1990. Former U.S. president Jimmy 

Carter sponsored discussions in Nairobi, while Egypt promised that it 

would help Sudan achieve peace. Both plans failed because, in Carter’s 

view, “neither side [was] prepared to take the difficult steps necessary for 

peace.” 

56 
 

 

Historical Setting 

Nigeria sponsored the next major peace initiative in Abuja. During 

the first round of talks (May 26–June 4, 1992), the two sides recognized 

that Sudan was a multiethnic, multilingual, multireligious, and multicultural country. Apart from this acknowledgment, nothing else was 

accomplished. In the second round of negotiations (April 26–May 17, 

1993), the attendees discussed several constitutional, political, security, 

and social issues. Specific topics included power-sharing between Khartoum and the federated states, the powers of the central government, the 

use of a referendum to determine whether Southerners wanted to remain 

part of Sudan or become independent, and the resettlement and rehabilitation of Southerners affected by the war. 

In September 1993, the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought 

and Development (IGADD), which became in 1996 the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD—see Glossary), under the 

chairmanship of Kenya’s president, Daniel arap Moi, launched an initiative to end the civil war. In May 1994, IGADD adopted a declaration 

of principles that acknowledged the diversity of Sudan’s various ethnic 

groups and suggested several prerequisites to enhance the country’s 

unity. The latter included a secular constitution, administrative decentralization, respect for human rights and the rule of law, and equitable 

distribution of Sudan’s wealth and resources. Should these principles 

be ignored, South Sudan could exercise the right of self-determination 

or declare its independence. 

Over the next few years, there were several IGADD-sponsored meetings, but the warring parties failed to reach a compromise on these 

issues. In mid-1995 the international community sought to invigorate 

the peace process by establishing the Friends of IGADD (Britain, Canada, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, and the United States).This informal 

grouping persuaded both sides to declare a cease-fire. In 1996 IGAD 

expanded its mandate to include regional economic cooperation and the 

coordination of social and economic policies. The following year, Khartoum accepted the 1994 declaration of principles as a basis for future 

negotiations; however, subsequent IGAD-sponsored talks (in October 

1997, May 1998, and August 1998) failed to make any significant progress. The al-Bashir government and the SPLA agreed to meet on April 

20, 1999, but Khartoum refused to attend and suspended all contacts 

with the rebels through IGAD because three government officials and a 

Sudanese aid worker had died while supposedly in SPLA custody. By 

late 1999, the IGAD peace process remained moribund and, as a result, 

Sudan began looking for an alternative mediator. 

* * * 

Interested readers may consult a variety of books for a more comprehensive account of Sudan’s history. Useful surveys include P. M. 

57 
Sudan: A Country Study 

Holt and M. W. Daly’s, A History of the Sudan: From the Coming of 

Islam to the Present Day; Peter Woodward’s, Sudan, 1898–1989; and 

Kenneth David Druitt Henderson’s Sudan Republic. The Historical 

Dictionary of the Sudan edited by Richard A. Lobban, Jr., Robert S. 

Kramer, and Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban also contains a wealth of information about the country’s history. Richard Hill’s Egypt in the Sudan, 

1820–1881 assesses Egypt’s nineteenth-century conquest and occupation of Sudan. An excellent analysis of the British period is given in M. 

W. Daly’s Empire on the Nile: The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1898–1934 

and Imperial Sudan: The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, 1934–56. The 

postindependence period is discussed in Mansour Khalid’s The Government They Deserve: The Role of the Elite in Sudan’s Political Evolution; his War and Peace in Sudan: A Tale of Two Countries is a 

useful survey of the country’s history after 1898. Gabriel Warburg’s 

Islam, Nationalism, and Communism in a Traditional Society is a standard source. Apart from these books, the journal Sudan Notes and 

Records is essential for studying Sudan’s historical development. 

The past few years have seen an increase in the literature about Southern Sudan. Many of Robert O. Collins’s studies are particularly useful, 

including Land Beyond the Rivers: The Southern Sudan, 1898–1918; 

Shadows in the Grass: Britain in the Southern Sudan, 1918–1956; and 

The Waters of the Nile: Hydropolitics and the Junglei Canal, 1900–1988. 

J. Millard Burr and Robert O. Collins also have produced many essential 

volumes, the most important of which are Requiem for the Sudan: War, 

Drought, and Disaster Relief on the Nile and Revolutionary Sudan: 

Hasan al-Turabi and the Islamist State, 1989–2000. Two sympathetic 

assessments of Southern Sudan’s relationship to Khartoum are Dunstan 

M. Wai’s, The African-Arab Conflict in the Sudan and Abel Alier’s, 

Southern Sudan: Too Many Agreements Dishonoured. For an Arab viewpoint, Mohamed Omer Beshir’s The Southern Sudan: Background to 

Conflict and The Southern Sudan: From Conflict to Peace are pertinent. 

(For further information and complete citations, see Bibliography.) 

58 
Chapter 2. The Society and Its Environment 
Al-Nilayn Mosque at the confluence of the Blue Nile and White Nile in 

Khartoum 
 

 

TO UNDERSTAND SUDAN—either the country in general or any 

specific issue, such as the turmoil in Darfur, endemic economic problems, political instability since independence in 1956, and many others—requires first of all an appreciation of Sudan’s physical vastness 

and its ethnic and demographic diversity, which exceed those of all but a 

very small number of nations on earth. The country encompasses virtually every geographical feature, from the vast harsh deserts of the North 

to the substantial rain forests rising on its southern borders. 

Like most African countries, Sudan is defined by boundaries that 

European powers determined at the end of the nineteenth century. The 

Anglo-Egyptian colonial administration in Sudan, established in 1899, 

emphasized indirect rule by tribal sheikhs and chiefs, although tribalism 

had been considerably weakened as an administrative institution during 

the Mahdist period (1885–98). This loosening of loyalties exacerbated 

problems in governmental structure and administration and in the people’s identification as Sudanese. To this day, loyalty remains divided 

among family, clan, ethnic group, and religion, and it is difficult to forge 

national unity because the immensity of the land permits many of 

Sudan’s ethnic and tribal groups to live in relative isolation from each 

other and beyond the reach of the central government. 

The Nile is the link that runs through Sudan and influences the lives 

of Sudan’s people, even though many of them farm and herd far from 

the Nile or its three main tributaries, the Blue Nile, the White Nile, and 

the Bahr al-Ghazal. Not only do nomads come to the river to water their 

herds and cultivators to drain off its waters for their fields, but the Nile 

facilitates some trade, administration, and urbanization. Consequently, 

the confluence of the Blue Nile and White Nile became the administrative center of a vast hinterland because the area commanded the river, its 

commerce, and its urban society. This location enabled the urban elites 

to exercise a limited degree of control of the scattered and often isolated 

population of the interior while enjoying limited access to the peoples of 

the outside world. 

Although linked by at least some dependence on the Nile, Sudan’s 

population is divided by ethnic, linguistic, and religious differences. 

Many Sudanese in the North claim Arab descent and speak versions of 

Arabic, but Sudanese “Arabs” are highly differentiated. Over many generations, they have intermingled in varying degrees with the indigenous 

peoples and are more accurately described as “Afro-Arab.” By now, 

Arabic is Sudan’s official language (with Arabic and English the predominant languages in the South), but beyond Khartoum and its two 

61 
 

 

 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

neighboring cities of Omdurman and Khartoum North, a variety of languages are spoken. 

A more unifying factor has been Islam, which has spread widely 

among the peoples of northern Sudan. Because Muslims are required to 

use Quranic Arabic for ritual prayer, knowledge of some Arabic has 

tended to follow the spread of Islam as it did in the rest of North Africa. 

Only in the middle of the twentieth century did the Arabic language 

become a defining factor for Arab identity and Arab nationalism across 

the region. This development almost coincided in Sudan with the post– 

World War II struggle for independence. 

Whereas all Muslims of Northern Sudan are Sunni (see Glossary), 

they form no monolithic bloc. Some, especially in the urban centers, 

are strictly orthodox Muslims, whereas others, mostly in the rural areas 

but also on the periphery of the capital region, are more attracted to 

Sufism (see Glossary) or other forms of mystical worship. Within this 

branch and tendency of Islam are a host of religious sects with their 

own Islamic rituals and syncretistic adaptations. 

The Sudanese of the South are of purely African origin. Islam has 

made only modest inroads among these followers of traditional religions, as has Christianity, which spread in the twentieth century mostly 

through the activities of European missionaries. Arabic has not replaced 

the diverse languages of the South, but a pidgin form has become more 

widely spoken than English used to be, especially in the far South. 

The differences between North and South have often engendered 

hostility, a clash of cultures that in the last 150 years has led to frequent 

violence. The strong regional and cultural differences have inhibited 

nation building and contributed to the civil war in the South that has 

raged almost continuously since independence, except for a period of 

peace between 1972 and 1983 and in the early 2000s. The distrust 

between Sudanese of the North and those of the South—whether elite or 

peasants—has been a constant during the long years of hostilities. And 

the cost of war has drained valuable national resources at the expense of 

health, education, and welfare in both regions. 

Physical Setting 

Unitary Sudan is Africa’s largest country, embracing 2,505,813 

square kilometers of northeast and central Africa. It consists of a huge 

plain bordered on three sides by mountains: to the east the Red Sea 

Hills, to the west Jabal Marrah, and on the southern frontier the Didinga 

Hills and the Dongotona and Imatong Mountains. Jutting up abruptly in 

the south-central region of this vast plain are the isolated Nuba Mountains and, to their east, the Ingessana Hills; far to the southeast is the 

lone Boma Plateau near the Ethiopian border. Spanning 18 degrees of 

62 
 

The Society and Its Environment 

latitude, the plain of Sudan includes from north to south significant 

regions with distinctive characteristics: northern Sudan, western Sudan, 

the central clay plains, the Jabal Hadid, or Ironstone Plateau, and the 

southern hill masses (see fig. 8). 

Geographic Regions 

Northern Sudan, lying between the Egyptian border and Khartoum, 

has two distinct parts, the desert and the Nile valley. To the east of the 

Nile lies the Nubian Desert and to the west is the Libyan Desert. They 

are similar: stony, with sandy dunes drifting over the landscape. There 

is virtually no rainfall in these deserts, and in the Nubian Desert there 

are no oases. In the west, there are a few small watering holes, such as 

Bir en Natrun. Here the water table reaches the surface to form wells 

that provide water for nomads, caravans, and administrative patrols, 

although insufficient to support an oasis and inadequate to provide for 

a settled population. Running through the desert is the Nile valley, with 

its alluvial strip of habitable land no more than two kilometers wide 

and productivity dependent on the annual flood. 

Western Sudan is a generic term describing the regions known as 

Darfur and Kordofan (also seen as Kurdufan), which together comprise 

850,000 square kilometers. From Khartoum’s perspective, this area has 

been traditionally regarded as a single regional unit despite the physical 

differences. The dominant feature throughout this immense area is the 

absence of perennial streams; thus, people and animals must remain 

within reach of permanent wells. Consequently, the population is 

sparse and unevenly distributed. Western Darfur is an undulating plain 

dominated by the volcanic massif of Jabal Marrah towering 900 meters 

above the Sudanic plain; the drainage from Jabal Marrah onto the plain 

can support a settled population. Western Darfur stands in stark contrast to northern and eastern Darfur, which are semidesert with little 

water either from the intermittent streams known as wadis or from 

wells that normally go dry during the winter months. Northwest of Darfur and continuing into Chad lies the unusual region called the jizzu, 

where sporadic winter rains generated from the Mediterranean frequently provide excellent grazing into January or even February. 

The southern region of western Sudan (including South Darfur and 

South Kordofan States) is known as the qoz, a land of sand dunes that 

in the rainy season is characterized by a rolling mantle of grass and 

that has more reliable sources of water with its boreholes and manmade reservoirs than does the northern region. A unique feature of 

central Sudan is the Nuba Mountain range of South Kordofan, a conglomerate of isolated dome-shaped, sugarloaf hills that ascend steeply 

and abruptly from the great Sudanic plain. Many hills are isolated and 

63 
Sudan: A Country Study 

64

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I



ALSUDD

Port

Sudan

Abu

Hamad

Juba

Khartoum

C1

C3

C4

C6

C5

C2

LIBYAN

DESERT

IRONSTONE

PLATEAU

ALSUDD

RED SEA HILLS

NUBIAN

DESERT

NUBA

MOUNTAINS

DIDINGA

HILLS DONGOTONA MOUNTAINS

IMATONG MOUNTAINS

BOMA

PLATEAU

INGESSANA

HILLS

JABAL

MARRAH

3,187

Red

 Sea

Lake

Nasser

Lake

Nubia

Lake

Tana

Lake

No

Lake

Turkana

Nile

Rahad

Sobat

Nile

Tonj

Dindar

Blue Nile

White Nile

Atbarah

Bahr al-Jabal

Bahr alGhazal

Bahr al-Arab

T e ke zé

Jur

Lol

Qash

 Canal Jonglei

ETHIOPIA

KENYA

UGANDA

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

 OF THE CONGO

CHAD

LIBYA

EGYPT

ERITREA

CENTRAL

AFRICAN

REPUBLIC

SAUDI

ARABIA

Boundary representation

not necessarily authoritative

0

0

100 200 Kilometers

100 200 Miles



International

 boundary

Administrative

 boundary

National capital

Populated place

Spot elevation

 in meters

Cataract

12

18

24

24 30 36

24 30 36

6

12

18

24

6

extend only a few square kilometers, but several large hill masses 

with internal valleys cut through the mountains high above the plain.

Sudan’s third distinct region is the central clay plains that stretch 

eastward from the Nuba Mountains to the Ethiopian frontier, broken 

only by the Ingessana Hills, and from Khartoum in the north to the far 

reaches of southern Sudan. Between the Dindar and Rahad Rivers, a 

low ridge slopes down from the Ethiopian highlands to break the endFigure 8. Topography and Drainage
 

The Society and Its Environment 

less skyline of the plains, and the occasional hill stands out in stark 

relief. The central clay plains provide the backbone of Sudan’s economy because they are a productive region in which settlements cluster 

around available water. Furthermore, in the heartland of the central 

clay plains lies Al-Gezira (also seen as Al-Jazirah, literally, “peninsula” in Arabic), the land between the Blue Nile and the White Nile 

north of an imaginary line linking Kosti and Sinnar (also seen as Sennar and Sannar) where the great Gezira Scheme was developed (see 

Agriculture, ch. 3). The project grows cotton for export and traditionally produced more than half of Sudan’s revenue and export earnings. 

Northeast of the central clay plains lies eastern Sudan, which is 

divided between desert and semidesert and includes Al-Butanah, the 

Qash Delta, the Red Sea Hills, and the coastal plain. Al-Butanah is an 

undulating land between Khartoum and Kassala that provides adequate 

grazing for cattle, sheep, and goats. East of Al-Butanah is a peculiar 

geological formation known as the Qash Delta. Originally a depression, 

it has been filled with sand and silt brought down by the flash floods of 

the Qash River, creating a delta above the surrounding plain. Extending 

100 kilometers north of Kassala, the whole area watered by the Qash is 

a rich grassland with bountiful cultivation long after the river has spent 

its waters on the surface of its delta. Trees and bushes provide grazing 

for the camels from the north, and the rich, moist soil provides an abundance of food crops and cotton. 

North of the Qash lie the more formidable Red Sea Hills. Dry, 

bleak, and cooler than the surrounding land, particularly in the heat of 

the Sudan summer, they stretch northward into Egypt, a jumbled mass 

of hills where life is hard and unpredictable for the hardy Beja inhabitants. Below the hills sprawls the coastal plain of the Red Sea, varying 

in width from about 56 kilometers in the south near Tawkar to about 

24 kilometers near the Egyptian border. The coastal plain is dry and 

barren. It consists of rocks, and the seaward side is thick with coral 

reefs. 

The southern clay plains, which can be regarded as an extension of 

the northern clay plains, extend all the way from northern Sudan to the 

mountains of the Sudan–Uganda border, and in the west from the borders of the Central African Republic eastward to the Ethiopian highlands. This great Nilotic plain is broken by several distinctive features. 

First, the White Nile bisects the plain and provides large permanent 

expanses of water such as lakes Fajarial, No, and Shambe. Second, AlSudd, the world’s largest swamp, provides a formidable expanse of 

lakes, lagoons, and aquatic plants, an area that in high floodwaters 

exceeds 30,000 square kilometers, approximately the area of Belgium. 

So intractable was this sudd (see Glossary), or barrier, as an obstacle to 

65 
 

 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

navigation that a passage was not discovered until the mid-nineteenth 

century. Then as now, Al-Sudd, with its extreme rate of evaporation, 

absorbs on average more than half the waters that flow down the White 

Nile from the equatorial lakes of Central Africa. These waters also create an annual flood plain known as the toich, which provides grazing 

when the floodwaters retreat to the permanent swamp and sluggish 

river, the Bahr al-Jabal, as the White Nile is called here. 

The land rising to the south and west of the southern clay plains is 

referred to as the Ironstone Plateau (Jabal Hadid), a name derived from 

its laterite soil and increasing elevation. The plateau rises from the west 

bank of the Nile, sloping gradually upward to the Congo–Nile watershed. The land is well watered, providing rich cultivation, but the 

streams and rivers that come down from the watershed divide and erode 

the land before they flow onto the Nilotic plain and into Al-Sudd. 

Along the streams of the watershed are the gallery forests, the beginnings of the tropical rain forests that extend far into the Democratic 

Republic of the Congo. To the east of the Jabal Hadid and the Bahr alJabal rise the foothills of the mountain ranges along the Sudan–Uganda 

border—the Imatong, Dongotona, and Didinga—which rise to more 

than 3,000 meters. These mountains form a stark contrast to the great 

plains to the north that dominate Sudan’s geography. 

Soils 

The country’s soils can be divided geographically into three categories: the sandy soils of the northern and west-central areas, the clay 

soils of the central region, and the laterite soils of the south. Less 

extensive and widely separated, but of major economic importance, is 

a fourth group consisting of alluvial soils found along the lower 

reaches of the White Nile and Blue Nile Rivers, along the main Nile to 

Lake Nubia, in the delta of the Qash River in the Kassala area, and in 

the Barakah Delta in the area of Tawkar near the Red Sea. 

Agriculturally, the most important soils are the clays in central 

Sudan that extend from west of Kassala into southern Kordofan. 

Known as cracking soils because of the practice of allowing them to 

dry out and crack during the dry months to restore their permeability, 

they are the basis in parts of Al-Gezira and Khashm al-Qirbah for irrigated cultivation. East of the Blue Nile, large areas are used to grow 

rainfed crops by farmers who have mechanized equipment. West of the 

White Nile, these soils allow traditional cultivators to grow sorghum, 

sesame, peanuts, and (in the area around the Nuba Mountains) cotton. 

The southern part of the clay-soil zone lies in the broad floodplain of 

the upper reaches of the White Nile and its tributaries, covering most 

of Upper Nile, Jonglei, North Bahr al-Ghazal, and Warab States. Sub66 
 

 

 

 

The Society and Its Environment 

ject to heavy rainfall during the rainy season, the floodplain proper is 

inundated for four to six months each year. The large swampy area, AlSudd, is permanently flooded, and adjacent areas are flooded for one or 

two months. In general, this area is poorly suited to crop production, 

but the grasses it supports during dry periods are used for grazing. 

The sandy soils in the semiarid areas south of the desert in North 

Kordofan and North Darfur States support vegetation used for grazing. 

In the southern part of these states and the western part of southern Darfur are the so-called qoz sands. Livestock raising is this area’s major 

activity, but a significant amount of crop cultivation, mainly of millet, 

also occurs. Peanuts and sesame are grown as cash crops. The qoz 

sands are the principal area from which gum arabic is obtained through 

tapping of Acacia senegal (known locally as hashab). This tree grows 

readily in the region, and cultivators occasionally plant hashab when 

land is returned to fallow. Sudan produces about 60 percent of the 

world’s gum arabic. 

The laterite soils of the south cover most of West Equatoria and 

West Bahr al-Ghazal States. They underlie the extensive moist woodlands found in these provinces. Crop production is scattered, and the 

soils, where cultivated, lose fertility relatively quickly; even the richer 

soils are usually returned to bush fallow within five years. 

Hydrology 

Except for a small area in northeastern Sudan, where wadis discharge the sporadic runoff into the Red Sea or rivers from Eritrea flow 

into shallow evaporating ponds west of the Red Sea Hills, the entire 

country is drained by the Nile and its two main tributaries, the Blue 

Nile and the White Nile. The longest river in the world, the Nile flows 

for 6,737 kilometers from its farthest headwaters in central Africa to 

the Mediterranean. The importance of the Nile has been recognized 

since biblical times; for centuries the river has been a lifeline for 

Sudan. 

The Blue Nile flows out of the Ethiopian highlands to meet the 

White Nile at Khartoum. The Blue Nile is the smaller of the two rivers; its flow usually accounts for only one-sixth of the total. In August, 

however, the rains in the Ethiopian highlands swell the Blue Nile until 

it accounts for 90 percent of the Nile’s total flow. Sudan has constructed several dams to regulate the river’s flow: the Roseires Dam, 

about 100 kilometers from the Ethiopian border; the Meina al-Mak 

Dam at Sinjah; and the largest, the 40-meter-high Sinnar Dam constructed in 1925 at Sinnar. The Blue Nile’s two main tributaries, the 

Dindar and the Rahad, have headwaters in the Ethiopian highlands and 

discharge water into the Blue Nile only during the summer high-water 

67 
 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

season. For the remainder of the year, their flow is reduced to pools in 

sandy riverbeds. 

The White Nile flows north from central Africa, draining Lake Victoria and highland regions of Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. North of 

Uganda, the Nile is known as Bahr al-Jabal until the point at Lake No, 

where the Bahr al-Ghazal flows into it. At Bor, the southern edge of the 

great swamp of the Nile, Al-Sudd, begins. The river has no well-defined 

channel here; the water flows slowly through a labyrinth of small spillways and lakes choked with papyrus and reeds. Much water is lost to 

evaporation. To provide for water transportation through this region and 

to speed the river’s flow so that less water evaporates, Sudan, with 

French help, began building the Jonglei Canal (see Glossary; also seen 

as Junqali Canal) from Bor to a point just upstream from Malakal. However, construction was suspended in 1984 because of security problems 

caused by the civil war in the region. 

South of Khartoum, the British built the Jabal al-Awliya Dam in 

1937 to store the water of the White Nile and then release it in the fall 

when the flow from the Blue Nile slackens. Much water from the reservoir has been diverted for irrigation projects in central Sudan, however, and much of the remainder evaporates. By now, silt deposits 

have curtailed the overall flow. 

The White Nile has several substantial tributaries that drain southern Sudan. In the southwest, the Bahr al-Ghazal and its major tributary, the Bahr al-Arab, which meet at Al-Sudd, drain a basin larger in 

area than France. Although the drainage area is extensive, evaporation 

takes most of the water from the slow-moving streams in this region, 

and the discharge of the Bahr al-Ghazal into the White Nile is minimal. In southeast Sudan, the Sobat River drains an area of western 

Ethiopia and the hills north of the Sudan–Uganda border. The Sobat’s 

discharge is considerable; at its confluence with the White Nile just 

south of Malakal, the Sobat accounts for half the White Nile’s water. 

North of Khartoum, the Nile flows through the desert in a large Sshaped pattern to empty into Lake Nasser behind the Aswan High 

Dam in Egypt. The river flows slowly beyond Khartoum, dropping little in elevation, although five cataracts hinder river transport at times 

of low water. The Atbarah River, flowing out of Ethiopia, is the only 

tributary north of Khartoum, and its waters reach the Nile for only the 

six months between July and December. During the rest of the year, 

the Atbarah’s bed is dry, except for a few pools and ponds. 

Sudan faces some severe environmental problems, most related 

either to the availability of water or its disposal. Among them are 

desertification, land degradation, and deforestation. Desertification, the 

southward shift of the boundary between desert and semidesert, has 

68 
The Society and Its Environment

Canoes laden with goods for market on the White Nile near Malakal, 2004 

Copyright Michael Freeman 

occurred at an estimated rate of 50 to 200 kilometers since records of 

rainfall and vegetation began in the 1930s. Its impact has been most 

notable in North Darfur and North Kordofan. Desertification is likely 

to continue its southward progression because of declining precipitation and will lead to continued loss of productive land. Agriculture, 

particularly poorly planned and managed mechanized agriculture, has 

led to land degradation, water pollution, and related problems. Land 

degradation has also resulted from an explosive growth in the size of 

livestock herds since the 1960s that has overtaxed grazing areas. Deforestation has occurred at an alarming rate. Sudan as a whole might have 

lost nearly 12 percent of its forest cover between 1990 and 2005, or 

about 8.8 million hectares (see Glossary), a loss driven primarily by 

land clearance and energy needs. Northern, eastern, and central Sudan 

have been gravely affected; southern Sudan is estimated to have lost 

some 40 percent of its forest cover since independence. 

Compounding Sudan’s environmental problems are long years of 

warfare and the resultant camps for large numbers of internally displaced people, who scour the surrounding land for water, fuel, and food. 

United Nations (UN) experts predict that riverbank erosion and loss of 

fertilizing silt will occur from Sudan’s current ambitious program of 

dam construction on the Nile and its tributaries. In urban areas, rapid and 

uncontrolled population influx into Khartoum and other cities and towns 

69 
 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

and the general lack of facilities to manage solid waste and sewage are 

among major environmental concerns. 

Climate 

Although Sudan lies within the tropics, the climate ranges from arid 

in the north to tropical wet-and-dry in the far southwest. Temperatures 

do not vary greatly with the season at any location; the most significant climatic variables are rainfall and the length of the dry season. 

Variations in the length of the dry season depend on which of two air 

flows predominates: dry northern winds from the Sahara and the Arabian Peninsula or moist southwesterly winds from the Congo River 

basin and southeasterly winds from the Indian Ocean. 

From January to March, the country is under the influence of dry 

northeasterlies. There is minimal rainfall countrywide, except for a 

small area in northwestern Sudan where the winds have passed over the 

Mediterranean and bring occasional light rains. By early April, the moist 

southwesterlies have reached southern Sudan, bringing heavy rains and 

thunderstorms. By July the moist air has reached Khartoum, and in 

August it extends to its usual northern limits around Abu Hamad, 

although in some years the humid air may even reach the Egyptian border. The flow becomes weaker as it spreads north. In September, the dry 

northeasterlies begin to strengthen and to push south, and by the end of 

December they cover the entire country. Yambio, close to the border 

with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has a nine-month rainy season (April–December) and receives an average of 1,142 millimeters of 

rain each year; Khartoum has a three-month rainy season (July–September) with an annual average rainfall of 161 millimeters; Atbarah 

receives showers in August that produce an annual average of only 74 

millimeters. 

In some years, the arrival of the southwesterlies and their rain in central Sudan can be delayed, or they may not come at all. If that happens, 

drought and famine follow. The decades of the 1970s, 1980s, and 

1990s saw the southwesterlies frequently fail, with disastrous results 

for the Sudanese people and economy. 

Temperatures are the highest at the end of the dry season, when cloudless skies and dry air allow them to soar. The far south, however, with 

only a short dry season, has uniformly high temperatures throughout the 

year. In Khartoum, the hottest months are May and June, when average 

highs are 41o C, and temperatures can reach 48o C. Northern Sudan, with 

its short rainy season, has hot daytime temperatures year-round, except 

for winter months in the northwest, where there is some precipitation in 

January and February. Conditions in highland areas are generally cooler, 

and the hot daytime temperatures during the dry season throughout cen70 
 

 

 

 

The Society and Its Environment 

tral and northern Sudan fall rapidly after sunset. Lows in Khartoum average 15o C in January and have dropped as low as 6o C after the passing of 

a cool front in winter. 

The haboob, a violent dust storm, can occur in central Sudan when 

the moist southwesterly flow first arrives (May through July). The 

moist, unstable air forms thunderstorms in the heat of the afternoon. 

The initial downflow of air from an approaching storm produces a huge 

yellow/red wall of sand and clay that can temporarily reduce visibility 

to zero; traffic comes to a standstill, and fine sand particles penetrate the 

most unlikely places. 

Population 

Sudan’s vast territory, coupled with its history of near-constant civil 

conflict, has made gathering precise demographic data a daunting task. 

The Sudanese government conducted national censuses in 1955–56, 

1973, 1983, and 1993. Each had serious flaws. The first census was 

inadequately prepared and executed. The second was not officially recognized by the government, and its findings were never released. The 

third census was of better quality, but some of the data have never been 

analyzed because of inadequate resources. The 1993 census was plagued 

by irregularities and data gaps, most notably data from Southern Sudan. 

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement of January 2005 called for a 

countrywide national census as the basis for an equitable allocation of 

resources, infrastructure, and power (see Recent Constitutional Developments, ch. 4). This fifth national census was mandated to occur not later 

than mid-2007, but it was not carried out until April 22–30, 2008. Preliminary results were available in late 2010 in time for the Southern 

Sudan independence referendum in January 2011. 

The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that Sudan had a population of 8 

million in 1950 and nearly 14 million in 1970. Sudan’s own census of 

1983 showed the total population to be 21.6 million, reflecting an annual 

growth rate between 1956 and 1983 of 2.8 percent. The next official census, conducted in 1993, placed Sudan’s population at 24.9 million, but it 

omitted the South because of continuing civil war. According to the 

2008 census, Sudan’s population totaled 39.2 million, of whom 30.9 

million lived in the North and 8.3 million in the South. Of the total population, males slightly outnumbered females (at 20.1 million vsersus 19.1 

million); those aged 16 years and younger constituted 47.2 percent of the 

total, of whom 46.7 percent were in the North and 49.0 percent in the 

South (see fig. 9). The U.S. Census Bureau’s estimate of Sudan’s midyear 2008 population was 40.2 million, with a birthrate of 34 births per 

1,000, a death rate of 14 per 1,000, and a rate of growth about 2.1 percent. As long as Sudan continues to grow at or near its current pace, it 

71 
Sudan: A Country Study 

72

Source: Based on 2008 census data in Republic of Sudan, Ministry of the Cabinet, Central 

Bureau of Statistics, Sudan in Figures, 2008, http://www.cbs.gov.sd/pub.htm.

will rank among the world’s fastest-growing countries. While population models vary, the U.S. Census Bureau projected a population of 49.8 

million in 2015 and 63.1 million in 2025.

Despite these projections, the country’s population growth rate has 

been steadily declining and will likely continue to do so. The U.S. Census Bureau and the World Bank estimated that population growth 

peaked in the 1970s and 1980s at 3.2 and 3.3 percent, respectively, and 

that it has gradually fallen since that time. From 1990 to 2000, the population grew by 2.8 percent; by the early 2000s, the rate had declined to 

about 2.6 percent or lower. Sudan’s estimate of its annual population 

growth from 1983 to 2008 was 2.8 percent. Experts predict that the population growth rate will fall below 2 percent sometime around 2020.

Sudan had a population density in mid-2008 of only 16 persons per 

square kilometer, but this figure is misleading because much of Sudan is 

uninhabitable, and its people are unevenly distributed throughout the 

country. Roughly two-thirds of Sudan’s population resides within 300–

500 kilometers of Khartoum and is concentrated around Khartoum and 

0–4

5–9

10–14

15–19

20–24

25–29

30–34

35–39

40–44

45–49

50–54

55–59

60–64

65–69

70–74

75–79

80–84

85–89

90–94

95 and older

AGE-GROUP

MALES FEMALES

POPULATION IN MILLIONS

Total Population = 39.2 Million

3.0 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3.0 2.5

Figure 9. Population Distribution by Age and Sex, 2008
The Society and Its Environment 

in Al-Gezira. Government estimates for 2007 showed that the country’s 

most densely populated states were Khartoum (16.7 percent), Al-Gezira 

(11.1 percent), and South Darfur (9.4 percent), a population distribution 

seemingly confirmed by the 2008 census. In the South, the 2008 census 

showed that the most populous states were Jonglei (1.4 million), Central 

Equatoria (ca. 1.2 million), and Warab (ca. 1.0 million). The census also 

showed that for Sudan as a whole, the urban–rural ratio was 29.5 and 

70.5 (42.0 and 58.1 in the North, and 17.01 and 83.0 in the South), less 

than average rates of urbanization in sub-Saharan Africa and much less 

than in North Africa. The population of the Three Towns (see Glossary) 

of the Khartoum metropolitan area is uncertain because of fluctuations 

in the number of refugees, but estimates of 5 million may be realistic. In 

general, Sudan remains an overwhelmingly rural nation. 

In 2009 the United Nations reported that life expectancy at birth for 

Sudanese citizens averaged 58 years, 57 years for males and 59 for 

females, an increase from 46 years in 1970 and 53 years in 1990. This 

average compares positively with that of other African nations (52 

years) and is comparable to other nations at a similar stage of economic 

development (58 years). Life expectancy is expected to continue to 

increase in coming decades; for example, the U.S. Census Bureau predicts that average life expectancy in Sudan will reach 66 years by 

2025. In 2009 the annual number of births totaled 1.3 million. The rate 

of infant mortality (under one year) was 69 deaths per 1,000 live births, 

and the total fertility rate (lifetime births per female) was 4.1. Both 

rates showed substantial declines since the 1980s. 

In the South, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that as 

of the mid-2000s, life expectancy was 42 years, significantly less than 

for the country in general. A household health survey conducted by the 

Southern government in 2006 found that the infant mortality rate was 

102 deaths per 1,000 live births; the under-five mortality rate, 135 per 

1,000; and the maternal mortality rate, 2,054 deaths per 100,000 live 

births, all among the highest rates in the world. Average nationwide 

statistics for 1993–99 for these same categories⎯65 per 1,000, 125 per 

100,000, and 506 per 100,000, respectively⎯were well below those of 

the South as of 2006 (see Health, this ch.). Contraceptive use remains 

very low in Sudan. For the most part, only urban elites have knowledge 

of basic family-planning practices. Sudan does not have a national 

family-planning program. 

Migration and Refugees 

The era since independence has seen a notable increase in internal 

migration. In the early postindependence years, most migrants left 

their homes in search of employment in large agricultural projects or 

73 
 

Sudan: A Country Study 

in large urban centers, particularly the Three Towns, which attracted 

some 50 percent of all internal migrants. Their numbers escalated 

greatly in the late 1980s because of drought and famine, the civil war 

in the South, and Chadian incursions into the West. As in the past, 

migrants left their homelands for economic, social, and psychological 

reasons, but now with the added factor of personal survival. 

Internal migration created problems of employment, housing, and 

services, and it also had an enormous impact on ethnicity. Although 

migrants tended to cluster with their kinfolk in their new environments, 

the daily interaction with Sudanese from many other ethnic groups rapidly eroded traditional values learned in the villages. In the best of circumstances, this erosion might lead to a new sense of national identity 

as Sudanese, but the new communities often lacked effective absorptive mechanisms and were weak economically. Ethnic divisions were 

thus reinforced, and at the same time social anomie was perpetuated. 

Refugees from other countries, like internal migrants, were a factor 

that further complicated ethnic patterns. 

By the early 2000s, continued conflict in the South and the outbreak 

of warfare in Darfur had led to a dramatic increase in the number of 

internally displaced people (IDPs). In 1991 the United Nations High 

Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that approximately 1.8 

million IDPs, many of them Southerners, resided in the North, of whom 

an estimated 750,000 were in what was then Al-Khartoum State, 30,000 

each in Kordofan and Al-Awsat States, 300,000 each in Darfur and Ash 

Sharqi States, and 150,000 in Ash Shamali State. In January 2009, the 

UNHCR estimated that there were more than 4 million IDPs in Sudan 

excluding the South, including 2.5 million IDPs in the Darfur region and 

1.7 million in Khartoum State, most of them Southerners. In addition, 

some 30,000 refugees from neighboring countries also resided in Khartoum. As for the South, international organizations estimated that 4 million people there had been displaced, more than 2 million deaths had 

occurred, and 600,000 were forced into exile between the resumption of 

the civil war in 1983 and its end in 2005. Figures for total displaced populations within Sudan varied according to the source. For example, the 

Norwegian Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre reported that as of 

early 2009, about 4.9 million remained internally displaced, half of them 

in the Darfur region. 

Aside from Sudanese who have relocated within their own country, 

almost 700,000 had left Sudan altogether as of 2005, including the estimated 600,000 from the South. Uganda hosted more than 200,000 of 

them; tens of thousands more had fled to Kenya. UN officials reported 

in March 2006 that an average of 100−125 Sudanese migrants arrived 

at one of their 12 refugee camps in eastern Chad each day. By January 

74 
 

 

 

 

The Society and Its Environment 

2009, the number of Sudanese refugees in Chad had risen to almost 

250,000, whereas the numbers in Kenya had declined to about 23,000. 

In late 2008, the UNHCR estimated that nearly 130,000 Sudanese refugees still resided in Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. Aside from 

Egypt, a relatively small number of Sudanese have sought refuge in the 

Arab world in Lebanon and Syria. 

Refugees not only have flowed out of Sudan, but they also have 

streamed in. As of late 2008, the UNHCR reported roughly 230,000 

refugees from other countries in Sudan. Some 147,000 were housed in 

camps along the border with Eritrea. Almost all were Eritreans except 

for perhaps 10,000 to 15,000 Ethiopians. Many of these refugees had 

lived in eastern Sudan for more than 40 years as a result of conflict and 

famine in their homelands. Since July 2007, this region had seen a continuing influx of newcomers from Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Some 

45,000 Chadians and 3,000 refugees from the Central African Republic 

had crossed into Darfur as a result of raiding and fighting along 

Sudan’s western border, some of it dating to the 1990s. An estimated 

30,000 refugees and asylum seekers resided in Khartoum, most of them 

Eritreans and Ethiopians; a few Ethiopian refugees were found in the 

South. 

Large numbers of IDPs and refugees abroad had begun to return to 

their homes as a result of peace efforts between the North and the 

South. As of early 2009, more than 2 million of the estimated 4 million 

from the South who had fled their homeland for the North were 

thought to have returned home. Many had done so with encouragement 

from the new Government of South Sudan, whose policy was to 

encourage Southerners to return to the South, apparently in view of the 

upcoming national census. Nonetheless, large numbers had chosen to 

remain in their places of refuge, including the estimated 1.7 million in 

and around Khartoum, because they preferred the amenities and alternative livelihoods associated with urban life, because they lacked the 

means to move on their own, or because they were discouraged by the 

lack of infrastructure, services, and security in their homelands. By 

remaining in the North, however, the displaced faced generally squalid 

conditions in refugee camps and, in Khartoum, forced relocation as the 

government cleared land for urban development. At the same time, 

tensions associated with peace efforts were responsible for large numbers of IDPs in three regions along the border between North and 

South, namely, Abyei, Blue Nile State, and South Kordofan. 

75 
Sudan: A Country Study 

Ethnicity and Languages 

Ethnicity 

Sudan’s ethnic and linguistic diversity is among the most complex 

in the world. Its nearly 600 ethnic groups speak more than 400 languages and dialects, many of them intelligible to only a small number 

of individuals. In recent decades, some of these small groups have been 

absorbed by larger groups, and migration often causes individuals 

reared in one tongue to converse only in the dominant language of the 

new area. Some linguistic groups have been absorbed by accommodation, others by conflict. In the case of migrants to the Three Towns, 

Arabic is the lingua franca even for Southerners, while the use of English continues to decline in quantity and quality. 

The definition and boundaries of ethnic groups depend on how people perceive themselves and others. Language, cultural characteristics, 

and common ancestry may be used as markers of ethnic identity or difference, but they do not always define groups of people. Thus, the people called Atuot and the much larger group called Nuer speak 

essentially the same language, share many cultural characteristics, and 

acknowledge a common ancestry, but each group defines itself and the 

other as different. Moreover, ethnic group names commonly used in 

Sudan and by foreign analysts are not always used by the people themselves. This fact is particularly true for non-Arab groups known by 

names coined by Arabs or by the British, who based the names on 

terms used by Arabs or others, not by the group itself. Thus, the Dinka 

and the Nuer, the largest groups in the South, call themselves, respectively, Jieng and Naadh, and not Dinka or Nuer. 

The distinction between Sudan’s Muslim and non-Muslim people 

has been of considerable importance in the country’s modern history 

and provides a preliminary ordering of ethnic groups. It does not, however, correspond in any simple way to distinctions based on linguistic, 

cultural, or racial criteria, nor to social or political solidarity. Choice of 

language has played a political role in the ethnic and religious cleavage 

between the peoples of the North and of the South. English traditionally 

was associated with being non-Muslim, as Arabic was associated with 

Islam. Yet, recent migration from the South to destinations throughout 

northern towns even as far north as Dongola (also seen as Dunqulah), 

plus aggressive government policies of Arabization in the school system during the 1990s, make this distinction less applicable in the early 

2000s. 

76 
 

 

 

 

The Society and Its Environment 

Languages 

Most languages spoken in Africa fall into four language superstocks. Three of them—Afro-Asiatic, Niger-Kordofanian, and NiloSaharan—are represented in Sudan. Each is divided into groups that 

are in turn subdivided into sets of closely related languages. Two or 

more major groups of each of the three superstocks are present in 

Sudan, historically both a north–south and an east–west migration 

crossroads. 

The most widely spoken language in Sudan is Arabic, a member of 

the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Cushitic, 

another major branch of Afro-Asiatic, is represented by Bedawiye (with 

several dialects), spoken by the largely nomadic Beja. Chadic, a third 

branch, is represented by its most important single language, Hausa, a 

West African tongue used in Nigeria by the Hausa themselves and 

employed by many other West Africans in Sudan as a lingua franca. 

Niger-Kordofanian is first divided into Niger-Congo and Kordofanian. The widespread Niger-Congo language group includes many divisions and subdivisions of languages. Represented in Sudan are Azande 

and several other tongues of the Adamawa-Eastern language division, 

and Fulani of the West Atlantic division. The Kordofanian stock comprises only 30 to 40 languages spoken in a limited area of Sudan—the 

Nuba Mountains and their environs. 

The designation of a Nilo-Saharan superstock has not been fully 

accepted by linguists, and its constituent groups and subgroups are 

not firmly fixed, in part because many of the languages have not been 

well studied. Assuming the validity of this language family and its 

internal divisions, then 10 of its 12 major divisions and many of their 

subdivisions are well represented in Sudan, where roughly 75 languages, well over half of those named in the 1955–56 census, could 

be identified as Nilo-Saharan. Many of these languages are only used 

by small groups of people. Only six or seven of them were spoken by 

1 percent or more of Sudan’s 1956 population. Perhaps another dozen 

were the home languages of 0.5 to 1 percent. Included among NiloSaharan languages are Masalit in North Darfur; various Nubian dialects of Northern Sudan; and Jieng (Dinka) and Naadh (Nuer) in 

Southern Sudan. 

Many other languages are spoken by a few thousand or even a few 

hundred people. Several lingua francas have emerged, and many peoples have become genuinely multilingual, fluent in a native language 

spoken at home, a lingua franca, and perhaps other languages. Arabic, 

however, has several different forms, and not all who master one are 

able to use another. Among the varieties noted by scholars are classical 

Arabic, the language of the Quran, not a widespread spoken language 

77 
 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

and mostly used in Islamic rites and poetry. Although some Muslims 

might become acquainted with classical Arabic in the course of rudimentary religious schooling, very few except the most educated know 

it by rote. Modern Standard Arabic, derived from classical Arabic, is 

used by the educated in travel outside the country. Then there are at 

least two kinds of colloquial Arabic in Sudan—that spoken in roughly 

the eastern half of the country and known as Sudanese or Omdurmani 

colloquial Arabic, and that spoken in western Sudan, closely akin to 

the colloquial Arabic spoken in Chad. There are other colloquial 

forms. A pidgin called Juba Arabic is peculiar to Southern Sudan. 

Modern Standard Arabic is in principle the same everywhere in the 

Arab world and generally permits communication among educated 

persons whose mother tongue is one or another form of colloquial Arabic. Despite its international character, however, Modern Standard 

Arabic varies from country to country. Nevertheless, it has been the 

language used in Sudan’s central government, the press, Sudan television, and Radio Omdurman. The latter also broadcast in classical Arabic. One observer, writing in the early 1970s, noted that Arabic 

speakers (and others who had acquired the language informally) in 

western Sudan found it easier to understand the Chadian colloquial 

Arabic used by Chad Radio than the Modern Standard Arabic used by 

Radio Omdurman. This may also be the case elsewhere in rural Sudan, 

where villagers and nomads speak a local dialect of Arabic. 

Juba (or pidgin) Arabic, developed and learned informally, has been 

used in Southern towns, particularly in the far South, for some time 

and has spread slowly but steadily throughout the South, but not 

always at the expense of English. The Juba Arabic used in the marketplace and even by political figures addressing ethnically mixed urban 

audiences cannot be understood easily by Sudanese from the North. 

Despite Arabic’s status as the official national language, English 

was acknowledged as the principal language in the South into the 

1990s. It was also the chief language at the University of Khartoum 

and was the language of secondary schools even in the North before 

1969. In the early 1970s in the South, the first two years of primary 

school were taught in the local language. Thereafter, through secondary school, either Arabic or English could be the medium of instruction (English and Arabic were regarded as of equal importance); the 

language not used as a medium was taught as a subject. At the time 

when this option was established, roughly half the general secondary 

schools (equivalent to grades seven through nine) were conducted in 

Arabic and half in English in what were then Bahr al-Ghazal and AlIstiwai States. 

78 
The Society and Its Environment 

The new policy for higher education announced by the Sudanese 

government in 1990, however, dictated that Arabic would be the language of instruction in all institutions of higher learning (see Education, 

this ch.). This policy was reversed by provisions of the Comprehensive 

Peace Agreement of 2005 that were incorporated into Sudan’s Interim 

National Constitution. These provisions established both Arabic and 

English as official working languages of the national government and as 

the languages of instruction in higher education. The constitution 

declared further that “all indigenous languages of the Sudan are national 

languages and shall be respected, developed, and promoted,” and it 

allowed any legislative body below the national level to adopt any other 

national language(s) as additional official working language(s) within 

that body’s jurisdiction. These changes began working their way into 

public life and into secondary and higher education. 

Ethnic Groups 

Muslim Peoples 

An often-made distinction among Sudan’s peoples is that between 

Muslim and non-Muslim groups. While the distinction may be valid 

in terms of religion, both Muslim and non-Muslim groups are enormously diverse ethnically, linguistically, and geographically. The distinction, nonetheless, remains a useful method of classifying Sudan’s 

variegated ethnic landscape (see fig. 10). 

Arabs and Nubians 

The term Arab is confusing to most people because it does not correspond to an ethnic or religious identity. For example, there are at least 

10 million Arab Christians, mostly in Egypt and the Fertile Crescent, a 

small number of whom reside in Sudan as descendants of Orthodox 

Copts who arrived during the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium. Similarly, “Arabs” span the racial spectrum from very light to quite dark in 

pigmentation, and there are no unifying physiological characteristics. In 

fact, the League of Arab States debated the issue of Arab identity for 

years after its establishment in 1945 and eventually decided that an 

Arab was anyone whose mother tongue was Arabic and who “identified 

with Arab culture and destiny.” By this definition, approximately 40 

percent of Sudan’s population is ethnically Arab, but most Sudanese 

intellectuals and informed foreign observers agree that the more accurate description is Afro-Arab. 

Further complicating the terminology have been consistent efforts 

by non-Arab politicians, especially those in the South and some in the 

West, to describe the ruling elite as Arab in order to appeal to presumed 

79 
 

Kuku 

Didinga 

Azande 

Kakwa 

Bari

Madi 

Sudan: A Country Study 

A

Nile 

Blu e N i l e 

W h i t e Nile 

Amarar 

Hadendowa 

Bisharin 

Shilluk

Nuba 

Ndogo 

Bviri 

Daju 

Berti 

Hamar

Za gha wa 

Masalit 

Kreish 

Uduk 

Ing essana 

N u b i a n s 

Rashaida 

Bani Amir 

DINKA 

DINKA 

NUER 

FUR 

BEJA 

KABABISH 

MISIRIYYAH 

DINKA 

SHAYQI

AH 

YY

J 

A ’ A L I Y 

Y 

I

N 

SHUKRIYYAH

RIZAYQAT 

® Khar toum Kassala 

Malakal 

Dongola 

0 

0 

100 200 Kilometers 

100 200 Miles 

®

BEJ A 

Baka 

Major ethnic group 

National capital 

International

 boundary 

Administrative

 boundary 

Semitic/Nilo-Saharan

 linguistic boundary 

Arabic-speaking area 

Smaller ethnic group 

Populated place 

Bongo 

Murle 

Baka Moru Mandari 

Avukaya Juba 

Note: Because of their scattered distribution, 

Hausa and Fulani are not shown on the map. 

Boundary representation 

not necessarily authoritative 

Figure 10. Major Ethnolinguistic Groups, 2011 

sympathies of Western observers, when in fact the indigenous elite in 

the North is a mixture of Arabs, Afro-Arabs, and non-Arabs. Actually, 

Northerners are more divided than united along tribal, racial, religious, 

and socioeconomic lines, a fact that accounts partially for the failures of 

successive governments to assert control over outlying areas or to 

move the country forward economically and socially. A much more 

useful distinction is, in fact, a term that originated in the nineteenth century distinguishing the awlad al-bahr (children of the river) from the 

awlad ar-rif (children of the countryside), a distinction reflecting the 

80 
 

 

 

The Society and Its Environment 

fact that all central governments since the 1820s have exercised a reach 

of perhaps no more than a 300-kilometer radius from Khartoum. 

Besides the major distinction dividing Arabs into sedentary and 

nomadic individuals, there was an old tradition that assigned them to 

tribes, each said to have a common ancestor. Earlier reference works 

distinguished three supratribal categories—the Juhayna, Ja’aliyyin, and 

Kawahla. Yet this listing is limited and its inferences debatable. The 

Juhayna category consisted of tribes considered nomadic, although 

many had become fully settled. The Ja’aliyyin encompassed the riverine, sedentary peoples from around Atbarah to just north of Khartoum, 

but some of these peoples had moved elsewhere. Some of the groups 

had become sedentary only in the twentieth century. Sudanese saw the 

Ja’aliyyin as primarily indigenous peoples who were gradually Arabized. Sudanese thought the Juhayna were more homogeneous, although 

some Juhayna groups had become more diverse by absorbing indigenous peoples. The Baqqara, for example, who moved south and west 

and encountered the peoples of those areas, became scarcely distinguishable from them. 

A third supratribal division of some importance was the Kawahla, 

consisting of 13 tribes of varying size. Eight of these tribes and segments of the other five were found north and west of Khartoum. These 

people were more heavily dependent on pastoralism than were the 

segments of the other five tribes, who lived on either side of the White 

Nile from south of Khartoum to north of Kosti. This cluster of five 

groups (for practical purposes, independent tribes) exhibited a considerable degree of self-awareness and cohesion in some circumstances, 

although that had not precluded intertribal competition for local power 

and status. 

Membership in tribal and subtribal units is generally by birth, but 

individuals and groups may also join these units by adoption, clientage, or a decision to live and behave a certain way. For example, when 

a sedentary Fur (“African”) becomes a cattle nomad, he is perceived as 

a Baqqara (“Arab”). Eventually, the descendants of such newcomers 

are regarded as belonging to the group by birth. 

Tribal and subtribal units divide the Arab ethnic category vertically, 

but other distinctions, such as social status and power, cut across Arab 

society and its tribal and subtribal components horizontally. Still 

another division is that of religious associations. 

A glance at both Sudan’s modern history and its governing elites 

reveals the major tribal groupings in riverine Muslim Sudan to be Nubians, Shayqiyyah, Ja’aliyyin, and Shukriyyah. Many smaller groups that 

are politically noteworthy, e.g., the Hashmab and the Mahha, are interspersed among them. 

81 
 

Sudan: A Country Study 

Besides actual size, tribal influence can be traced to educational 

opportunity. For example, “modern,” i.e., public education as distinct 

from religious (khalwa or kuttab) education, traveled southward from 

Egypt and initially reached Wadi Halfa in the far north of Nubia. It is 

no coincidence that the majority of the top administrators and university educators in postindependence Sudan have been Halfawiyyin, 

commonly known as Nubians. They are descendants of the ancient 

Kerman and Napatan populations and predate the arrival of the Arabs. 

Following the flooding of Wadi Halfa and the forced relocation of 

40,000 or so citizens to Khashm al-Qirbah near Kassala in the mid1960s, plus internal migration to the capital area, the center of Nubian 

settlement and culture has been Dongola; indeed, many “southern” 

Nubians have long been referred to as Dongolawi. The aforementioned 

Mahha are their fellow Nubian neighbors. Other much smaller groups 

speaking a related language and claiming a link with the Nile Nubians 

have been given local names; some near Dongola have been largely 

Arabized and are referred to as Danaqla. Even before the resettlement, 

many had left the valley for varying lengths of time to work in towns, 

although most sought to maintain a link with their traditional homeland. In the 1955–56 census, more Nile Nubians were counted in AlKhartoum Province than in the Nubian country to the north. A similar 

pattern of work in towns was apparently followed by those resettled at 

Khashm al-Qirbah. Many Nubians there retained their ancestral tenancies and had kin oversee their land and the hiring of non-Nubians to 

work it. The Nubians, often with their families, worked in Khartoum, 

the town of Kassala, and Port Sudan in jobs ranging from domestic service and semiskilled labor to teaching and civil service, which required 

literacy. Despite their knowledge of Arabic and devotion to Islam, 

Nubians retained considerable group consciousness and tended to 

maintain tightly knit communities in towns. In the mid-1990s, they 

numbered close to 300,000. 

Their next significant neighbors up the Nile are the Shayqiyyah living in and around Kuraymah, Merowe, and Kurti (also seen as Korti). 

They have been prominent in the military officer corps and police but 

also in senior positions in government. Like the Dongolawis to the 

northwest, these awlad al-bahr derive their livelihood from limited horticulture and date palm groves and are culturally somewhat akin to residents of Upper Egypt. Such is not the case with the Ja’aliyyin of the 

Nile region north and south of the capital area. Traditionally primarily 

involved in agriculture, these settled cultivators used to dominate central Sudan’s core socially, economically, and, to some extent, politically. 

East of the Blue Nile, just south of the capital region, is the land of 

the Shukriyyah, another significant ethnic group controlling both 

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The Society and Its Environment 

agriculture along the fertile Blue Nile and grazing land in and toward 

the Al-Butanah area east of the Nile. Farther east along the border 

with Eritrea and Ethiopia are the Rashaida, a relatively “pure” Arab 

people who arrived from Saudi Arabia in the nineteenth century and 

are related to the Juhayna grouping. The Rashaida are nomads who 

migrate with their camels, sheep, and goats between Al-Gedaref and 

Kassala or farther north in rhythm with the seasons. 

Another large “Arab” tribal federation is the Kababish, mostly in 

Kordofan. From their home area around Bara, young adult men have 

been camel drivers who deliver large flocks via a track through northwest Sudan to Upper Egypt near Asyout and on to Cairo’s Imbaba 

camel market. This activity has become legendary as the Darb al-Arba’ 

(the Forty Days Road), providing meat to hungry Egypt and economic 

prosperity to the Kababish and others in Kordofan. Farther west is the 

Hamar confederation, whose lifestyles and activities closely parallel 

those of the Kababish. 

To the southwest are the Misiriyyah and Rizayqat tribal federations, 

also seminomadic and also famous mostly for raising camels and sheep. 

Both straddle the border between South Kordorfan and South Darfur. 

Of these, the Misiriyyah may be the more significant because of their 

numbers—they are subdivided into two distinct federations with a distinct difference in skin pigmentation—and also because of their grazing 

locations near the northernmost Dinka grouping, the Abyei Dinka, 

whose territory is a “Southern” enclave in “Northern” Sudan. Throughout the twentieth century, reports of Misiriyyah encroachment on traditional Rizayqat or Abyei Dinka land, particularly during periods of 

drought, led to intercommunal fighting and loss of life and livestock. 

More recently, the Misiriyyah and Rizayqat have been mentioned in 

connection with the infamous janjaweed (see Glossary), ethnic militias 

armed by the central government to subdue the Darfuri rebels (see The 

War in Darfur, 2003–11, ch. 5). It is too early to conclude whether there 

is direct involvement of these groups or if these allegations reflect longtime animosities. 

Beja 

The Beja probably have lived in the Red Sea Hills since ancient 

times. Arab influence was not significant until a millennium or so ago, 

but it has since led the Beja to adopt Islam and genealogies that link 

them to Arab ancestors, to Arabize their names, and to include many 

Arabic terms in their language. Although some Arabs figure in the 

ancestry of the Beja, the group is mostly descended from an indigenous 

population, and they have not become Arabized. Their language, 

Bedawiye, links them to other Cushitic-speaking peoples farther south. 

83 
 

 

 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

Most Beja belong to one of four groups—the Bisharin, the Amarar, 

the Hadendowa, and the Bani Amir. The largest group is the Hadendowa, but the Bisharin have the most territory, living as settled tribes 

on the Atbarah River in the far south of the Beja range and as nomads 

in the north. A good number of the Hadendowa are also settled and 

engaged in agriculture, particularly in the coastal region near Tawkar, 

but many remain nomads. The Amarar, living in the central part of the 

Beja range, seem to be largely nomadic, as are the second largest 

group, the Bani Amir, who live along the border with Eritrea. The precise proportion of nomads in the Beja population in the early 2000s 

was not known, but it was far greater than the nomadic component of 

the Arab population. 

The Beja are characterized as conservative, proud, and aloof even 

toward other Beja and quite reticent in relations with strangers. They 

were long reluctant to accept the authority of central governments and 

have been organized, off-and-on, in the Beja Congress as a movement 

to advance their regional agenda (see Eastern Sudan, ch. 4). Estimates 

of their number in the early 2000s ranged upward of 2 million. In 

recent years, and in response to a declining rural economy and to warfare, many Beja have settled in urban areas such as Port Sudan, 

Sawakin (also seen as Suakin), and Kassala, some as refugees, and 

others as laborers in the oil-export sector. 

Fur 

The Fur, ruled from the seventeenth century until 1916 by an independent sultanate that controlled east–west trade and oriented politically and culturally to peoples in Chad, are a sedentary group long 

settled on and around the Jabal Marrah, where they cultivate millet, 

sorghum, and peanuts. Although the ruling dynasty and the peoples of 

the area have long been Muslims, they have not been Arabized; their 

integration into larger Sudanese society has been incomplete and troubled. Livestock have played a small part in the subsistence of most 

Fur. Those who acquired a substantial herd of cattle could maintain it 

only by living like the neighboring Baqqara Arabs, and those who 

persisted in this pattern eventually came to be thought of as Baqqara. 

In the late 1980s (the latest available estimate), the Fur numbered 

about 500,000. 

Although the Fur are the largest indigenous “nation” in Darfur— 

the province was named after them—they have felt marginalized 

since before independence. Some of their leaders have organized local 

movements calling for more autonomy or better services from Khartoum. These movements, such as the Suny Liberation Front of the 

1960s and 1970s (named after the town of Suny, near Jabal Marrah), 

sporadically took up arms against the central government. Gaining in 

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The Society and Its Environment 

strength in the late 1980s, adherents of these movements, organized as 

the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), struck with a vengeance in February 2003 against government positions in the provincial capital, AlFashir. A so-called Black Book detailed the perceived marginalization 

of the Darfuri peoples. 

Zaghawa 

Living on the desert plateau north of the Fur are the seminomadic 

people calling themselves Beri but known to the Arabs as Zaghawa or 

Bideyat. Large numbers of the group also live in Chad. Altogether, 

they numbered an estimated 122,000 in the late 1980s (latest available figure). 

Herders of cattle, camels, sheep, and goats, the Zaghawa also gain a 

major part of their subsistence by gathering wild grains and tubers. 

Zaghawa are settled in villages as cultivators of millet and vegetables; 

some are merchants who exchange animals for foodstuffs and manufactures. Adequate rainfall and access to water sources are perennial 

concerns. The long-lasting civil war in Chad, the years of drought from 

the 1980s onward, plus increasing desertification all led to communal 

infighting among neighboring tribes, both Arab and non-Arab throughout the mid-1990s. 

Converted to Islam from the seventeenth century and traditionally 

Ansar (see Glossary), the Zaghawa were among those groups who 

were targeted by emissaries identified with a branch of Hassan Abdallah al-Turabi’s National Islamic Front (see Islamic Movements and 

Religious Orders, this ch.; The Al-Bashir Era, ch. 4). A rebel group, 

heavily Zaghawa and calling itself the Justice and Equality Movement, 

joined the Sudan Liberation Army organized by the Fur in attacks on 

government forces in 2004. The Zaghawa are cognizant of their cultural identity and determined to preserve their well-being and political 

independence. 

Masalit, Berti, and Daju 

There are other peoples living in Darfur in the early 2000s who 

speak Nilo-Saharan languages and are at least nominally Muslim, the 

most important being the Masalit, Berti, and Daju. All are primarily 

cultivators living in permanent villages, but they also practice animal 

husbandry in varying degrees. The Masalit, living on both sides of the 

Sudan–Chad border, are the largest group, numbering 240,000 in the 

early 2000s. Small groups are found as far east as Al-Gedaref as a result 

of labor migration. Historically under a minor sultanate, they were positioned between the two dominant sultanates of the area, Darfur and 

Wadai (in Chad) and have long fiercely guarded their independence. 

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They grow millet, sorghum, peanuts, and vegetables, some of which 

they trade with Arab nomads and townsmen. In recent decades, the 

Masalit, like their neighbors, have been adversely affected by drought 

and desertification. 

A part of the territory they occupy was controlled formerly by the 

Fur, but the Masalit gradually encroached on it in the first half of the 

twentieth century in a series of local skirmishes carried out by villagers 

on both sides rather than by the sultanates. In 1990–96 much of Darfur 

was in a state of anarchy; there were many instances in which Masalit 

militias attacked Fur and other villages. In 2003 the Masalit were 

among the early victims of raids by the government-allied janjaweed. 

The Berti consist of two groups. One lives northeast of Al-Fashir; 

the other migrated to eastern Darfur and western Kordofan in the eighteenth century. Small groups are scattered across northern Sudan. 

Members of the western group, in addition to cultivating subsistence 

crops and practicing animal husbandry, gather gum arabic for sale in 

local markets. They are more relaxed in their Islamic observances than 

some of their neighbors. The Berti tongue has given way to Arabic as a 

home language. 

The term Daju applies to three groups of sedentary agriculturalists 

situated in southern Kordofan, southwestern Darfur, and eastern Chad. 

These groups call themselves by different names and exhibit no sense 

of common identity. In the early 2000s, they totaled 143,000. Converted to Islam in the fifteenth century or earlier, they are not strict in 

their religious observances. The Daju are renowned as warriors and 

have long quarreled with their neighbors. 

West Africans 

A large number of people of West African origin also live in Sudan. 

In the mid-1970s, West Africans were estimated at more than 10 percent of the population of the northern states. Some were descendants 

of persons who arrived at least five generations earlier; others were 

recent immigrants. Some had come in self-imposed exile to escape 

European colonial rule in their homeland. Others were once pilgrims 

to Mecca, settling either en route or on their return. Many came over 

decades in the course of the great dispersion of the nomadic Fulani; 

others arrived, particularly after World War II, as rural and urban 

laborers or to take up land as peasant cultivators. 

A large percentage of people included in the West African category 

are said to be of Nigerian origin (locally called Borno, after the Nigerian emirate that was their homeland). Given Hausa dominance in 

northern Nigeria, the widespread use of their language there and elsewhere, and the propensity of the Hausa to go on the hajj, many West 

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Africans in Sudan are identified as Hausa, when in fact many are probably ethnically Fulani. The Hausa themselves, particularly those long in 

Sudan, prefer to be called Takari. In the early 2000s, they were thought 

to number almost 500,000. The Fulani, even more widely dispersed 

throughout West Africa, may have originated in states other than Nigeria. Typically, the term applied to the Fulani in Sudan is Fallata, but 

Sudanese also use that term for other West Africans. In the early 1980s, 

they numbered 90,000. 

Fulani nomads are found in many parts of central Sudan from Darfur 

to the Blue Nile, and they occasionally compete with indigenous populations for pasturage. In Darfur, groups of Fulani origin have adapted in 

various ways to the presence of the Baqqara tribes. Some have retained 

all aspects of their culture and language. A few have become much like 

Baqqara in language and in other respects, although they tend to retain 

their own breeds of cattle and ways of handling them. Some of the 

Fulani groups in the eastern states are sedentary, descendants of settled 

Fulani of the ruling group in northern Nigeria. Many recognize a “sultan” as their leader, who is accorded privileges by the central government of Sudan. 

Non-Muslim Peoples 

There are a few expatriates temporarily residing in Sudan; otherwise all non-Muslims are Christians or animists. In earlier times, these 

terms were employed by virtually all Sudanese, and they referred 

essentially to the peoples of the South. By 2011 this was no longer the 

case. The term animist is disputed; some scholars prefer indigenous or 

traditional religions. However, such nomenclature can be confusing as 

well because many Muslims consider that these terms also apply to 

them. Indeed, Muslims prefer to view religious identity as “People of 

the Book” (ahl al-kitab), meaning essentially Jews, Christians, and 

Muslims, as opposed to all others. 

Moreover, given recent migrations and displacements, it is now 

estimated that as many Southerners live in the North as in the traditional South and that a number have been there long enough to have 

become acculturated within the Muslim-dominated areas of the North. 

Furthermore, speculation continues among all parties as to how many 

Southern migrants in the North will return to their ancestral homelands 

given the impending independence of the South. The majority opinion 

is that only those Southerners with assets in the South—land, houses, 

animals, and relatives—will go back; a substantial number who found 

employment in cities in the North are likely to remain there. 

Primordial identities, such as family, clan, and tribe, tend to dominate 

here as in most developing countries. Migrants tend to cluster around 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

their own kind, and, consequently, ethnic identity remains strong. In that 

sense, the major identities of the old non-Muslim groups remain observable, regardless of assimilation and religious “conversion.” From that 

perspective, the remaining categories of ethnic groupings to be listed are 

the dominant Nilotes of the central South, smaller tribes in the southernmost and southwestern South, and some small groups residing in the 

hilly areas south of the Blue Nile on or near the border with Ethiopia. 

Another cluster of peoples commonly called the Nuba, but socially and 

culturally diverse, live in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan State. 

Their region became pivotal in the negotiations leading to the peace 

agreement of January 2005. 

Nilotes 

“Nilote” is a common name for many of the peoples living on or 

near the Nile and its tributaries in the southern third of Sudan. The 

term refers to people speaking languages of one section of the Nilotic 

subbranch of the Eastern Sudanic branch of Nilo-Saharan and sharing 

a myth of common origin. They are marked by physical similarity and 

many common cultural features. Many have a long tradition of keeping cattle, including some for whom cattle are no longer of practical 

importance. Because of their adaptation to different climates and their 

encounters, peaceful and otherwise, with other peoples, there is also 

some diversity among the Nilotes. 

The Nilotes still constitute more than three-fifths of the population of 

the South in the early 2000s despite civil war and famine. One group, 

the Dinka, or Jieng, numbering perhaps 2.5 million to 3 million, make 

up roughly two-thirds of the total category and about 10 percent of 

Sudan’s population. The Dinka are the single largest “nation” in Sudan 

and are widely distributed over the northern portion of Southern Sudan, 

particularly in North Bahr al-Ghazal and West Bahr al-Ghazal, Lakes, 

and Jonglei States. The next largest group, only one-third to one-quarter 

the size of the Dinka, are the Nuer, or Naadh, concentrated in Upper 

Nile State. The Shilluk, or Collo, the third largest group, have only 

about one-fourth as many people as the Nuer, numbering about 185,000 

in the late 1980s. The remaining Nilotic groups are much smaller. 

The larger and more dispersed the group, however, the more internally varied it has become. The Dinka and Nuer, for example, did not 

develop a centralized government encompassing all or any large part 

of their groups. The Dinka are considered to have as many as 25 subtribal groups, each autonomous within a well-defined region. The 

Nuer have nine or 10 separately named groups. 

Armed conflict between and within Southern ethnic groups is 

long-standing and continued into the twenty-first century in the context of the North–South struggle. Sections of the Dinka have fought 

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A Dinka family in Bahr 

al-Ghazal, mid-1990s 

Copyright Lillian Craig Harris 

sections of the Nuer and each other. Other Southern groups have also 

expanded and contracted in the search for cattle and pasturage. The 

Nuer have absorbed some of the Dinka to the extent that some present-day sections of the Nuer have significant Dinka components. 

Relations among various Southern groups were affected in the nineteenth century by the intrusion of Ottomans, Arabs, and eventually the 

British. Some ethnic groups made their accommodation with the intruders and others did not, in effect pitting one Southern ethnic group against 

another in the context of foreign rule. For example, some sections of the 

Dinka were more accommodating to British rule than were the Nuer. 

These Dinka treated the resisting Nuer as hostile, and hostility developed between the two groups as a result of their differing relationships 

to the British. The achievement of Sudanese independence in 1956 and 

the adoption of certain aspects of Islamic law, or sharia, by the central 

government in September 1983 greatly influenced the nature of relations among these groups in modern times. The second Southern civil 

war, launched in April 1983 by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), was perceived by many as Dinka-centered 

because its primary leader, John Garang de Mabior, and most of its foot 

soldiers were, in fact, Dinka (see Second Southern Civil War, 1983– 

2005, ch. 5). 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

The next largest group of Nilotes, the Shilluk (who refer to themselves as Collo), are not dispersed like the Dinka and the Nuer, but 

rather settled mainly in a limited, uninterrupted area along the west 

bank of the White Nile, just north of Malakal. Some also live on the 

eastern bank. With easy access to fairly good land along the Nile, they 

rely much more heavily on cultivation and fishing than the Dinka and 

the Nuer do, and they have fewer cattle. The Shilluk have truly permanent settlements and do not move regularly between cultivating and 

cattle camps. 

Unlike the larger groups, the Shilluk along the Upper Nile were traditionally ruled by a single politico-religious head (reth), believed to 

become at the time of his investiture as king the representative, if not 

the reincarnation, of the mythical hero Nyiking, putative founder of the 

Shilluk. The administrative and political powers of the reth have been 

the subject of some debate, but his ritual status was clear enough: his 

health was believed to be closely related to the material and spiritual 

welfare of the Shilluk. It is likely that the territorial unity of the Shilluk 

and the permanence of their settlements contributed to the centralization of their political and ritual structures. In the late 1980s, activities 

against the SPLA by armed militias supported by the government seriously alienated the Shilluk in Malakal, and the pattern of intra-Southern 

fighting has continued off-and-on into the present century. 

Bari, Kuku, Kakwa, and Mandari 

Several peoples living mainly to the south and east of the Nilotes 

speak languages of another section of the Nilotic subbranch of Eastern 

Sudanic. Primary among them are the Bari and the closely related 

Kuku, Kakwa, and Mandari (Mundari), who speak dialects of Bari. 

The Bari and Mandari, who live along the Nile around Juba and hence 

close to Nilotes, have been influenced by them and have sometimes 

been in conflict with them. The more southerly Kuku live in highlands 

along the Uganda border, and the Kakwa inhabit the rain forest around 

Yei. All of these groups engage in subsistence agriculture, sorghum, 

maize, and peanuts being standard crops. The Kuku and Mandari also 

keep cattle. All have been severely affected by years of strife and have 

fled into towns or into Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the 

Congo, or even farther afield. 

Murle, Didinga, and Others 

Two other tribes, the Murle and the Didinga, speak Eastern Sudanic 

languages of sub-branches other than Nilotic. The Murle dwelled in 

southern Ethiopia in the nineteenth century, and some are still there. 

Others moved west and drove out the local Nilotes, whom they report90 
 

The Society and Its Environment 

edly regarded with contempt, in the process acquiring a reputation as 

warriors. The Murle are predominantly pastoral. Their social and cultural life revolves around cattle, and they are renowned among their 

neighbors for cattle raiding. They are also skilled hunters. Their loyalties were divided between Northerners and Southerners during the 

civil war. 

The Didinga inhabit hill country on the border with Kenya. Primarily agriculturalists, they grow maize, beans, millet, and tobacco. They 

also pan for alluvial gold. The relative isolation of the Didinga Hills 

has helped them preserve their cultural traditions, although they joined 

the SPLM/A in opposition to the forces of the national government. 

Along the mountainous border with Ethiopia in Blue Nile and Sinnar States live several small heterogeneous groups. Some, such as the 

Uduk, speak languages of the Koman division of Nilo-Saharan and are 

believed to have been in the area since antiquity. Others, including the 

Ingessana, were refugees driven into the hills by the expansion of 

other groups. In the past, most of these peoples straddling the Sudan– 

Ethiopia border experienced strife with later-arriving neighbors and 

slave raids by the Arabs. All adapted by learning the language of more 

dominant groups. 

Azande 

In West Equatoria and West Bahr al-Ghazal States live a number of 

small, sometimes fragmented groups who speak languages of the 

Adamawa-Ubangi branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The 

largest of these groups are the Azande, who constitute perhaps 7 to 8 

percent of the population of the South and are the dominant group in 

West Equatoria. 

The Azande emerged in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 

when groups of hunters, divided into aristocrats and commoners, 

entered the northeastern part of present-day Democratic Republic of the 

Congo, and later southwestern Sudan and southeastern Central African 

Republic, and conquered peoples already there. Although the aristocrats 

provided ruling kings and nobles, they did not establish an inclusive, 

centralized state. The means of succession to kingship, however, 

encouraged Azande expansion. A man succeeded to his father’s throne 

only when he had vanquished those of his brothers who chose to compete for it. The brothers—princes without land or people but with followers looking for the fruits of conquest—would find and rule hitherto 

unconquered groups. Such expansion brought them into conflict with 

their neighbors, in particular, the Dinka, whom they failed to subdue. In 

this manner, the Azande became a heterogeneous people. The Azande 

traditionally lived in scattered homesteads and engaged in subsistence 

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farming. Their crops included maize, cassava, yams, coffee, and a variety of fruit. Oracles and witchcraft played important roles in their social 

relations. 

Their earlier military and political successes notwithstanding, the 

Azande in the twentieth century were poor, largely dependent on cultivation (hunting was no longer a feasible source of food), and afflicted 

by sleeping sickness. In an attempt to mitigate these problems, British 

colonial authorities instituted a development project known as the 

Azande Scheme, involving cotton growing and resettlement. The program failed, however, for a variety of reasons, including an inadequate 

understanding of Azande society, economy, and values on the part of 

the colonial planners. Partly in an effort to escape sleeping sickness, 

many Azande moved into villages, away from kin and former social 

networks. Some became Christians and Muslims. At the same time, 

they experienced a declining birthrate. Azande support of the Anya 

Nya guerrilla groups, as well as conflicts with the Dinka, also served 

to worsen the plight of the Azande. In the late 1980s, those in Sudan 

were thought to number about 350,000. As a result of warfare in the 

South in the 1980s and 1990s, many Azande fled into neighboring 

countries, further disrupting their former cultural practices. 

Bviri, Ndogo, and Others 

Several other groups of cultivators in southwestern Sudan speak languages closely akin to that of the Azande but lack a dominant group. 

The most important seem to be the Bviri. They and a smaller group 

called Ndogo speak a language named after the latter; other smaller 

communities speak dialects of that tongue. These communities do not 

share a sense of common ethnic identity, however. 

The other groups in southwestern Sudan speak languages of the central branch of Nilo-Saharan and are scattered from West Bahr al-Ghazal 

(the Kreish) to Central Equatoria (the Moru and the Avukaya) to East 

Equatoria (the Madi). In between, in Central Equatoria, are such peoples as the Bongo and the Baka. The languages of Moru and Madi are 

so close, as are aspects of their cultures, that they are sometimes considered as one. The same is true of the Bongo and the Baka, but there is no 

indication that either pair constitutes a self-conscious ethnic group. 

Nuba 

Living in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan are perhaps three 

dozen or more small groups collectively called the Nuba. They vary 

considerably in their culture and social organization and are anything 

but a unitary ethnic group. For example, some are patrilineally organized, others adhere to matrilineal patterns, and a very few—the 

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southeastern Nuba—have both patrilineal and matrilineal groupings in 

the same community. The large number of Kordofanian languages 

these people speak are not generally mutually intelligible, except by 

some adjacent communities. Judging partly from this linguistic diversity, it would appear that a number of disparate peoples now known as 

the Nuba moved into the hill country of South Kordofan over the centuries in search of security. Even so, the Nuba were subjected to raids 

by Arab slavers, and, more recently, to encroachment by neighbors 

who coveted their fertile land. 

Despite the Arabization of the people around them, only small numbers of Nuba have adopted Arabic as a home language, and even fewer 

have converted to Islam. Some have become Christian, but most retain 

either traditional or dual religious identities. Quite a few Nuba, however, serve in the armed forces and police. Most remain cultivators; 

animal husbandry plays only a small part in their economy. 

When the George W. Bush administration came into office in the 

United States in early 2001, it made peace in Sudan a high priority. 

That September, a special envoy, former Senator John Danforth of Missouri, was charged with developing a comprehensive peace plan. Senator Danforth’s team decided to focus on the Nuba Mountains region as 

a test case because of its central location and its demographically 

mixed population. The Nuba were seen as a potential bridge between 

North and South, having been claimed by both. The contesting military 

units of the government and SPLA withdrew from this area, and international observers were brought in to monitor adherence to military 

and political agreements. These steps led to confidence-building measures that eventually were extended to regional and national power 

sharing, including administration and division of resources. The process, heavily supported by the Bush administration, culminated in the 

peace agreement of 2005 (see Institutions of Government, ch. 4). In an 

indirect sense, the formerly marginalized Nuba may have contributed 

in a major way to national reconciliation. 

Regionalism and Ethnicity 

There were in the early 2000s, at a minimum, five distinct regional 

identities in Sudan, which in a country of such enormous size was not 

surprising. The South, West, East, and North all considered themselves 

to have been marginalized by the Center, and in that order of disaffection. To the outside observer, these claims seemed valid, but they were 

frequently overstated by politicians who dramatized the situation in 

order to curry local favor. Whereas politicians from the South, for 

example, spoke of discrimination, officials in the North denied it. The 

Western reader might think of regionalism in Canada, Spain, Italy, or 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

Britain, with the difference that these countries have vastly greater 

resources and infrastructures to address such complaints. The phrase 

benign neglect would seem to be more appropriate in Sudan, because 

the leadership in the central region was completely preoccupied with 

local infighting and maneuvering and had little energy left over to 

address legitimate concerns of the more distant regions, especially considering the meager resources available to Sudanese governments in 

the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 

The few educated leaders from the South, West (Darfur), and East 

have parlayed these issues into regional movements, both political and 

military, while some of their colleagues adopted the Northern (region) 

strategy of moving to the Center and cooperating with or being coopted by the national leadership. Indeed, every Sudanese government 

since independence contained representatives from all these regions, 

albeit often as tokens in relatively minor ministerial portfolios. 

An additional complicating factor was the tendency of Sudan’s 

national army to recruit heavily from impoverished areas, as happens 

in many other countries. Early on, Beja and Nuba joined in such large 

numbers that they are said to provide the majority of foot soldiers in 

recent years. Consequently, when rebel movements attacked government positions in 1983 in the South and later across the Ethiopian border and in Darfur in 2003, many if not most of the government soldiers 

came from those very areas. Senior officials apparently questioned 

whether these troops could be counted upon to fire “on their own relatives,” and several leaders in Khartoum decided to confront these 

rebellions instead by arming traditional enemies of the insurgents as 

militias. The result was Southern tribes (non-Dinka) versus Southern 

insurgents (the Dinka-heavy SPLA), Darfuri militias (non-Fur) against 

the Fur-heavy SLA, and non-Zaghawa against the Zaghawa-dominated 

Justice and Equality Movement (JEM; see Regional Dynamics and 

Conflict, ch. 4). 

The result of all these developments was further fragmentation of 

regional identity, but increased tribal loyalty. In the 2000s, it was no 

longer accurate to describe the confrontations as Arab Northerners versus African Southerners, but rather as infighting among Northern factions over control of the Center, whereas some Southern tribes have 

aligned with the government in Khartoum against their Southern neighbors. The same is true in Darfur, where some groups have attacked 

government positions, and Khartoum responded by arming other Darfuri with a history of either traditional or recent (1990s skirmishes) 

enmity toward the SLA and JEM. What may have been common Darfuri grievances due to marginalization by Khartoum have been superceded by life and death struggles pitting Darfuris against each other. 

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All this is not to deny the continuance of some ancient preconceptions, because North–South hostilities predate the colonial era. In the 

nineteenth century and earlier, many Arabs saw the South as a source 

for slaves and considered its peoples inferior by virtue of their paganism 

if not their color. Organized slave raiding ended in the late nineteenth 

century, but the residue of bitterness remained among Southerners, and 

the Arab view of Southerners as pagans persisted. 

During British rule, whatever limited accommodation there may 

have been between Arabs and Africans was neither widespread nor 

deep enough to counteract a longer history of conflict between these 

peoples. At the same time, for their own reasons, the colonial authorities encouraged segregation of the ethnically different North and 

South (see Britain’s Southern Policy, ch. 1). 

However, neither Arab attitudes of superiority nor British dominance in the South led to loss of self-esteem among peoples there. A 

number of observers remarked that most Southern peoples, particularly Nilotes, such as the Dinka, Nuer, and Shilluk, were fiercely proud 

and refused to consider their religious orientations and lifestyles to be 

inferior to those of the country’s dominant elite. 

Other tensions within Northern Sudan originated not from traditional antipathies but from competition for scarce resources. For 

example, there has been a conflict between the Rufaa al-Haj, a group 

of Arab pastoralists living in the area between the Blue Nile and the 

White Nile, and Fallata (Fulani) herders. The movements of the Fallata intersected with the seasonal migrations of the Rufaa al-Haj. Here 

ethnic differences aggravated but did not cause competition. 

The general reluctance of groups in the South to accept Muslim 

Arab domination likewise did not imply Southern solidarity. The 

opportunities for power and wealth in the new politics and bureaucracy in South Sudan were limited in the early 2000s; some groups felt 

deprived of their shares by the preeminent Southern group, the Dinka. 

Since at least the early 1970s, one of the main sources of ethnic conflict in the South was the extent to which the Dinka dominated politics 

there and controlled the allocation of rewards, whether of government 

posts or of other opportunities. In the 1955–56 census, the Dinka constituted a little more than 40 percent of the total population of the three 

provinces that at that time constituted the South: Bahr al-Ghazal, Aali 

an-Nil, and Al-Istiwai. Because no other group approached their numbers as Southern independence was imminent, the Dinka were 

expected to play a large part in the new political life of South Sudan. 

Some of the leading figures in the South, such as Abel Alier, head of 

the South’s regional government from 1972 until 1981, are Dinka, as 

was the late SPLA leader John Garang (although the SPLA made an 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

effort to shed its Dinka image by cultivating supporters in other 

groups). It is not known whether the 25 Dinka tribal groups are equally 

represented in the alleged Dinka predominance. During the AngloEgyptian Condominium, the colonial power deprived other groups, 

such as the Nuer, a comparable Nilotic people and traditional rivals of 

the Dinka, of leadership opportunities because they were considered 

intractable, were then not numerous, and lived in inaccessible areas. 

By the 1990s, however, the Nuer had begun to offer themselves as 

determined rivals to the Dinka. It is these kinds of ethnic divisions and 

tensions within and among different peoples in Sudan that helped foster civil strife and that hindered national unity and peace. 

Religious Life 

Religion in Sudan, as in many developing countries, is not only a 

matter of spirituality and rituals, but also a major form of social identity. In the 2000s, about 75 percent of Sudan’s population is Muslim. 

Most live in the North of the country, where they constitute more than 

90 percent of the population. Data on Christians are less reliable; estimates range from 4 to 10 percent of the population. 

Perhaps 20 percent of the Sudanese are still attached to the indigenous religions of their forebears. Most Christian Sudanese and adherents of local religious systems originated in the South but by the early 

2000s were spread throughout all regions. Islam has made inroads into 

the Southern states and the Nuba Mountains; many estimates hold that 

its adherents are roughly equal to the number of Christians but are less 

visible because mission-educated Christians have superior education 

and many have become leaders in government and political movements. 

Islam: Tenets and Practice 

Sudanese Muslims are adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam, sometimes called orthodox, by far the larger of the two major branches, the 

other being Shi’a (see Glossary), which is not represented in Sudan. 

Sunni Islam in Sudan is not marked by a uniform body of belief or practice, however. Some Muslims oppose aspects of Sunni orthodoxy, and 

rites having a non-Islamic origin are widespread, accepted as if they 

were integral to Islam, or sometimes recognized as separate. Moreover, 

Sunni Islam in Sudan (as in much of Africa) has been characterized by 

the formation of religious orders or brotherhoods, each of which makes 

special demands on its adherents. 

Islam requires of the faithful five fundamental obligations that constitute the Five Pillars of Islam. The first pillar, the shahada or profession of faith, is the affirmation “There is no god but God (Allah) and 

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Muhammad is his prophet.” It is the first step in becoming a Muslim 

and a significant part of prayer. The second obligation is prayer at five 

specified times of the day. The third enjoins almsgiving. The fourth 

requires fasting during daylight hours in the month of Ramadan. The 

fifth requires a pilgrimage to Mecca for those able to perform it, to participate in the special rites that occur during the twelfth month of the 

lunar calendar. 

Most Sudanese Muslims who are born to the faith meet the first 

requirement. Conformity to the second requirement is more variable. 

Many males in the cities and larger towns manage to pray five times a 

day—at dawn, noon, midafternoon, sundown, and evening. Only one 

or two of these prayer times occurs during the usual working day of an 

urban dweller. A cultivator or pastoralist may be less vigorous in meeting these requirements. Regular prayer is considered the mark of a true 

Muslim; it is usually accomplished individually or in small groups. 

Congregational prayer takes place at the mosque on Friday when Muslims (usually men, but occasionally women separately located) gather, 

not only for the noon prayer, but also to hear readings and a sermon by 

the local imam. Muslims fast during the ninth month of the Muslim calendar, Ramadan, the time during which the first revelations to Muhammad occurred. It is a period during which most Muslims must abstain 

from eating, drinking, smoking, and sexual activity during the daylight 

hours. The well-to-do perform little work during this period, and many 

businesses operate on reduced schedules. Because the months of the 

lunar calendar revolve through the solar year, Ramadan occurs during 

the various seasons over a period of about 33 years. Observance 

appears to be widespread, especially in urban areas and among sedentary Sudanese Muslims. 

Historically, in the Muslim world almsgiving meant both a special 

tax for the benefit of the poor and voluntary giving to the needy, but its 

voluntary aspect alone survives. Alms may be given at any time, but 

there are specific occasions in the Islamic year or in the life of the donor 

when they are more commonly dispensed. Gifts, whether of money or 

food, may be made on such occasions as the feasts that end Ramadan 

and the pilgrimage to Mecca, or in penance for some misdeed. These 

offerings and others are typically distributed to poor kin and neighbors. 

Because of geographic proximity, the pilgrimage to Mecca, the hajj, 

is less costly and arduous for the Sudanese than it is for many Muslims. 

Nevertheless, it takes time (or money if travel is by air), and the ordinary Sudanese Muslim has generally found it difficult to accomplish, 

rarely undertaking it before middle age. Some have joined pilgrimage 

societies into which members pay a small amount monthly and choose 

one of their number when sufficient funds have accumulated to send 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

someone on the pilgrimage. A returned pilgrim is entitled to use the 

honorific title al-hajj for a man, or al-hajjah for a woman. 

Another ceremony commonly observed is the great feast Id al-Adha 

(also known as Id al-Kabir), representing the sacrifice made during the 

last days of the pilgrimage. The centerpiece of the day is the slaughter 

of a sheep, which is distributed to the poor, kin, neighbors, and friends, 

as well as the immediate family. 

Islam imposes a standard of encouraging generosity, fairness, and 

honesty. Sudanese Arabs, especially those who are wealthy, are expected 

by their coreligionists to be generous. 

In accordance with Islamic law, most Sudanese Muslims do not eat 

pork or shellfish. Conformity to the prohibitions on gambling and alcohol is less widespread. Usury is forbidden by Islamic law, but Islamic 

banks have developed other ways of making money available to the 

public (see Islamic Banking, ch. 3). 

Historically, Islam insists on observance of sharia, which governs not 

only religious activity narrowly conceived but also daily personal and 

social relationships. In principle, sharia stems not from legislative 

enactment or judicial decision but from the Quran and the hadith—the 

accepted sayings of Muhammad. That principle has given rise to the 

conventional understanding, advocated by Islamists, that there is no distinction between the religious and the secular in a truly Islamic society. 

Until 1983 modern criminal and civil, including commercial, law generally prevailed in Sudan. In the North, however, sharia was expected to 

govern what is usually called family and personal law, i.e., matters such 

as marriage, divorce, and inheritance. In the towns and in some sedentary communities, sharia was accepted, but in other sedentary communities and among nomads, local custom was likely to prevail— 

particularly with respect to inheritance (see The Legal System, ch. 4). 

In September 1983, then-President Ja’far al-Numayri (in power 

1969–85) imposed sharia throughout the land, eliminating the civil and 

penal codes by which the country had been governed in the twentieth 

century. His government brought in traditional Islamic punishments for 

theft, adultery, homicide, and other crimes. To demonstrate its “Islamic 

commitment” vis-à-vis the large number of Northern Muslim skeptics, 

the al-Numayri regime went out of its way to implement the infamous 

hudud (see Glossary) laws, traditional punishments that had not been 

employed during the entire previous century and that earned the regime 

much criticism in the foreign media. The zealousness with which these 

punishments were carried out contributed to the fall of al-Numayri. 

Nevertheless, no successor government, including that of Umar Hassan 

Ahmad al-Bashir, has shown an inclination to abandon sharia, although 

its application is now limited to majority-Muslim states. 

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The Society and Its Environment 

Islam is monotheistic, and Sunnis insist that there can be no intercessors between an individual and God. Nevertheless, folk Islam in 

Sudan includes a belief in spirits as sources of illness or other afflictions and in magical ways of dealing with them. The imam of a 

mosque is a prayer leader and preacher of sermons. He may also be a 

teacher and in smaller communities combines both functions. In the 

latter role, he is called a faqih (pl., fuqaha), although a faqih need not 

be an imam. In addition to teaching in the local Quranic school 

(khalwa), the faqih is expected to write texts from the Quran or magical verses to be used as amulets and cures. His blessing may be asked 

at births, marriages, deaths, and other important occasions, and he may 

be asked to participate in wholly non-Islamic harvest rites in some 

remote places. All of these functions and capacities make the faqih the 

most important figure in popular Islam; but he is not a priest. His religious authority is based on his putative knowledge of the Quran, sharia, and techniques for dealing with occult threats to health and wellbeing. The notion that the words of the Quran will protect against the 

actions of evil spirits or the evil eye is deeply embedded in popular 

Islam, and the amulets prepared by the faqih are intended to protect 

their wearers against these dangers. 

In Sudan as in much of African Islam, the cult of the saint is of considerable importance, although some Muslims would reject it. The 

development of the cult is closely related to the presence of the religious orders; many who came to be considered saints after their deaths 

were founders or leaders of religious orders who in their lifetimes 

were thought to have baraka, a state of blessedness implying an inner 

spiritual power inherent in the religious office. Baraka intensifies after 

death as the deceased becomes a wali (literally custodial guardian, but 

in this context translated as saint). The tomb and other places associated with the saintly being become the loci of the person’s baraka, and 

in some views he or she becomes the guardian spirit of the locality. 

The intercession of the wali is sought on a variety of occasions, particularly by those seeking cures or by barren women desiring children. A 

saint’s annual holy day is the occasion of a local festival, which may 

attract a large gathering. 

Better-educated Muslims in Sudan often disapprove of such practices; some may participate in prayer at the saint’s tomb but argue that 

prayer is directed only to God. Many others, however, see the saint not 

merely as an intercessor with, and an agent of, God, but also as a 

nearly autonomous source of blessing and power, thereby approaching 

popular as opposed to orthodox Islam. 

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Islamic Movements and Religious Orders 

Islam made its deepest and longest-lasting impact in Sudan through 

the activity of the Islamic religious brotherhoods or orders. These 

orders emerged in the Middle East in the twelfth century in connection 

with the development of Sufism, a mystical current reacting to the 

strongly legalistic orientation of orthodox Islam. The orders first came 

to Sudan in the sixteenth century and became significant in the eighteenth. Sufism seeks for its adherents a closer personal relationship 

with God through special spiritual disciplines. The exercises (dhikr) 

include reciting prayers and passages of the Quran and repeating the 

names, or attributes, of God while performing physical movements 

according to the formula established by the founder of the particular 

order. Singing and dancing may be introduced. The outcome of an 

exercise, which lasts much longer than the usual daily prayer, is often a 

state of ecstatic abandon. 

A mystical or devotional way (sing., tariqa; pl., turuq) is the basis 

for the formation of particular orders, each of which is also called a 

tariqa. The specialists in religious law and learning initially looked 

askance at Sufism and the Sufi orders, but the leaders of the orders in 

Sudan have won acceptance by acknowledging the significance of the 

sharia and not claiming that Sufism replaces it. 

The principal turuq vary considerably in their practice and internal 

organization. Some orders are tightly organized in hierarchical fashion; others have allowed their local branches considerable autonomy. 

There may be as many as a dozen turuq in Sudan. Some are restricted 

to that country; others are widespread in Africa or the Middle East. 

Several turuq, for all practical purposes independent, are offshoots of 

older orders and were established by men who altered in major or 

minor ways the tariqa of the orders to which they had formerly been 

attached. 

The oldest and most widespread of the turuq is the Qadiriyyah 

founded by Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani in Baghdad in the twelfth century 

and introduced into Sudan in the sixteenth. The Qadiriyyah’s principal 

rival and the largest tariqa in the western part of the country is the 

Tijaniyyah, a sect begun by Ahmad al-Tijani in Morocco, which eventually penetrated Sudan in about 1810 via the western Sahel (see Glossary). Many Tijani became influential in Darfur, and other adherents 

settled in northern Kordofan. A class of Tijani merchants arose later on 

as markets grew in towns and trade expanded, making them less concerned with providing religious leadership. Of greater importance to 

Sudan was the tariqa established by followers of Sayyid Ahmad ibn 

Idris, known as al-Fasi, who died in 1837. Although he lived in Arabia 

and never visited Sudan, his students spread into the Nile valley, estab100 
Members of the Qadiriyyah order 

at a dhikr, a religious rite, in 

Khartoum, 2002. Here men twirl 

in a dance in the manner of the 

famed “whirling dervishes” of 

Sudan, reaching a state of ecstasy. 

Copyright Lillian Craig Harris 

lishing indigenous Sudanese orders, the Majdhubiyyah, the Idrisiyyah, 

and the Khatmiyyah. 

Much different in organization from the other brotherhoods is the 

Khatmiyyah (or Mirghaniyyah after the name of the order’s founder). 

Established in the early nineteenth century by Muhammad Uthman alMirghani, it became the best organized and most politically oriented 

and powerful of the turuq in eastern Sudan (see The Turkiyya, 1821– 

85, ch. 1). Al-Mirghani had been a student of Sayyid Ahmad ibn Idris 

and had joined several important orders, calling his own order the Khatim at-Turuq (hence Khatmiyyah, meaning the seal of the paths). The 

salient features of the Khatmiyyah are the extraordinary status of the 

al-Mirghani family, whose members alone may head the order; loyalty 

to the order, which guarantees paradise; and the centralized control of 

the order’s branches. 

The Khatmiyyah is centered in Kassala and Al-Gedaref States, and 

its greatest following is in eastern Sudan and in portions of the riverine 

area. The al-Mirghani family was able to turn the Khatmiyyah into a 

political power base, despite its broad geographical distribution, 

because of the tight control they exercise over their followers. Moreover, gifts from followers over the years have given the family and the 

order the wealth to organize politically and eventually led to the formation of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which competed in 

the first free elections for parliament. In the 1960s, the PDP helped 

form the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which some 50 years later 

remained the second largest party or movement in the country (see 

Democratic Unionist Party, ch. 4). Khatmiyyah members tend to vote 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

overwhelmingly for the DUP, much as Ansar tend to vote overwhelmingly for the Umma Party. 

Khatmiyyah influence does not equal, however, that of the al-Mirghani principal rival, known as Ansar, or followers of the Madhi (see 

Glossary). Their present-day leader is Sadiq al-Mahdi, the great-grandson of the Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad ibn al-Sayyid Abdallah, whose 

uprising in the 1880s drove the Egyptian–Ottoman Turk administration 

from Sudan in 1885. Most other orders are either smaller or less well 

organized than the Khatmiyyah. Moreover, unlike many other African 

Muslims, Sudanese Muslims in urban areas are less inclined to identify 

with one or another tariqa. Instead they prefer more openly political 

movements that seek to change Islamic society and governance to conform to their own visions of the true nature of Islam. 

Mahdism was a late nineteenth-century movement in origin. It has 

been linked to a religious order, but it is not a tariqa in the traditional 

sense. Mahdism and its adherents, the Ansar, seek the regeneration of 

Islam, and in general, are critical of the turuq. Muhammad Ahmad ibn 

al-Sayyid Abdallah, a faqih, proclaimed himself to be Al-Mahdi alMuntazar (“the awaited guide in the right path,” usually seen as the 

Mahdi), the messenger of God and representative of the Prophet 

Muhammad, not simply a charismatic and learned teacher, an assertion 

that became an article of faith among the Ansar. He was sent, he said, 

to prepare the way for the second coming of the Prophet ‘Isa (Jesus) 

and the impending end of the world. In anticipation of Judgment Day, 

it was essential that the people return to a simple and rigorous, even 

puritanical, Islam (see The Mahdiyyah, 1885–98, ch. 1). 

The idea of the coming of a Mahdi has its roots in Sunni and Shi’a 

Islamic traditions. The issue for Sudanese and other Muslims was 

whether Muhammad Ahmad was in fact the Mahdi. Indisputably, however, Muhammad Ahmad managed to unify the majority of Sudan’s 

tribes in an uprising against misrule by Egyptians administering the 

Turkiyyah. His movement succeeded in ridding the country of foreign 

rule in 1885, and in that respect it had parallels in other North and West 

African sectarian movements. 

In the century since the Mahdist uprising and into the 2000s, the 

neo-Mahdist movement and the Ansar, supporters of Mahdism from 

western Sudan, have persisted as a political force in Sudan. Many 

groups, from the Baqqara cattle nomads to the largely sedentary tribes 

on the White Nile, support this movement. The Ansar are hierarchically organized under the control of Muhammad Ahmad’s successors, 

who all belonged to the al-Mahdi family (members of the ashraf). The 

ambitions and varying political perspectives of different members of 

the family have led to internal conflicts, and it appears that Sadiq al102 
 

The Society and Its Environment 

Mahdi, president of the Umma Party since 1964 and putative leader of 

the Ansar since the early 1970s, does not enjoy the unanimous support 

of all Mahdists. Mahdist family political goals and ambitions seem to 

have taken precedence over the movement’s original religious mission. 

The modern-day Ansar are thus loyal more to the political descendants 

of the Mahdi than to the religious message of Mahdism. 

By the 1950s, a substantial number of well-educated middle-class 

urban Muslims began to feel uncomfortable with the tradition-bound 

and rural-based turuq. Some opted for the Nile Unity Party (NUP) as 

an alternative political organization, which gained some success in 

the early elections and produced the country’s first prime minister, 

Isma’il al-Azhari. Others considered the NUP, the Umma, and other 

parties to be too factionalized and based only on sectarian and 

regional support rather than on national interests. These champions of 

a “New Sudan” were drawn from the urban intelligentsia and divided 

fairly evenly in the 1960s between the far left—two communist parties—and the far right—the Muslim Brotherhood (see Glossary). One 

of the Brotherhood’s co-founders, Hassan Abdallah al-Turabi, continued to play a national role in the early 2000s. 

Christianity 

Christianity in Sudan can be divided into three categories: the 

numerically small, but historically oldest, Orthodox churches; the 

numerically large “establishment” churches; and the numerically small, 

but fervently supported, foreign-based evangelical churches. 

Christianity traveled southward up the Nile in the fourth century 

from the Holy See of Alexandria, and its Coptic Orthodox adherents 

can be found in small numbers in the urban areas of Sudan (and in 

much greater numbers in neighboring Egypt). The Greek Orthodox 

community is equally small and consists of Greek and Syrian merchant 

families who established businesses in the Ottoman period. Both Orthodox communities have thriving schools and social clubs in Khartoum as 

well as modern church buildings in the capital. Ethiopian Orthodoxy is 

found among Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees in Khartoum and in the 

border region near Kassala. 

Christians in a second category attend what British colonialists deemed 

mainstream churches, e. g., Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Roman Catholics. Under the colonial system known as indirect administration, British 

missionaries were allocated what was then Upper Nile region, and the 

Belgian “White Fathers” Order, Equatoria Province, now Central Equatoria, East Equatoria, and West Equatoria. Church buildings had to be 

accompanied by a school and small health facility. In this fashion, Christian missionaries functioned as local “extension services” for the district 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

commissioners and were seen as such. These missions continued to operate intermittently if they survived the ravages of two civil wars; in the 

early 2000s, their adherents are reasonably well assimilated. Most clergy 

in these areas are now indigenous. As a result of the theological division 

of territory, Catholics are found along the borders with Uganda and the 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, the highest concentration being clustered around Juba and Torit. Thought to be the largest Christian denomination, they numbered 4.6 million in 2005 and were led by an indigenous 

Dinka, Cardinal Gabriel Zubayr. 

The Christians in a third category are members of charismatic 

churches, whose founders originally had been allocated the geographically more difficult central–south region, meaning former Bahr alGhazal State. They depend overwhelmingly on foreign-based missionary organizations, particularly American evangelicals, who have 

backed them financially and whose supporters in Washington, DC, 

have been among the most adamant critics of Khartoum regimes. 

Their churches and communities have been the most exposed to the 

fighting that has raged in the South. 

The Nilotic peoples were originally indifferent to Christianity, 

because most identified it with the conquering colonial powers, perceiving it as the “white man’s religion.” In the latter half of the twentieth century, however, many persons in the educated elite embraced 

its tenets, at least superficially, as Christianity and English became 

symbols of opposition to Khartoum and/or Muslim domination. 

The treatment of Christians in Sudan after the introduction of sharia law in September 1983 was quite controversial. Most observers 

agree that then-President Ja’far al-Numayri instituted these laws to 

shore up his faltering regime in the face of ever-spreading disaffection among Muslim Northerners and at a time—April 1983—when 

the previously more-quiescent Southerners were partly engaged in a 

new rebellion. His increasingly insecure regime tried to prove its 

Islamist credentials by harsh application of the new hudud laws in 

the capital region, especially regarding alcohol consumption and 

petty thievery. 

This step coincided with the arrival of large numbers of bewildered 

refugees from the South, who had fled to the capital area with the recent 

outbreak of war. They were unfamiliar not only with their new residential surroundings but also with the new laws. This resulted in hudud 

applications falling disproportionately on unsuspecting Southern refugees or unskilled workers, many of whom had been used to the easy 

availability of alcoholic drink on their day off on Sunday. Not surprisingly, news of Southerners being victimized at the hands of the 

“Islamic” and “Arab” government spread internally as well as interna104 
Members of the Episcopal Church at Wulu, Bahr al-Ghazal, late 1990s 

Copyright Lillian Craig Harris 

tionally and exacerbated existing tensions. These reports were subsequently cited as alleged evidence of discrimination against nonMuslims, and they were later combined with further allegations of 

deliberate government policies to “Islamize” Christians from the South. 

In reality, Christians of many denominations practice their religion 

freely in Sudan. As of 2011, they were found not only in the South, 

but also more than 2 million were spread throughout the cities of the 

North. They have access to churches ranging from small and primitive buildings to large and majestic cathedrals, such as those in Khartoum and Wau, although churches are not necessarily within easy 

commuting distance. Christian activities include small Pentecostal 

churches on the edge of urban areas, established seminaries in Khartoum North, and open-air services attended by thousands of worshippers in downtown Khartoum. 

Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox denominations are all members 

of the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC), a countrywide organization 

for the protection and promotion of their common interests. A subgroup, the New Sudan Council of Churches, was established when 

war made it logistically difficult for Southerners to participate in SCC 

affairs. A larger umbrella group, the Sudan Inter-Religious Council, is 

an outgrowth of the peace accords of 2005. Intended to foster dialogue 

105 
Sudan: A Country Study 

and reconciliation between Christian and Muslim communities, the 

council sponsored a conference on the role of religious leaders in 

peacemaking in July 2005, among other initiatives. 

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement of January 2005 decreed 

that each state determines the nature of its laws by majority vote, a 

reaffirmation of de facto national policy since at least the mid-1990s. 

Sharia remains in force in the 15 provinces of the North, but nonMuslims in Khartoum are exempt from punishments prescribed by 

sharia and enjoy other religious protections. Christians and traditionalists in the 10 states of the South enjoy unrestricted religious freedom without regard for Islamic laws and regulations. 

Indigenous African Religions 

Among Southerners, each indigenous religion is unique to a specific ethnic group, although several groups may share elements of 

belief and ritual because of common ancestry or mutual influence. 

The group serves as the congregation, and an individual usually 

belongs to that faith by virtue of membership in the group. Believing 

and acting in a religious mode is part of daily life and is linked to the 

social, political, and economic actions and relationships of the 

group. The beliefs and practices of indigenous African religions in 

Sudan are not systematized, in that people do not generally attempt 

to put together in coherent fashion the doctrines they hold and the 

rituals they practice. 

The concept of a high spirit or divinity, usually seen as a creator 

and sometimes ultimately responsible for the actions of lesser spirits, 

is common to most groups in the South. Often the higher divinity is 

remote, and believers treat the other spirits as autonomous, orienting 

their rituals to these spirits rather than to the high god. Such spirits 

may be perceived as forces of nature or as manifestations of ancestors. Spirits may intervene in people’s lives, either because individuals or groups have transgressed the norms of the society or have 

failed to pay adequate attention to the ritual that should be generally 

addressed to the spirits. 

The Nilotes generally acknowledge an active supreme deity, who 

is therefore the object of ritual, but the belief and rituals differ from 

group to group. The Nuer, for example, have no word corresponding 

solely and exclusively to God. The word sometimes so translated 

refers not only to the universal governing spirit but also to ancestors 

and forces of nature whose spirits are considered aspects of God. It is 

possible to pray to one spirit as distinct from another but not as distinct from God. Often the highest manifestation of spirit, God, is 

prayed to directly. God is particularly associated with the winds, the 

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The Society and Its Environment 

sky, and birds, but these are not worshipped. The Dinka attribute any 

remarkable occurrence to the direct influence of God and will sometimes mark the occasion with an appropriate ritual. Aspects of God 

(the universal spirit) are distinguished, chief of which is deng (rain). 

For the Nuer, the Dinka, and other Nilotes, human beings are as ants 

to God, whose actions are not to be questioned and who is regarded 

as the judge of all human behavior. 

Cattle play a significant role in Nilotic rituals. Cattle are sacrificed 

to God as expiatory substitutes for their owners. The function is consistent with the significance of cattle in all aspects of Nilotic life. 

Among the Nuer, for example, and with some variations among the 

Dinka, cattle are the foundation of family and community life, essential to subsistence, marriage payments, and personal pride. The cattle 

shed is a shrine and meeting place, the center of the household; a man 

of substance, head of the family, and a leading figure in the community is called a “bull.” Every man and the spirits themselves have ox 

names that denote their characteristic qualities. These beliefs and 

institutions give meaning to the symbolism of rubbing ashes on a sacrificial cow’s back in order to transfer the burden of the owner’s sins 

to the animal. 

The universal god of the Shilluk is more remote than that of the 

Nuer and Dinka and is addressed through the founder of the Shilluk 

royal clan. Nyiking, considered both man and god, is not clearly distinguished from the supreme deity in ritual, although the Shilluk may 

make the distinction in discussing their beliefs. The king (reth) of the 

Shilluk is regarded as divine, an idea that has never been accepted by 

the Nuer and Dinka. 

All of the Nilotes, and other peoples as well, pay attention to ancestral spirits, the nature of the cult varying considerably as to the kinds of 

ancestors who are thought to have power in the lives of their descendants. Sometimes, it may be the founding ancestors of the group whose 

spirits are potent. In many cases, it is the recently deceased ancestors 

who are active and must be placated. 

There is a wide range of natural forces thought to be activated by 

spirits, of which perhaps the most common is rain. Although Southern Sudan does not suffer as acutely as the North from lack of rain, 

there has sometimes been a shortage, particularly from the 1970s to 

1990; this shortage has created or exacerbated hardship, famine, and 

the travail of civil war. For this reason, rituals connected with rain 

have become important in many ethnic groups, and ritual specialists 

concerned with rain or thought to incarnate the spirit of rain are 

important figures. 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

The distinction between the natural and the supernatural that has 

emerged in the Western world is not relevant to traditional religions. 

Spirits may have much greater power than human beings, but their 

powers are perceived not as altering the way the world commonly 

works but rather as explaining occurrences in nature or in the social 

world. 

Some men and women are also thought to have extraordinary powers. How these powers are believed to have been acquired and exercised varies from group to group. In general, however, some people 

are thought to have inherited the capacity to harm others and to have a 

disposition to do so. Typically, they are accused of inflicting illness on 

specific individuals, frequently their neighbors or kin. In some groups, 

it is thought that men and women who have no inherent power to harm 

may nevertheless do damage to others by manipulating images of the 

victim or items closely associated with that person. 

An individual may occasionally be thought of as a sorcerer. When 

illness or some other affliction strikes in a form that is generally 

attributed to a sorcerer, there are ways (typically some form of divination) of confirming that witchcraft was used and of identifying the 

sorcerer. 

The notions of sorcery are not limited to the South but are found in 

varying forms among peoples, including nomads and other Arabs, who 

consider themselves Muslims. A specific belief widespread among 

Arabs and other Muslim peoples is the notion of the evil eye. Although 

a physiological peculiarity of the eye (walleye or cross-eye) may be 

considered indicative of the evil eye, any persons expressing undue 

interest in the private concerns of another may be suspected of inflicting 

deliberate harm by a glance. Unlike most witchcraft, where the perpetrator is known by and often close to the victim, the evil eye is usually 

attributed to strangers. Children are thought to be the most vulnerable. 

Ways exist to protect oneself against sorcery or the evil eye. Many 

magico-religious specialists—diviners and sorcerers—deal with 

these matters in Sudanese societies. The diviner is able to determine 

whether witchcraft or sorcery is responsible for the affliction and to 

discover the source. He also protects and cures by providing amulets 

and other protective devices for a fee or by helping a victim punish 

(in occult fashion) the sorcerer in order to be cured of the affliction. If 

it is thought that an evil spirit has possessed a person, an exorcist may 

be called in. In some groups, these tasks may be accomplished by one 

person; in others, the degree of specialization may be greater. In the 

North, among Muslim peoples, the faqih may spend more of his time 

as diviner, dispenser of amulets, healer, and exorcist than as Quranic 

teacher, imam of a mosque, or mystic. 

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Social Order 

The social order in Sudan was very much in flux in the 2000s. Various factors, including rural to urban migration; the large numbers of 

displaced persons—foreign and native—in so many parts of the country, many of whom were starting to return to their homes after the end 

of the civil war; economic pressures forcing more and more women 

into the labor force; plus the increased availability of modern technology (e.g., cellular telephones, television stations, and the growing 

availability of the Internet to at least professional elites in urban settings), have all combined to create new social patterns that were still 

evolving. 

The “old” Sudan, where religious, tribal, and village notables held 

sway in an unchallenged fashion, so prevalent for most of the twentieth 

century and before, still existed but no longer dominated the country’s 

social order. Parallel to it were fragmented societies in large urban settings, smaller kinship communities in the poorer outskirts ringing the 

large centers, and the extensive dwelling areas of displaced persons 

who were at least temporarily cut off from their traditional leaders. 

Young men and women more often than not had to fend for themselves, whether they were, for example, Northern Muslim university 

graduates or Southern migrant women selling beer, or perhaps themselves, in order to make ends meet. In addition, it was alleged— 

although such a factor was probably exaggerated—that most Sudanese 

had relatives living abroad who sent not only some financial support 

but also accompanying ideas about other ways of living, worshipping, 

and identifying. While such influences were common for North Africans who lived close to Europe, or Lebanese and Palestinians working 

in Gulf countries or overseas, they were relatively new to Sudan. 

Many outside observers have noted over the years how strongly 

anchored Sudanese customs and values have been. Historically, poor 

Sudanese found economic and personal support with their kinfolk, 

and it was not uncommon for a man fallen on hard times to stay at a 

relative’s home for months at a time, certain in the knowledge that 

he would be cared for and not asked for anything in return. In the 

new century, this pattern has become the exception rather than the 

rule. If there is no future at home, the preferred option is to join relatives abroad, for those who can devise the means to do so. 

How, then, can one present the “new” social order in the early 

2000s? At least five separate lifestyles can be observed: that found in 

the core of the major cities, that of the exurbs surrounding them, settled village folk in the rural areas, seminomads, and genuine pastoralists. The last two categories are distinguished by the fact that 

seminomads have a defined home base inhabited year-round by the 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

old, the very young, and the infirm, but from which the rest of the 

tribe moves out for six to nine months at a time and then returns. 

Genuine pastoralists, who are very few in number, have no fixed 

specific address but roam in generalized areas that are commonly 

recognized by friend and foe. 

Northern Society 

The paramount chief remains a venerated figure for tribally organized Sudanese, one who still dispenses judgments regarding personal conduct, answers local administrative questions, and sometimes 

even comments on marriage. Among Arabs and Arabized Northerners, he is known as the nazir. Below him is the subtribal chief usually 

referred to as sheikh (although that term has multiple meanings). 

Most people in the South also recognize paramount chiefs for large 

tribes, but their honorific names vary locally. 

In rural villages and even in some near the edges of large cities, the 

administrative head is referred to as omda. His role as village headman parallels in many ways that of the patriarch of an extended family and, in large villages, that of the sheikh heading the hara, or 

quarter. Omda rule by consensus, rather than by dictate, take responsibility for knowing every person living in their area, and are always 

approachable by one and all. They, not the police, adjudicate disputes. 

They mediate between families, and they offer advice on education, 

work opportunities, and marriage issues. Their source of authority is 

always customary law, although some central governments validate 

their positions officially, as did the British-led colonial administration 

and the early postindependence regimes, which preferred to administer local government through such traditional leaders. They should 

not, however, be seen as autocrats, because their position depends on 

acceptance by the community and they are required to consult regularly with all parties, most especially with local “wise men” with 

whom they are likely to be in daily contact. 

Parallel to these territorial communities are the religious associations (see Religious Life, this ch.). In settled rural areas, the faqih 

might have similar authority to the omda or sheikh, except that his 

domain is typically limited to spiritual and mystical areas; he would 

not be consulted on matters of local government. 

The closer one approaches to the cities through the more rural outskirts—and in the case of the capital region through impoverished 

refugee camps—the central and widely accepted authority figure is 

absent. There are, of course, some local leaders, but their authority 

does not compare with that of the sheikh or nazir. If local disputes 

arise and they cannot be resolved quickly by government authorities, 

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who in any case would have less legitimacy than the traditional leaders in the eyes of the local populace, the dispute might simply fester 

for long periods, or the offended party might move away to another 

ex-urban location. Newcomers to urban centers have shallow roots by 

definition and feel less pressured to conform to local norms, to which 

they have no allegiance in this extremely heterogeneous society. 

Aside from the presence of government buildings, core urban areas 

tend to be more stable because of their location and longevity. Established neighborhoods used to be “overseen” by a sheikh, but in recent 

years the civil servants, businessmen, educators, laborers, entertainers, 

and other professional people are consumed by the typical urban preoccupations of seemingly never-ending rush-hour traffic, shopping, and 

visiting relatives in typically large extended families no longer living 

side-by-side as in rural areas or days of yore. The introduction of minibuses, cellular phones, extended Sudanese television transmission, plus 

the availability for the middle and upper classes of satellite TV and the 

Internet, has visibly shifted the focus of daily activities from extended to 

nuclear families. For sure, in times of stress, relatives come together in 

solidarity vis-à-vis the world, but on a day-to-day basis, life in the large 

cities of Sudan resembles more and more that of midsize cities in the 

West. Consequently, the “big men” so easily identifiable in rural areas 

are not found in large cities. If anything, they are being replaced by wellknown singers, famous poets, and the occasional entertainer. Businessmen and top professionals in medicine, law, and information technology 

are all concentrated in the capital region and, together with senior officials in the national government, have formed a new class in which 

everyone seems to know almost everyone else. Together they form what 

some refer to as the “political state” or the “ruling class.” 

Southern Communities 

South Sudan, by contrast, evolved somewhat differently, in part 

because of its different demography, but also because the colonial 

administration had created a Closed Districts Ordinance to protect the 

region from both commercial and cultural influences from the North. 

In preindependence Sudan, most communities in the South were 

small, except for the large conglomerate of Nilotes, Dinka, and Nuer 

who dominated what were then Bahr al-Ghazal and Upper Nile Provinces and the Azande people of former Equatoria Province. During 

the Condominium, the colonial administration imposed stronger local 

authority on communities in the South. It made local leaders into 

chiefs or headmen and gave them executive and judicial powers— 

tempered by local councils, usually elders—to administer their people, under the scrutiny of a British district commissioner. As in the 

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North, the relatively fluid relationships and boundaries among Southerners became better defined and more stabilized. 

There is scant systematic evidence of how independence, civil war, 

and famine affected the social order of the peoples of the South. The 

gradual incorporation of Southerners into the national system—if 

only as migrant laborers and as local craftsmen—and increased 

opportunities for education did, however, affect social arrangements, 

ideas of status, and political views. 

An educated elite emerged in the South after independence, and by 

the early 2000s, some members of this elite were important politicians 

and administrators at the regional and national levels. Other members, 

however, had emigrated to escape Northern discrimination. How the 

newer elite was linked to the older traditional one was not clear. Secular chieftainships had been mostly gifts of the colonial authorities, but 

the sons of chiefs took advantage of their positions to get a Western 

education and to create family ties among local and regional elites. 

South Sudan’s development of an elite class based on education 

and government position came about in part because of the absence of 

an indigenous trading and entrepreneurial class, which might have 

challenged the educated elite. Merchants there were mostly Arabs or 

others originating elsewhere, especially Greeks. In addition, the South 

lacked the equivalent of the Muslim leaders of religious orders in the 

North, who also might have claimed a share of influence. Instead of 

several elites owing their status and power to varied sources and constituencies, the South developed an elite that looked for its support to 

persons of the same ethnic background and to those who identified 

with the South’s African heritage. 

Clans were of two kinds in traditional Nilotic society. One kind, a 

minority but a large one, consisted of clans whose members had religious functions and furnished the priests of subtribes and sometimes 

of tribes. These priests have been called chiefs or masters of the fishing spear, a reference to the ritual importance of that instrument. Clans 

of the other kind were warrior groupings. The difference was one of 

function rather than rank. A spear master prayed for his people when 

they went to war, or in other difficult situations, and mediated between 

quarreling groups. He could function as a leader, but his powers lay in 

persuasion, not coercion. A spear master with a considerable reputation for spiritual power was deferred to on many issues. In rare 

cases—the most important being that of the Shilluk—one of the ritual 

offices gained influence over an entire people, and its holder was 

assigned the attributes of a divine king. 

A special religious figure—commonly called a prophet—has arisen 

among some of the Nilotic peoples from time to time. Such prophets, 

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thought to be possessed by a sky spirit, often had much wider influence than the ritual officeholders, who were confined to specific territorial clan or lineage segments. They gained substantial reputations as 

healers and used those reputations to rally their peoples against other 

ethnic groups and sometimes against “the Arabs” and the Europeans. 

The Condominium authorities considered prophets subversive, even 

when their message did not apparently oppose authority, and hence 

suppressed them. 

Another social pattern common to the Nilotes was the age-set system. Traditionally, males were periodically initiated into sets according 

to age; with the set, they moved through a series of stages, assuming and 

shedding rights and responsibilities as the group advanced in age. The 

system was closely linked to warfare and raiding, which diminished 

during the Condominium. In postindependence times, civil war and 

famine further undermined the system, and its remnants seemed likely 

to fade as formal education becomes more accessible. 

The Dinka were the most-populous Nilotic people historically, so 

numerous that social and political patterns varied from one tribal 

group to another. Among the Dinka, the tribal group was composed of 

a set of independent tribes that settled in a continuous area. The tribe, 

which ranged in size from 1,000 to 25,000 persons, traditionally had 

only two political functions. First, it controlled and defended the dryseason pastures of its constituent subtribes; second, if a member of the 

tribe killed another member, the issue would be resolved peacefully. 

Homicide committed by someone outside the tribe was avenged, but 

not by the tribe as a whole. The colonial administration, seeking equitable access to adequate pasturage for all tribes, introduced a different 

system and thus eliminated one of the tribe’s two responsibilities. In 

postindependence Sudan, the handling of homicide as a crime against 

the state made the tribe’s second function also irrelevant. The utilization and politicization of ethnic groups as units of local government 

have supported the continuation of tribal structures into the present; 

however, tribal chiefs in the early 2000s did not fulfill any traditional 

functions except as sage advisers to their people in personal and family matters. 

Some attempts were made to transform these ethnic tribal structures 

in order to produce a national, or at least a greater subnational, identity. 

For instance, in the early formation of the Sudan People’s Liberation 

Movement (SPLM), one of the main ideological goals was to produce a 

new non-Northern, riverine-area solidarity based on the mobilization of 

diverse ethnic groups in deprived areas (see Sudan People’s Liberation 

Movement, ch. 4; Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army, ch. 5). 

To achieve this new sense of solidarity, it attempted to recruit not just 

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peoples in the South but also the Fur, Funj, Nuba, and Beja communities. Its success was limited by the persistent perception that the SPLM 

was essentially Dinka-based. Further, non-Dinka Southerners were suspicious of the leadership’s motives, even though many, like the abovementioned four communities based in the North, agreed on the principle of resisting perceived Arab domination. Examples of splits within 

the rebel movement in the South were the establishment of the South 

Sudan Independence Movement (SSIM) and the South Sudan Unity 

Movement (SSUM), which resulted from other tribal and clan identities following a proposed peace agreement in 1997. 

The subtribes were the largest significant political segments historically, and they were converted into subchiefdoms by the colonial 

government. Although the subchiefs were stripped of most of their 

administrative authority during the al-Numayri regime (1969–85) and 

replaced by loyal members of the Sudan Socialist Union, the advice 

of subchiefs continued to be sought on local matters. Thus, a threetiered system was created: the traditional authorities, the Sudanese 

civil service, and the political bureaucrats from Khartoum. During the 

1980s, this confused system of administration dissolved into virtual 

anarchy as a result of the replacement of one regime by another, civil 

war, and famine. In the South, however, during the next two decades, 

the SPLM created new local administrative structures in areas under 

its control. Even so, in general the traditional structure of Nilotic society, although severely damaged, remained relatively unchanged. Loyalties to one’s rural ethnic community were deeply rooted and were 

not forgotten, even by those who fled for refuge or employment to 

urban centers in the North. 

Urban and National Elites 

Sudan in the early 2000s did not yet have an urban national elite 

comparable to those of Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, or Syria in the 

Arab world, or to Ethiopia, Kenya, and Nigeria in Africa. Small provincial elites were found in regional capitals in the sense that government, business, and tribal and religious leaders were recognized as 

being “above the rest,” but they did not constitute a distinct social 

class. Their roots were frequently in the countryside, and they maintained dual rural–urban identities as such. These subregional minielites also seemed not to share significant elements of a common 

value system, and economic ties among them were tenuous. If a 

national society and elites were emerging, it was in the Three Towns 

constituting the national capital area. It was in Khartoum, Khartoum 

North, and Omdurman that the national politicians, high-level bureaucrats, senior military, educated professionals, and wealthy merchants 

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and entrepreneurs lived, worked, and socialized. Even those who had 

residences elsewhere also maintained second family homes, especially in Omdurman. 

These elites long recognized the usefulness of maintaining a presence in the capital area, traditionally living in Omdurman, a much 

more Arab city than Khartoum. The other truly urban elites also used 

to live in Omdurman until around 2000, but the concentration of the 

North’s varied elites in one city did not necessarily engender a common social life. As in many Arab and African cities, much of Omdurman’s population lived in separate if not wholly isolated quarters. 

By the early 2000s, the capital region had become truly urbanized 

for the first time in Sudanese history, complete with high-rise buildings, 

overcrowding, and monumental traffic jams. The old and so-familiar 

former pattern of life, in which most educated Sudanese knew each 

other or knew at least someone in the other’s family, was no longer 

possible. If there were an in-country elite, it consisted of senior military, senior civil servants, and senior academic figures alongside the 

new and rising business elite and those from the (also new) worlds of 

satellite TV and entertainment. Compared to Western societies, the 

Sudanese elite knew more about each others’ families and lifestyles but 

did not interact very closely. 

One part of the elite structure was not predominantly urban, however, although the family headquarters were located in the capital 

area. These were the heads of important religious groups, whose 

constituencies and sources of power and wealth were largely rural. 

Leaders of large tribes were based in their regions but maintained 

family homes in the capital, to which they commuted frequently and 

where some members of their usually very large families settled. 

Most of the educated elite children whose families originated in outlying regions considered themselves to be “from Khartoum,” and the 

most educated, when asked about their identity, answered “Sudanese” 

first and foremost. This phenomenon was quite new, and it reflected 

disillusion with the politics and economics of the “old Sudan” in which 

regional, tribal, and sectarian affiliations mattered greatly, yet those 

political and social identities failed to deliver peace and prosperity and 

increasingly were blamed for the failures. To the extent that the Northern elites were Muslim and Arab—most being both—they shared an 

overall religion and language but were otherwise marked by differences in interest and outlook. 

Still more divergent were the elite Southerners, most of whom were 

non-Muslims, few spoke Arabic fluently, and they were regarded— 

and saw themselves—not primarily as a professional or bureaucratic 

elite, but as a regional one. Many appeared to prefer a career in the 

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South to a post in Khartoum; indeed, after the Comprehensive Peace 

Agreement of 2005 took effect, they moved to Rumbek, Wau, or Juba. 

These elites exercised political power directly or gave significant support to those who did. But so diverse and sometimes conflicting were 

their interests and outlooks that they did not constitute a cohesive 

class. 

Sudanese society did not develop a consensus, in terms of overarching values, as to what kinds of work, talents, possessions, and background were more worthy than others and therefore conferred higher 

status. For generations there were merchants, entrepreneurs, and religious leaders in Sudan. The latter enjoyed a special status through the 

1980s but have declined visibly ever since. For example, the prestige 

of both the al-Mahdi and al-Mirghani families fell considerably as a 

result of failures of their political leaders in the last two to three 

decades. This was strikingly apparent in the strife-ridden region of 

Darfur, where all residents—victims and victimizers—not only were 

Muslims but also belonged to the same sect (Ansar), yet their leader, 

Sadiq al-Mahdi, had virtually no influence over these feuding factions. 

Indeed, his automobile was stoned by an enraged mob during a visit in 

2004; such an event would have been unthinkable in the 1980s. In the 

Sudan of the early 2000s, wealth and the influence and power it generated came to carry greater status than traditional religious position. 

The educated, secular elite was a newer phenomenon, and some 

deference was given its members by other elites. In the Muslim 

North, the educated ranged from devotees of Islamic activism to 

Islamic reformers and a few avowed secularists. Despite the respect 

generally given the educated, however, those at either extreme were 

likely to make members of other elites uncomfortable. 

The younger, larger generation of the educated elite did not consist 

entirely of offspring of the older, smaller, educated elite. Many were 

sons (and sometimes daughters) of businessmen, wealthy landowners, and the tribal elite. A peculiar feature of the educated Sudanese 

was that large numbers lived outside Sudan for years at a time, working in Middle Eastern oil-producing states, Europe, or North America. Some of their earnings came back to Sudan, but it was not clear 

that they had much to do with the formation or characteristics of a 

specifically Sudanese elite. 

Tribal and ethnic elites carried weight in specific localities and 

might be significant if the states were to achieve substantial autonomy; however, their importance on the national scene was questionable. That they were significant was apparent from what followed in 

the wake of an internal political realignment in the country’s top leadership in 1999–2000, when some exiled politicians returned, as did 

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some academics and well-established professionals from the oil-producing countries, Europe, North America, and even from Egypt, 

Kenya, and Uganda. The quid pro quo for their return was political 

amnesty in exchange for an understanding to refrain from attacking 

the government of al-Bashir and the National Congress Party. 

Socializing and intermarriage among members of the different 

elites could be significant in establishing a cohesive upper class, but 

that had not happened by the early 2000s, except among a few at 

places such as the University of Khartoum. It was still easier for a 

male Sudanese intellectual to marry a non-Muslim Westerner than a 

Muslim from a different tribe and sect, although family acceptance of 

such a personal decision was on the increase. 

After independence, the old elite regarded itself as the arbiter of 

social acceptance into the company of those riverine “Arab” families 

who had long lived in the Omdurman–Khartoum area, had substantial 

income from landholding, and had participated in the higher reaches 

of government during the Condominium or engaged in professions of 

medicine, law, and the university. Men from these families were well 

educated. Few engaged in business, which tended to be in the hands 

of families of Lebanese, Syrian, Greek, and at least partial Egyptian 

ancestry. 

Beginning in the late 1960s, in the North Muslims of non-Mediterranean background began to acquire substantial wealth as businessmen, often as importers and exporters. These men were relatively 

young when they began their entrepreneurial activity, and unlike 

members of the older elite families, they were not well educated. By 

the late 1970s and early 1980s, however, many of these businessmen 

had started sending their children to Britain or the United States for 

advanced degrees. Reflecting trends in other societies, whereas the 

sons of the older elite had been educated mainly for government 

careers, in and after the 1980s, business education was increasingly 

emphasized. In contrast to the more secular elites in the professions, 

the civil service, and the military, however, many members of these 

newer economic elites gravitated toward religion and the Muslim 

Brotherhood. By the early 2000s, almost the entire leadership of the 

Sudanese Islamists had graduate degrees, usually in applied sciences, 

and most often from Western universities. 

The older elite typically used to intermarry and exclude those whose 

backgrounds they did not know, even if the families were wealthy and 

successful in business, religion, or education. Gradually, after independence, Arabic speakers of other sedentary families acquired higher education, entered the bureaucracy or founded lucrative businesses, and 

began to participate to a limited degree in the social circle of the older 

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families. The emphasis on “good family” persisted, however, in most 

marriages. Sedentary “Arabs” were acceptable, as were some persons 

of an older mixture of “Arab” and Nile Nubian ancestry, for example, 

the people around Dongola. But people from the South and the West— 

even if Muslims—and members of nomadic groups (particularly the 

darker Baqqara Arabs) were not. A man from the South might be 

esteemed for his achievements and other qualities, but he was not considered an eligible husband for a woman of a sedentary Arab family. 

There are some exceptions in current times, as there were decades ago, 

but they are generally perceived as such. 

Women and the Family 

The extended family continued to provide social services in post2000 Sudan. Traditionally, the family was responsible for everyone, 

including the old, the sick, and the mentally ill, although many of 

these responsibilities were eroded by urbanization. Whether in rural 

or urban society, however, the burden of these social services fell 

heavily upon women. 

Except for the small number of liberated, educated young women 

from families of the elite, in the North women remained within the 

household and were segregated at all festivities, usually eating after 

the men. This was particularly the case with Muslim households. 

Men entertained in their own quarters, and males of an extended 

family ate together. In a small family, the husband ate alone or, more 

frequently, took his bowl to join his male neighbors. 

A young university couple might live much as in the West, in an 

apartment or in a small house without relatives, and might live, eat, 

and entertain together. Nevertheless, traditional patterns were deeply 

rooted, and the husband might often be away visiting his male friends 

in their homes, in the market, or in cafés. At home a servant helped 

with the children. Although the educated young married or unmarried 

woman had greater mobility because of her job, she was not exempt 

from the traditional obligations and the public supremacy of the Muslim husband. She was aware that her education and job were not a 

license to trespass upon male-dominated social norms. 

The uneducated woman had greater freedoms in some respects, as 

long as she was with her peers; for even among well-to-do families, a 

young woman was restricted to her household and female friends 

until transferred to similar seclusion in the house of her husband. Paradoxically, this segregation could cause a spirit of independence, particularly among educated women, for there were a host of aunts, 

cousins, and grandmothers to look after children and allow mothers to 

work outside the home. Nevertheless, social traditions governed the 

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Baqqara nomads on the move in southern Kordofan, 1996 

Copyright Lillian Craig Harris 

way of life of Sudanese women. The segregation and subordination 

of women in Sudanese society should not obscure female domination 

of the household, just as their men commanded public life. The home 

and the rearing of children were their domains—so long as they 

upheld male-oriented social norms. 

Two traditional customs among women in the North had an enormous impact on their private and social relationships—the zar cult 

and female “circumcision.” Zar was the name given to the ceremony 

conducted only by women practitioners that was required to pacify 

evil spirits and to cleanse women of afflictions caused by demons or 

jinn. Zar cults were numerous throughout Muslim Africa. Illnesses, 

including depression, infertility, and other organic and psychological 

disorders, were attributed to possession by hostile spirits. Although 

zar ceremonies varied widely, they not only freed the one possessed 

but also were great social occasions where women could communicate together as men did within male circles. 

Female genital mutilation, or infibulation (excising the external 

genitalia and sewing the vagina shut), was widely practiced throughout 

Muslim and Christian Africa, and especially among Sudan’s Northern 

Arab population. Enormous pressure was put on girls aged 12 or 

younger, as well as on older women and their families, to observe these 

traditions. 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

The issue of female genital mutilation was controversial, however, 

because of the physical and psychological problems it caused women. 

The practice was opposed by Sudanese governments from the Mahdi 

in the nineteenth century to the current regime and by international 

organizations, such as the UN. Midwives performed the operation, 

which often led to shock, hemorrhage, and septicemia. It created innumerable obstetrical problems before and after childbirth and throughout life. Despite international conferences, legislation, and efforts to 

eradicate the practice, however, it appeared to be on the increase in the 

early 2000s, not only in Sudan but in Africa generally. At the same 

time, the adoption of Western medicine by the growing educated class 

increasingly promoted awareness of the harmful effects of infibulation. Legislation banning female genital mutilation in Sudan was in 

place since before independence, with severe penalties for the male 

head of household where it took place; even so the practice continued 

unabated. 

In the South, the role of women differed dramatically from that in 

the North. Although women were subordinate to men, they enjoyed 

much greater freedom within their societies. Female genital mutilation was not practiced and no zar cult existed, although spirits were 

regularly consulted about public and private affairs through practitioners. Women had greater freedom of movement and, indeed, participated to a limited degree in the councils of lineage. Husbands 

consulted their wives on matters pertaining to public affairs. Many 

women also played important roles in the mediation of disputes, and, 

as of 2007, one prominent woman, Rebecca Garang, had assumed a 

responsible position in the Government of South Sudan. On the 

downside, as human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) began to spread, many in the North 

associated it with “African licentiousness” rather than with “freedom” for women. As one more cultural fault line along the North– 

South divide, the trade-off for “freedom” was seen as not worth the 

price of sexually transmitted diseases. 

Education 

The education sector saw steady improvement in Sudan over the 

1990s and early 2000s. Even with constant unrest and unrelenting 

poverty, the number of children attending school rose, as did literacy 

rates. Still, Sudan lagged behind most of its African counterparts in 

terms of educating its youth. It also fell significantly below the education standards of the Arab world. Sudan’s widely dispersed rural population made mass education a difficult task. Additionally, long years 

of civil war interrupted schooling and displaced many families. 

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Young men and boys who would otherwise have been enrolled in 

secondary schools instead enlisted in the fighting. For the most part, 

male students had to serve in the army or Popular Defense Forces (a 

paramilitary body allied with the National Islamic Front) before they 

could enroll in one of the country’s universities. And if these challenges were not enough, poverty, especially in the South, made 

attending school an impossible luxury for many children. 

Development of the Education System 

The public and private education systems inherited by the country 

after independence were designed more to provide civil servants and 

professionals to serve the colonial administration than to educate 

Sudanese. Moreover, the distribution of facilities, staff, and enrollment was biased in favor of the needs of the administration and a 

Western curriculum. Schools tended to be clustered in the vicinity of 

Khartoum and to a lesser extent in other urban areas, although the 

population was predominantly rural. This concentration, found at all 

levels, was most acute in education beyond the four-year primary 

level. The North suffered from shortages of teachers and buildings, 

but education in the South, largely in the hands of missionaries, was 

even more inadequate. Civil strife and the ejection of all foreign missionaries in February 1964 further diminished educational opportunities in the South. 

The demand for education exceeded Sudan’s educational resources. 

At independence in 1956, education accounted for only 15.5 percent 

of the Sudanese budget: this to support 1,778 primary schools (enrollment 208,688), 108 intermediate schools (enrollment 14,632), and 49 

government secondary schools (enrollment 5,423). Higher education 

was limited to the University of Khartoum. The adult literacy rate was 

23 percent. For the first decade and a half after independence, the philosophy and curriculum beyond primary school followed the British 

education tradition. Although all students learned Arabic and English 

in intermediate and secondary schools, the language of instruction at 

the University of Khartoum was English. Sudanese schools, in many 

cases unable to keep pace with the demand, relied heavily on foreign 

teachers to fill the necessary teaching slots. 

When the al-Numayri-led government took power in 1969, it considered the education system inadequate for the needs of social and economic development. Its governing philosophy, “Arab Socialism,” was 

heavily influenced by the Egyptian model under Gamal Abdel Nasser. 

Accordingly, an extensive reorganization was proposed, which would 

eventually make the new six-year elementary program compulsory and 

would pay much attention to technical and vocational education at all 

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levels. Previously, primary and intermediate school had been preludes 

to secondary training, and secondary school prepared students for the 

university. The system produced some well-trained university graduates, but the great bulk of students who did not go as far as the university, or even secondary school, received little training to prepare them 

for technical work or skilled labor. 

The government education system had been largely reorganized by 

the late 1970s. There were some preprimary schools, mainly in urban 

areas. The basic system consisted of a six-year curriculum in primary 

schools and a three-year curriculum in junior secondary (middle or 

general) schools. From there, qualified students could go on to the 

three-year upper-secondary level, which prepared students for higher 

education; commercial and agricultural technical schools; and teachertraining secondary schools designed to prepare primary-school teachers. Postsecondary education included universities, higher technical 

schools, and teacher-training colleges to train junior- and upper-secondary school teachers. Of the more than 5,400 primary schools in 

1980, fewer than 14 percent were located in the South, home to about 

25 percent of the country’s population. Many of the schools there were 

established during the Southern Regional Administration (1972−81). 

The renewal of the civil war in mid-1983 destroyed many schools, 

although the SPLA operated schools in areas under its control. Nevertheless, many teachers and students were among the refugees who fled 

the ravages of the war in the South. 

In the early 1980s, the number of junior-secondary schools was a little more than one-fifth the number of primary schools; only about 6.5 

percent of them were in the South. There were just 190 upper-secondary schools in the public system in 1980, but it was at this level that private schools of varying quality proliferated, particularly in the three 

cities of the capital area. Despite the emphasis on technical education, 

there were only 35 technical schools in Sudan, less than one-fifth the 

number of academic upper-secondary schools. In 1976–77 eight times 

as many students entered the academic stream as entered the technical 

schools; moreover, prospective employers often found technical-school 

graduates inadequately trained, a consequence of sometimes irrelevant 

curricula, low teacher morale, and lack of equipment. The technical 

schools were meant to include institutions for training skilled workers 

in agriculture, but few of the schools were directed to that end, most of 

them turning out workers more useful in the urban areas. 

The hope for universal and compulsory education had not been 

realized by the early 1980s, but as a goal it nonetheless led to a more 

equitable distribution of facilities and teachers in rural areas and in the 

South. During the 1980s, the government established more schools at 

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all levels and with them, more teacher-training schools, although 

these were never sufficient to provide adequate staff. The process was 

inherently slow and was made slower by limited funds and by inadequate compensation for staff. Teachers who could not find suitable 

employment inside or outside Sudan abandoned the field of education 

altogether. 

The revolutionary government of Colonel (later Lieutenant General) Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir announced sweeping reforms in 

Sudanese education in September 1990. In consultation with leaders 

of the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist teachers and administrators, 

who were the strongest supporters of his regime, al-Bashir proclaimed 

a new philosophy of education in which instruction was to be cast 

along Islamist lines. He decreed that the number of university students 

be doubled and that Arabic replace English as the language of instruction in universities. The government strictly controlled curricula and 

dismissed instructors who opposed the reforms. To implement these 

changes, al-Bashir pledged substantially increased financing. From 

1992 to 2004, the central government allocated 8 percent of its overall 

budget to education, eight times the figure for health but some 28 percent of that for defense. 

Primary and Secondary Education 

A series of decrees and laws issued during the 1990s established 

the parameters of Sudan’s new education system. In 1992 a comprehensive reform of primary and secondary education was undertaken 

that provides for 11 years of schooling in three stages—preschool, 

basic, and secondary. Long-term goals included not only universal 

primary education but also an increase in vocational training and in 

female enrollment. In 1995 the government established the Federal 

Ministry of Education and charged it with administration, curriculum, 

and teacher preparation. In 1998 a so-called Compulsion Law mandated that all children aged six to 13 be enrolled in school, a law that 

was little enforced. 

Education officials implemented the new three-stage education 

ladder and curriculum between 2002 and 2004. Following a two-year 

preschool program, the ladder was composed of basic and secondary 

instruction, a concept that differed from the elementary, intermediate, 

and secondary levels of former years. The basic level began at age six 

and encompassed the next eight years of instruction, followed by 

three years of secondary study, for a total of 11 years. Longer school 

years compensated for the former twelfth year of study and allowed 

students earlier entrance into the national workforce. 

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The basic school curriculum was structured around the themes of 

religion, language, mathematics, man and the universe, expressional 

arts, and applied arts. This stage was divided into three cycles, the last 

of which were the seventh and eighth grades. Completion of the basic 

level terminated the formal education of about half of all pupils. The 

abolition of the distinction between academic and technical instruction was a goal at the secondary level. Hence, students studied a variety of subjects drawn from both curricula, although language (Arabic 

and English), religion, mathematics, and science were core subjects 

common to all three secondary grades. Instruction in schools in the 

North was in Arabic. Ministry officials hoped that instruction in both 

academic and technical subjects would better prepare students for 

gainful employment once they completed their secondary education. 

Parallel with this formal education system was a less formal program of primary instruction. It consisted of four years of enrollment 

in a compressed basic-level curriculum designed to meet the needs of 

out-of-school students aged nine to 14. After completing this course 

of study, students were expected to be eligible to enroll in mainstream 

secondary schools. 

The 2004 and 2005 peace accords between the national government 

and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army foresaw change 

in national education. The accords called for creation of educational 

opportunities for those affected by war, for parallel systems of education to run in the North and the South during the six-year interim 

period, and for free education in Southern states. Both Arabic and 

English were recognized as official working languages of the national 

government and as languages of instruction in higher education. 

The Ministry of Education reported that for the academic year 

2009–10, there were 6.3 million primary students enrolled in nearly 

20,000 schools, of which more than 18,000 were government schools 

and some 1,600 were nongovernment schools. Comparable enrollment 

in 1997–98 was 3 million. At the secondary level, the ministry counted 

761,200 students and nearly 3,000 schools, including 163 technical 

schools and 15 Islamic studies institutions. These figures compared 

with 486,000 students in 2001–2 and 461,000 in 1997–98. UN figures 

for 2008 showed a national adult literacy rate (ages 15 and older who 

could read and write) of 69 percent as compared with 61 percent in 

2004, when the literacy rate for women was only 52 percent compared 

with 71 percent for men. Statistics for 2009 from the Southern Sudan 

Ministry of Education showed that of the population 15 years of age 

and older, 27 percent were literate (40 percent for males, 16 percent for 

females). 

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The early 2,000s saw a steady increase in the number of children 

enrolled in preschool education despite warfare and large-scale internal displacement; as of 2000, about one-quarter of the population had 

access to such programs. Between 1990 and 1998, the number of children attending preschool increased annually by 3.9 percent, with even 

higher rates of growth for girls. Enrollment rates in basic and secondary education have also shown steady growth, more so in the North 

and in urban areas. Education officials also reported progress toward 

achievement of gender equality at all levels of schooling, particularly 

in the North. 

Sudan held a national symposium on education in 2001, which 

established a number of education targets for both 2005 and 2015. The 

targets focused primarily on increasing the percentage of children in 

school and decreasing the gender disparity. The government concluded that to fund education and improve facilities, local communities should pay 50 percent of the annual expense to educate their 

children, a minimum of US$26 per student. Many communities, however, could not raise such funds. Thus, while improvements were 

planned, some would be difficult to realize. 

Educational Opportunity 

The government provided free primary education for children aged 

six to 14, at least in theory. Attendance rates were always low, and 

school closings resulted from civil conflict. Still, some encouraging 

trends emerged. In 1996, for example, only 44 percent of the age-relevant population attended school in Sudan. More boys (47 percent) than 

girls (40 percent) attended school at this point. The World Bank estimated the primary-school enrollment rate at 60 percent in 2004, with a 

49-percent completion rate; comparable figures for 2000 were 51 percent enrollment and 39 percent completion. Secondary enrollment in 

2004 was 33 percent compared with 26 percent in 2000. However, data 

from a 2006 household health survey in North and South Sudan showed 

that only 53.7 percent of children were attending primary school, 

although this figure probably did not fully reflect increasing enrollments in the South. Unfortunately, many students came to school or not 

as their situations allowed, and perhaps half or more were unable to 

complete the education program mandated by the national government. 

Far greater access to education existed in the states in the North than 

in those in the South. According to the Sudanese government, in 1980– 

81 there were 903 primary and intermediate schools in the South with a 

total enrollment of 166,000 pupils. A 1998 to 2001 UN survey in the 

three main regions of the South and part of the Nuba Mountains 

counted 1,096 schools with an enrollment of about 228,000 pupils; a 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

parallel assessment by the SPLM reported 1,500 schools with 508,000 

pupils out of an estimated 1 million children aged seven to 14. Both 

studies clearly showed only a minority of eligible school children were 

enrolled in Southern schools in the early 2000s. Further, of those 

enrolled, most—60 percent—were in the first two grades; only 12 percent of pupils reached the upper grades, with fewer than 1 percent in 

eighth-grade classes. For the same years, the UN reported that 80 percent of eligible children in the North attended elementary school. 

Several factors accounted for low enrollment in the South, among 

them a strong bias against educating girls. Of the approximately 

228,000 primary enrollees in the 1998–2001 UN survey, only 26 percent were female, and they were concentrated in the lowest grades. It 

should be no surprise that illiteracy rates for women in the South 

were among the highest in the world. Young women were often 

deterred from education by demands for labor at home and by early 

marriage. Although boys enjoyed preferential opportunities, they, too, 

helped with farming and herding, and before 2005 young men often 

left home to fight against the central government. 

Regardless of gender, the infrastructure for education in the South 

paled compared with even the modest educational assets of the North. 

Many children who did attend school never saw the inside of an 

actual classroom. According to the UN, as of 2003, some 43 percent 

of classes taught in the South took place outdoors, often with only the 

shade of a tree for shelter. Only 12 percent of classes in the South 

took place in a permanent classroom compared with 60 percent in the 

North. School buildings, if they once existed, had been destroyed by 

decades of warfare or needed substantial repair, and most teachers did 

not have access to essential educational tools such as books and stateprepared curricula. 

The South also suffered from a lack of qualified teachers. In 2006 

the Government of Southern Sudan reported that half of its teachers 

had only a primary education and no further training for their duties. 

Many taught voluntarily. At some schools, parents had to pay a registration fee to enroll their children; this fee provided remuneration for 

teachers. In other instances, teachers received only food or other barter items as forms of pay. 

The peace agreements signed in 2004 and 2005 paved the way for 

a better-balanced, national education system. The 2004 protocol, in 

particular, called for creation of educational opportunities for those 

affected by war, for parallel systems of education to run in the North 

and the South during the six-year interim period, and for adequate 

and free education to be provided across the Southern states. Practical 

realities, especially as regards funding, would make improvement in 

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The Society and Its Environment 

Southern education a long and slow process, one that would undoubtedly require substantial assistance from foreign donors. 

In response to the need, international agencies such as the World 

Food Programme and the United States Agency for International 

Development (USAID) were funding construction of classrooms across 

the South as of 2005. A year later, the UN had undertaken to construct 

up to 250 new schools and to provide school supplies. Southerners and 

other long-neglected peoples in Darfur and Eastern Sudan could also 

expect to benefit from expanding educational facilities and from lessformal education programs. 

Other initiatives aimed specifically at expanding educational opportunity were part of Sudan’s planning. First, the government started to 

respond to the education needs that stemmed from internal displacement. With the help of international organizations, displaced students 

began to receive education in their temporary communities. A second 

program was designed to address the problem of education among 

nomadic groups, at least 80 of which still existed in Sudan. Many 

resided in North Kordofan State, where most primary schools, supported with UN funds, went only through fourth grade. In 2009 Sudanese education officials began a shift from mobile schools to stationary 

schools, including boarding schools, for the estimated 500,000 nomadic 

children of primary age in the North. They hoped to increase enrollment 

from 32 percent to 70 percent by 2011, improve the relevance of the 

curriculum, and provide more trained teachers. A third initiative, also 

launched in 2009, aimed at increasing the enrollment of girls in primary 

schools in the North by more than 1 million by 2011. 

Female Education 

Girls’ education was traditionally of the most rudimentary kind, 

frequently provided in Muslim areas by a khalwa, or religious school, 

in which Quranic studies were taught. Such basic schools did not prepare girls for the secular learning mainstream, from which they were 

virtually excluded. By 1920 the government had provided five elementary schools for girls. Expansion was slow, however, and female 

education remained restricted to the elementary level until 1940, 

when the first intermediate school for girls, the Omdurman Girls’ 

Intermediate School, opened. By 1955 there were 10 such schools. In 

1956 the Omdurman Secondary School for Girls, with about 265 students, was the only girls’ secondary school operated by the government. By 1960 there were only two upper-secondary schools for girls 

and no vocational schools except for the Nurses’ Training College 

with just 11 students, nursing not being regarded by many Sudanese 

as a suitable vocation for women. 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

This slow development of girls’ education was the product of tradition. Parents of Sudanese girls tended to look upon girls’ schools 

with suspicion, if not fear, that they would corrupt the morals of their 

daughters. Moreover, preference was given to sons, who, if educated, 

could advance themselves in society to the pride and profit of the 

family, something girls could not do. Their value was enhanced not at 

school but at home in preparation for marriage and the dowry that 

accompanied the ceremony. Finally, the lack of schools discouraged 

even those who desired elementary education for their daughters. 

Female education claimed approximately one-third of all available 

educational resources by 1970, when there were 1,086 primary 

schools, 268 intermediate schools, and 52 vocational schools for girls. 

Among notable successes with female education was Ahfad University for Women in Omdurman. Originally founded in 1907 as a primary school for girls, in the early 2000s it was the oldest and largest 

private university in Sudan, having evolved into the premier women’s 

university with an enrollment approaching 5,000 in 2006. It offered a 

mixture of academic and practical programs, such as those that educated women to teach in rural areas. The newly wealthy elites considered Ahfad as the first choice for their daughters, and its graduates 

often went on to advanced studies abroad. Stipends were also available to women students of modest means, a step toward improving 

access by females to education at all levels. 

Higher Education 

Sudan in 2005 was home to 27 public universities and at least 46 

private universities and colleges, the vast majority of them in the 

North. These institutions enrolled 447,000 students, 69,000 of whom 

completed their studies. Comparable figures for 1997–98 were 

152,000 students and 26,000 graduates (public institutions only). In 

2007–8, more than 50,000 students graduated from public universities. 

The Ministry of Higher Education reported that in 2009–10, about 

513,000 students were attending public and private universities. 

Before 2005, instruction was solely in Arabic with few exceptions, 

among which was the University of Juba; teaching in English there 

recommenced as stipulated in the peace agreement of 2005. Admission was open to students with the highest scores on the Sudan School 

Certificate examination, which was administered at the conclusion of 

secondary school. Males usually had to serve in the military before 

they could enter the university. These requirements, along with the 

country’s overall poverty, constrained university enrollment. 

Sudan’s first university, the University of Khartoum, opened in 

1902. It began as Gordon Memorial College, a secondary school, and 

128 
A primary school at Rumbek, southern Sudan, 2004
 

A khalwa (Quranic school) northeast of Khartoum, 2004
 

Copyright Michael Freeman
 

129 
 

 

 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

then became affiliated with the University of London in 1937, offering 

bachelor’s degrees. In 1956, at independence, it became a fully independent degree-granting institution. The University of Khartoum, 

with four campuses, remained the country’s flagship university, but 

even it was not immune to the pressures of politics and war. About 70 

faculty who opposed al-Bashir’s Islamist reforms were dismissed in 

the early 1990s, and in January 1997, the university closed temporarily to allow students to join the armed forces. 

Most observers agreed that by the early 2000s, this once-elite institution in Africa had become a mere shadow of its former self. Successive 

purges of the faculty following the 1964, 1969, and 1989 “revolutions” 

had deprived the campus of some of its best talent. Lowered standards 

in secondary schools as a result of the “socialist” experiment in the 

1970s, combined with the disappearance of English as the language of 

instruction in secondary and university systems after 1990, continued 

to reduce the quality of incoming students. These developments at the 

nation’s premier university were replicated throughout the higher education establishment. 

Higher education was primarily the domain of Northern Sudanese 

after independence, particularly those living in the capital region. In the 

mid-1970s, there were four universities, 11 colleges, and 23 institutes in 

Sudan. The universities were in the capital area, and all institutions of 

higher learning were in the North. Colleges in Sudan were specialized 

degree-granting entities; institutes granted diplomas and certificates for 

periods of study shorter than those commonly demanded at universities 

and colleges. These postsecondary institutions and universities had provided Sudan with a substantial number of well-educated persons in 

some fields but left it short of technical personnel and specialists in sciences relevant to the country’s largely rural character. By 1980 two new 

universities had opened, one at Wad Madani (University of Gezira) and 

the other in Juba. By 1990 some institutes had been upgraded to colleges, and many had become part of an autonomous body called the 

Khartoum Institute of Technical Colleges (also referred to as Khartoum 

Polytechnic). Some of its affiliates were outside the capital area, for 

example, the College of Mechanical Engineering at Atbarah, northeast 

of Khartoum, and Al-Gezira College of Agriculture and Natural 

Resources at Abu Naamah in Al-Awsat. 

The 1990s saw a major expansion of higher education in regions outside the traditional Northern hub. A number of new universities were 

established, among them Kordofan, Darfur, Blue Nile (at Al-Damazin), 

Bahr al-Ghazal, Upper Nile, and Al-Imam Al-Mahdi (at Kosti). In a 

parallel development, a number of provincial colleges were upgraded to 

university status, including those at Nyala, Dongola, Port Sudan, Kas130 
 

 

 

 

The Society and Its Environment 

sala, and Al-Gedaref. In 1993 Al-Neelain University was created when 

the Sudanese government took over the former Khartoum branch of 

Cairo University, originally founded in 1955. In August 2006, however, 

ground was broken in Khartoum for a new campus of Cairo University, 

and plans existed for a branch of Egypt’s Alexandria University to open 

in Juba. 

Various institutions were designed for specific training. The Islamic 

University of Omdurman, founded in 1921, existed primarily to train 

Muslim religious judges and scholars. The Al-Gezira College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, set in Sudan’s most fertile agricultural 

region, focused on protecting and utilizing Sudan’s environmental 

resources. Ahfad University for Women in Omdurman was the premier 

women’s education institution in Sudan. Of particular interest is the 

case of Omdurman Ahlia University. Academics, professionals, and 

businessmen founded it in 1982 to meet the ever-growing demand for 

higher education and practical training. Support came mainly from private donations and foreign foundations as well as from the government. 

Its curriculum, taught in English and oriented to job training pertinent 

to the needs of Sudan, proved popular. 

The expansion of higher education in the 1990s was not accompanied 

by an increase in funding; hence, the share of funds allocated to each 

institution was less than what was needed for full operation. Consequently, buildings, laboratories, libraries, and other facilities deteriorated 

seriously, especially at older institutions, along with the qualifications of 

the student body. The impact of Arabization and Islamization of the universities’ curricula produced a preoccupation among students with the 

passing of examinations rather than with the development of skills of 

analysis and critical thinking. The economic surge resulting from petroleum exports gave hope that these trends might be reversed. In addition, 

after the signing of the CPA in 2005, there was some improvement in 

the relationship between the government and the faculty and students in 

the universities. 

In the South, the University of Juba, opened in 1977, began as an 

institution to provide training for economic development and for the civil 

service in the region. After the outbreak of hostilities in 1983, the school 

moved to Khartoum for security reasons. Following the signing of the 

peace agreement in 2005, preparations began for the return to Juba, 

although as of early 2011, most faculty and administration remained in 

Khartoum. Two other Khartoum-based Southern universities, Bahr alGhazal in Wau, and Upper Nile in Malakal, both founded in 1991, also 

prepared to relocate to the South. A fourth university, Northern Bahr alGhazal, was established in 2011 in Aweil. Several other campuses were 

either established or planned in Southern Sudan as of early 2011. 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

Health 

Sudan’s health-care system languished for many years before 2005, 

because of constant warfare in the country. Aside from the country’s 

sheer size and the general lack of communication and transportation 

systems, the destruction of health facilities combined with the scattering of communities made establishing a modern, effective health-care 

system nearly impossible. Most of the country’s huge number of displaced persons received only irregular health-care treatment, if they 

received any at all. International organizations such as the World 

Health Organization (WHO) and other aid-dispensing agencies were 

instrumental in caring for the vast displaced population. Serious but 

controllable diseases, such as malaria and dysentery, remained constant 

threats, as did malnutrition. The continual movement of peoples fleeing 

war made containing such diseases even more difficult than in other 

developing countries. 

Regional Disparities 

It is difficult to generalize about health care in Sudan because of the 

great disparity between the major urban areas and the rest of the country. Indeed, the availability of health care in urban settings is one cause 

of rural to urban migration. In terms of access to health care, Sudan can 

be subdivided into three categories: distinctly rural, rural near urban 

areas, and the capital region. In rural areas, especially outlying provinces, standard health care is completely absent. For the most part, there 

are neither doctors nor clinics in these regions. When illness occurs, 

home remedies and rest are often the only potential “treatments” available, along with a visit to a faqih or to a sorcerer, depending on region 

and location. Rural areas near cities or with access to bus or rail lines 

are slightly more fortunate. Small primary-care units staffed by knowledgeable, if not fully certified, health workers dispense rudimentary 

care and advice and also issue referrals to proper clinics in urban areas. 

Provincial capitals have doctors and hospitals but in insufficient numbers and of insufficient quality to meet rising demand. 

The Three Towns of the capital region boast the best medical facilities and doctors in the country, although many of these would still be 

considered substandard in other parts of the world. Here, health care 

is available in three types of facilities: the overcrowded, poorly maintained, and underequipped government hospitals; private clinics with 

adequate facilities and equipment, often operated by foreign-educated 

doctors and charging prices affordable only by the middle and upper 

classes; and public clinics run by Islamist da’wa (religiously based 

charities) or by Christian missionaries, where adequate health care is 

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The Society and Its Environment 

available for a nominal fee. Not surprisingly, many patients flock to 

the third category where it is available. 

The civil war in the South destroyed virtually all the region’s medical facilities except those that the SPLA rebuilt to treat their own 

wounded and hospitals located in the three major towns⎯Malakal, 

Wau, and Juba⎯controlled by regional government forces. Even these 

facilities receive little use because they lack the most basic medical 

supplies. International nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and 

faith-based groups are the main providers of care, in an uncoordinated 

manner, and estimates indicate that less than one-third of the population has access to adequate health services. Few highly trained health 

professionals remain in the region regardless of facilities. In 1981 there 

had been about 60 physicians in the South for a population of roughly 

5 million, or one for approximately 83,000 persons. By WHO’s count 

in 2004, only 30 fully qualified doctors served the region’s population. 

An additional 806 medical assistants and nurses provided skilled care, 

while 721 laboratory technicians and 2,603 primary health care workers provided more basic health services—a total of 4,160 personnel to 

serve a population estimated to be in excess of 8 million. In the late 

2000s, WHO reported that malnutrition was widespread there (45 percent among the general population, compared to 40 percent nationwide 

in the early 2000s), children suffered from a wide variety of maladies, 

and vaccination rates were low (17 percent were fully immunized in 

2006 according to a Southern health survey that year). 

WHO responded to the emergency situation in the South in 1989, 

and since then the organization has continued to provide humanitarian 

assistance in the region. In 2004 WHO expanded its efforts into control 

of major communicable diseases and general rehabilitation of healthcare facilities and services. In early 2006, the World Bank granted the 

new Government of South Sudan US$225 million to improve the 

administrative capacity of its Ministry of Health, rehabilitate existing 

facilities and build new ones, and improve health-care delivery to the 

two-thirds or more of the population beyond reach of such services. 

WHO maintained offices in the capitals of each of Darfur’s three 

states in 2005 and oversaw the effort to provide health services there. 

More than 13,000 national and international personnel were involved in 

providing food, clean water, sanitation, primary health care, and medical 

drugs to the region’s refugees. In 2006, some 2.5 million Darfuri were 

in need of assistance, and an estimated 22 percent of children suffered 

from acute malnutrition, the same percentage as in the South. Reliable 

information on Eastern Sudan was scarce, but overall health conditions 

could be gauged from under-five child mortality rates per 1,000 live 

births. In 2005 WHO reported that these ranged from 117 in Al-Gedaref 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

State, to 165 in Red Sea, to 172 in Blue Nile, all high even by standards 

of comparable developing countries. 

Health Care 

Efforts to bolster health care in the country waxed and waned with 

the vicissitudes of war. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the government undertook programs to deal with specific diseases in limited 

areas, with help from WHO and other humanitarian organizations. 

The Sudanese government also initiated more general approaches to 

the problems of health maintenance in rural areas, particularly in the 

South, including the construction of health-care facilities and provision of advice about nutrition and disease control. These efforts began 

against a background of inadequate and unequal distribution of medical personnel and facilities. As of 1982, there were nearly 2,200 physicians in Sudan, or roughly one for 8,870 persons. Most physicians 

were concentrated in urban areas in the North, as were the major hospitals, including those specializing in the treatment of tuberculosis, 

eye disorders, and mental illness. In 1976 there were 2,500 medical 

assistants working in Sudan, who helped ease the shortage of certified 

physicians. As of 1982, there were 12,800 nurses and 7,000 midwives 

working in the country, concentrated mostly in the North. 

These numbers had improved significantly by the early 2000s. The 

Ministry of Health’s estimate was that 8,800 physicians served Sudan 

in 2006, almost doubling the number of 4,500 in 1998. The ratio of physicians per 100,000 people was 28.6, compared with 27 per 100,000 in 

Nigeria and 222 per 100,000 in Egypt (as of 2004). Ministry of Health 

statistics also revealed that women made up more than half of the country’s doctors and that the ratio of doctors working in urban areas versus 

those in rural areas was more than two to one. 

According to the federal Ministry of Health’s latest figures, in 2008 

Sudan had 395 hospitals with a total of more than 28,000 beds, up from 

285 hospitals with 23,000 beds in 1998, roughly one hospital and 73 

beds per 100,000 people. Health centers numbered 1,400 and primary 

health-care units, 2,000. Excluding the South, there were more than 

8,600 physicians, 460 dentists, and 800 pharmacists. Private health facilities were in addition to these state facilities. All professional medical 

personnel were prone to leave the country once their training was complete. The Sudanese government had not released figures on health 

expenditures in recent years, but while statistics varied, WHO cited a figure of 3.6 percent of gross domestic product for 2008, or US$18 per capita; for 2006, WHO statistics gave the Ministry of Health budget as 6.3 

percent of the government budget. 

134 
A traditional healer and patient in Bahr al-Ghazal, late 1990s 

Copyright Lillian Craig Harris 

Considering the state of health care throughout the country, Sudan 

has a surprisingly well-developed medical education system. The 

nation has produced many of its own health-care workers. Sudan’s first 

medical school opened in 1918. There were 25 medical schools training 

doctors in Sudan in 2005. More than 40 other schools educated students 

in health-related fields. These schools graduated 1,400 doctors annually 

and many more health professionals. Retention of well-qualified doctors, however, was predictably difficult. The Sudanese Medical Council 

reported in 2005 that of the 21,000 doctors registered with their organization, nearly 60 percent practiced outside the country and that on average some 800 doctors left the country each year for Saudi Arabia, 

Britain, and other destinations. 

Overall, the health infrastructure and number of doctors serving the 

Sudanese population in the early 2000s remained far below even minimal accepted standards. Improvements since the 1980s were stunted, 

mainly by war. Even in the North, where hospitals and doctors were 

concentrated, up to a third of all facilities did not meet accepted standards of medical practice. According to WHO, almost all public finance 

for health care went toward hospitals in urban areas. Thus, in most rural 

areas of the country, particularly in the South, residents often had to 

travel significant distances to reach the nearest health facility. Even with 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

the efforts of international NGOs in the South, the WHO estimated that 

only 25 percent of Southerners had access to health care, a lower estimate than some others. 

Diseases 

Sudan has a high incidence of debilitating and sometimes fatal diseases, the persistence of which reflects difficult ecological conditions, 

high levels of malnutrition, an inadequate health-care system, and conflict and violence. Malaria is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Sudan, and the entire population is at risk. This plague, controlled 

throughout much of the rest of the world, commands an inordinate 

amount of Sudan’s limited medical expertise. In 2003 hospitals reported 

3 million cases; malaria victims accounted for up to 40 percent of outpatient consultations and 30 percent of all hospital admissions. In Darfur 

alone in 2005, doctors reported 227,550 cases; doctors, however, did 

report greater success in saving patients than in past years. 

Poor sanitation and inadequate health care explain the presence of 

many other communicable diseases. Acute respiratory infections, hepatitis E, measles, meningitis, typhoid, and tuberculosis are all major causes 

of illness and mortality. More restricted geographically but affecting substantial portions of the population in the areas of occurrence are schistosomiasis (snail fever), found in the White Nile and Blue Nile areas and in 

irrigated zones between the two Niles, and trypanosomiasis (sleeping 

sickness), which was originally limited to the Southern borderlands but 

began spreading rapidly in the 1980s in the forested regions of South 

Sudan. A number of tropical diseases formerly under control have resurfaced in the South because of the breakdown of the health-care system, 

including leprosy, elephantiasis, river blindness, cholera, and guinea 

worm. 

A lack of safe water means that nearly 45 percent of children suffer 

from diarrhea, which leads to poor health and weak immune systems. 

Vaccination campaigns have largely eradicated polio from the country; in 2005 alone, more than 6 million children under the age of five 

were vaccinated. Although in 2004 a small outbreak led to 126 confirmed cases, the following year the number dropped to 18. 

The years of conflict and difficulties in collecting data make it difficult to summarize Sudan’s experience of HIV/AIDS. Nonetheless, 

according to the United Nations, in 2009 an estimated 260,000 Sudanese were living with HIV, and 12,000 had died. The HIV prevalence 

rate among adults aged 15–49 was estimated at 1.1 percent, a relatively 

low rate compared with neighboring countries. UN officials suspected 

that South Sudan had a significant HIV problem because in 2010 more 

than 1 percent of pregnant women using antenatal services were living 

136 
 

 

 

Participants in an HIV/AIDS 

outreach program in a camp for 

displaced persons outside 

Khartoum, late 1990s 

Copyright Lillian Craig Harris 

with HIV. Sudanese officials in 2007 estimated prevalence rates in the 

South at 3.1 percent, or 155,000 adults, as a result of civil war, conflict 

in the East along the border with Ethiopia and Eritrea, and traffic along 

trucking routes serving major port areas. Prevalence was also thought 

to be higher than the overall estimates for the North in Khartoum, 

where hundreds of thousands of people had migrated to escape civil 

war. The use of unsterile syringes and untested blood by health workers 

has contributed to the spread of the disease among displaced peoples. 

As recently as 1998, the Sudanese government denied that HIV/ 

AIDS posed any significant health threat to its citizenry. Only in 2004 

did the government reverse its policy and officially begin planning to 

address the problem. As of 2007, both Northern and Southern governments were developing policies to curb future cases and to treat those 

already infected. The minister of health in the North noted problems 

with the use of condoms as a preventive measure, and religious leaders were reluctant to discuss prevention methods beyond abstinence 

and monogamous marriage. Not surprisingly, knowledge about HIV/ 

AIDS is limited, particularly in the South. 

* * * 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

All country studies of Sudan, whether by historians or social scientists, contain some background on geography and society. Standard classics include Robert O. Collins’s Shadows in the Grass: Britain in the 

Southern Sudan, 1918–1956; Martin Daly’s Empire on the Nile: The 

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1898–1934; and Peter Holt’s A Modern History 

of the Sudan: From the Funj Sultanate to the Present Day; the latter two 

authors’ combined A History of the Sudan: From the Coming of Islam to 

the Present Day; Tim Niblock’s Class and Power in Sudan: The Dynamics of Sudanese Politics, 1898–1985; Peter Woodward’s Sudan 1898– 

1989: The Unstable State; Peter Bechtold’s Politics in the Sudan: Parliamentary and Military Rule in an Emerging African Nation; and John 

Voll’s Sudan: State and Society in Crisis. Richard Lobban Jr., Robert S. 

Kramer, and Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban’s Historical Dictionary of the 

Sudan, contains much useful information about geography and society. 

Aside from general studies, a significant number of books and articles 

focus on the lengthy conflict between Southern groups and the central 

(and Northern-dominated) government. The following works contain a 

great deal of useful information about geography and ethnography, albeit 

mostly of the Southern region and often from a pro-Southern perspective. Leading references would be Abel Alier’s Southern Sudan: Too 

Many Agreements Dishonoured; Mohammad Omar Beshir’s The Southern Sudan: From Conflict to Peace; Francis Deng’s classic, Dynamics of 

Identification: A Basis for National Integration in the Sudan and his 

more recent Sudan’s Civil War: The Peace Process Before and Since 

Machakos; Bona Malwal’s The Sudan: A Second Challenge to Nationhood; Millard Burr and Robert O. Collins’s Requiem for the Sudan: War, 

Drought and Disaster Relief on the Nile; Douglas Johnson’s The Root 

Causes of Sudan’s Civil Wars; Mansour Khalid’s War and Peace in 

Sudan: A Tale of Two Countries; Ann Mosely Lesch’s, The Sudan: Contested National Identities; Jay Spaulding and Stephanie Beswick’s White 

Nile, Black Blood: War, Leadership, and Ethnicity from Khartoum to 

Kampala; and former U.S. Ambassador Donald Petterson’s memoir, 

Inside Sudan: Political Islam, Conflict, and Catastrophe. 

As a description of the physical geography of Sudan, K. M. Barbour’s 

The Republic of the Sudan: A Regional Geography remains the standard 

work, supplemented by J. M. G. Lebon’s Land Use in the Sudan. 

Because the Nile is crucial to Sudan, it has been extensively studied, producing such standards as Robert O. Collins’s The Waters of the Nile: 

Hydropolitics and the Jonglei Canal, 1900–1988, as well as John Waterbury’s Hydropolitics of the Nile Valley and his more recent The Nile 

Basin: National Determinants of Collective Action. 

Outstanding works that focus on specific ethnic groups or regions 

include Gerard Prunier’s Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide; Alex de 

Waal’s Famine That Kills: Darfur, Sudan; and S. F. Nadel’s The Nuba: 

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The Society and Its Environment 

An Anthropological Study of the Hill Tribes of Kordofan. The Dinka are 

well chronicled in the works of Francis M. Deng, especially Tradition 

and Modernization: A Challenge for Law among the Dinka of the Sudan. 

The best works on the Nuer are Douglas Johnson’s Nuer Prophets: A 

History of Prophecy from the Upper Nile and Sharon Hutchinson’s Nuer 

Dilemmas: Coping with Money, War, and the State. Sources on languages include Lionel M. Bender’s The Nilo-Saharan Languages: A 

Comparative Essay and Raymond G. Gordon, Jr.’s chapter in Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 

All studies of Islam in Sudan owe a debt to John Spencer Trimingham’s seminal work of that name. Gabriel Warburg’s Islam, Sectarianism, and Politics in Sudan since the Mahdiyyah traces the connection to 

politics, as do the more specialized Islamic Law and Society in the Sudan 

by Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban and Abdelwahhab El-Affendi’s Turabi’s 

Revolution: Islam and Power in Sudan, to be read in conjunction with 

Mahmoud Mohammed Taha’s The Second Message of Islam. Information on religion in the South is in Oliver Albino’s The Sudan: A Southern 

Viewpoint; Joseph Oduhu and William Deng’s The Problem of the 

Southern Sudan; Dunstan Wai’s, The African–Arab Conflict in the 

Sudan; and Muddathir Abdel-Rahim’s The Development of British Policy in the Southern Sudan, 1899–1947. 

Current, if abbreviated, data on population, demography, health, and 

education as well as economic conditions can be found in Sudan in Figures, published by Sudan’s Central Bureau of Statistics. For more complete coverage as well as comparative data, the country data sheets and 

specialized studies of the World Health Organization (WHO), United 

Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and World Bank are essential. These organizations are also at present the best sources on conditions 

in South Sudan and Darfur. Other reliable sources in their respective 

fields include the U.S. Census Bureau and the United Nations High 

Commissioner for Refugees. (For further information and complete citations, see Bibliography.) 

139 

Chapter 3. The Economy 
A cattle camp in Bahr al-Ghazal 
THE ECONOMY OF SUDAN was at a turning point in the early decades 

of the twenty-first century. In January 2005, the signing of a peace treaty 

between the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/ 

Army (SPLM/A) brought to an end more than 20 years of conflict. The 

country had been torn apart by a costly civil war, economic mismanagement, an influx of refugees from neighboring countries as well as internal 

migration, and recurrent drought, especially in the West and South, with 

the concomitant failure of staple food and cash crops. With the prospect of 

peace, the country anticipated the possibility of reinvigorating its economy 

based on the development of its wealth of human and natural resources. 

In the 1970s, economic growth had been stimulated by a large influx 

of capital from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, invested with the expectation 

that Sudan would become the breadbasket of the Arab world, by large 

increments of foreign aid from the United States and the European Economic Community, by loans from the World Bank, and by generous contributions from other countries. Sudan’s greatest economic resource was 

its agriculture, to be developed in the vast arable land that either received 

sufficient rainfall or could be irrigated from the Nile River. Its economic 

future became much brighter with the discovery of oil. 

In the 1980s, however, Sudan underwent severe political and economic 

upheavals. The civil war in the South resumed in 1983. There was a dearth 

of rainfall in the usually productive regions of the Sahel (see Glossary) 

and southern Sudan. Refugees flowed into the country from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Chad, and internal migration as a result of the civil war 

further strained the Sudanese budget. In 1989 Colonel (later Lieutenant 

General) Umar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir led a military coup that overthrew the government. Under al-Bashir’s administration, Sudan became 

economically, if not politically, isolated from the world community. Britain cut its economic aid in 1991. The United States ended economic aid, 

although not humanitarian aid, in 1994, suspended its diplomatic presence 

in 1996, and applied sanctions for sponsorship of terrorism and humanrights abuses in 1997. 

Sudan accrued an increasing debt burden over the years. By the early 

1990s, it was unable to service its debt. The International Monetary Fund 

(IMF) adopted a “Declaration of Non-Cooperation,” and the World Bank 

closed its Khartoum office. In 1997, however, Sudan developed an economic reform plan to reestablish long-term growth and initiated debt-service 

payments. By 1999, as Sudan began to export petroleum and petroleum 

products, economic growth had reached 6.6 percent. The IMF removed its 

Declaration of Non-Cooperation, and the World Bank reopened its office. 

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In January 2005, the SPLA and the Sudanese government signed a 

peace agreement that allowed the country to consider the economic dividend that peace might provide. Various countries and international organizations pledged to help Sudan recover from the civil war, although 

continued conflict and genocide in the Darfur region have so far prevented the recovery and restricted the type of foreign aid provided. The 

results of the referendum in January 2011, which led to independence for 

South Sudan, will, needless to say, have a significant impact on the economies of both North and South. 

Historical Development 

The Colonial Period 

The colonial government was not interested in balanced economic 

growth. Instead, it concentrated its development efforts on irrigated 

agriculture and the railroad system throughout the Anglo-Egyptian 

Condominium (1899–1955). Incidental government investment went 

mainly into ad hoc projects, such as the construction of cotton gins and 

oilseed-pressing mills, as adjuncts of the irrigation program. A limited 

amount of rain-fed mechanized farming was also initiated during 

World War II. After the war, two development programs—actually lists 

of proposed investments—were drawn up for the periods 1946–50 and 

1951–55. These plans appear to have been a belated effort to broaden 

the country's economic base in preparation for eventual Sudanese independence. Both programs were seriously hampered by a lack of experienced personnel and materials and had little real impact. Independently, 

the private sector expanded irrigated agriculture, and some small manufacturing operations were started, but only three larger industrial enterprises (a meat-processing plant, a cement plant, and a brewery) were 

constructed, all between 1949 and 1952. The newly independent 

Sudan’s principal development inheritance in 1956 thus was the vast 

irrigated Gezira Scheme and Sudan Railways. 

The Postcolonial Period 

The new government did not attempt to prepare a national development plan until 1960. A Ten-Year Plan of Economic and Social Development for the fiscal years (FY—see Glossary) 1961–70 was drawn up 

for SDP565 million (for value of the Sudanese pound—see Glossary), 

at the time equivalent to more than US$1.6 billion. The private sector 

was expected to provide 40 percent of the amount. Unfortunately, the 

government had few experienced planners, and goals were overly 

ambitious. The plan as prepared was not adhered to. Implementation 

was by investment programs that were drawn up annually, and projects 

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not in the original plan were frequently included. Investment was at a 

high rate in the first years, so that a number of major undertakings were 

completed by midplan, including the Khashm al-Qirbah and Manaqil 

irrigation projects and the Roseires Dam. 

As the 1960s progressed, a lack of funds threatened the continuation of 

development activities. Government current expenditure had increased 

much faster than receipts, in part because of the intensification of the civil 

war in the South. At the same time, there was a shortfall in foreign investment capital. The substantial foreign reserves held at the beginning of the 

plan period were depleted, and the government resorted to deficit financing 

and foreign borrowing. By 1967, the Ten-Year Plan had been abandoned. 

Late in the 1960s, the government prepared a new plan covering FY 

1968 to FY 1972. That plan was discarded after the military coup led by 

Colonel Ja’far al-Numayri (in power, 1969–85) in May 1969. Instead, the 

government adopted the Five-Year Plan of Economic and Social Development (1970–74). That plan, which was prepared with the assistance of 

Soviet planning personnel, emphasized socialist development. After the 

end of the first civil war in the South, in 1973 the government established 

the Interim Action Program, which extended the original plan period 

through FY 1976. New objectives included the removal of transportation 

bottlenecks, attainment of self-sufficiency in the production of several 

agricultural and industrial consumer items, and an increase in agricultural 

exports. Investment during the first five years was considerably above the 

original plan projection; however, the plan failed to achieve its goal of a 

7.6 percent annual growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP—see 

Glossary), so it was extended to 1977. During the years of the Interim 

Action Program, the government initiated several irrigation projects, established factories on the Nile northeast of Khartoum and on the White Nile 

south of Khartoum, paved the roads between Khartoum and Port Sudan, 

and began excavation in the South for the Jonglei Canal (see Glossary), 

also seen as Junqali Canal. 

In early 1977, the government published the Six-Year Plan of Economic 

and Social Development, 1977–82. The plan goals and projections also 

appeared optimistic because of the worsening domestic economic situation, 

marked by growing inflation. The inflation stemmed in large part from deficit development financing (printing money), increasing development costs 

because of worldwide price rises, and rising costs for external capital. During the plan's second year, FY 1978, there was no economic growth, external debt pressures increased, and Sudan failed to meet its scheduled 

payments. The result was an abandonment of Six-Year Plan projections, a 

restriction of expenditures generally to the completion of projects under 

way, elimination of transport constraints, and a series of short-term “rolling” programs that emphasized exports. 

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In October 1983, the government announced a three-year public investment program, but efforts to Islamize the economy in 1984 impeded its 

implementation. Between 1978 and 1985, agricultural and industrial production declined in per-capita terms, and imports during much of the 1980s 

were three times the level of exports. After the al-Numayri government 

was overthrown in April 1985, the investment program was suspended. 

An economic recovery program began in August 1987. This program 

was followed, beginning in October 1988, by a three-year recovery program to reform trade policy and regulate the exchange rate, reduce subsidies and the budget deficit, and encourage exports and privatization. 

The military government of Colonel Umar al-Bashir that took office on 

June 30, 1989, offered little possibility for early economic recovery. Foreign business interests viewed the government’s policies to Islamize the 

banking system as a disincentive to do business in Sudan because no 

interest would be paid on new loans. Finally, the government did not satisfy the IMF or other major creditors that it had reduced subsidies on 

basic commodities enough to reduce its budget deficit. By 1991 the 

value of the Sudanese pound against the U.S. dollar had sunk to less 

than 10 percent of its 1978 value, and the country’s external debt had 

risen to US$13 billion, the interest on which could be paid only by raising new loans. 

Two reasons for the decline in production were the droughts and 

accompanying famine occurring in 1980–91, and the influx of more than 

1 million refugees from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Chad, and Uganda, in addition 

to the persons displaced by the warfare in the South, which had resumed 

in 1983, who were estimated to number between 1.5 million and 3.5 million. Nevertheless, the decline in Sudan's agricultural and industrial production had begun before these calamities. Few development projects 

were completed on time, and those that were completed failed to achieve 

projected production. Sudan found itself in a cycle of increasing debt 

and declining production. 

Sudan borrowed heavily for its development programs over the 

years; then it suffered severely as international interest rates increased. 

During the 1990s, Sudan's relationship with the IMF became increasingly strained as a result of continuing debt arrears dating back to 1984. 

In 1997, when the IMF threatened to expel Sudan from the fund, the 

government revised its economic policies and established a comprehensive economic reform and structural adjustment program with the assistance of the IMF. The program, which continued, sought to stabilize the 

macroeconomic environment, reduce the rate of inflation, strengthen the 

external accounts, increase growth through privatization and deregulation, reform the banking sector, liberalize trade, and revise investment 

and foreign-exchange controls. 

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The Economy 

Although some aspects of the program, including privatization, have 

been disappointing, the IMF has praised the government for its adherence to the reform agenda. The IMF lifted its “non-cooperation” order in 

1999 and restored Sudan's voting rights in 2000. The reform program 

has been credited with significant improvements in the economy. Inflation fell from triple digits to hover around 10 percent, the currency stabilized, foreign investment rose, and there were several years of economic 

growth. Nevertheless, there were still many problems to overcome, 

especially the impact of the previous civil war and the conflict in Darfur, 

which continued to place a heavy burden on government finances and 

undermine investor confidence, and the external debt arrears, which hindered access to new foreign funding. The impending secession of South 

Sudan would also probably have a negative impact on the economy. 

Structure of the Economy 

Overview of the Economy 

Information about the economy was based on official figures from 

the National Accounts, which might not be complete, however, because 

the civil war previously made certain areas inaccessible for statistical 

surveys. Thus, the main rural areas in the South were probably not 

included in the National Accounts from the mid-1990s to the end of the 

war, because it was impossible for the government to collect data in 

large areas that were controlled by the SPLM/A. Although a National 

Household Survey was conducted in 2009, the prior survey, which influenced the consumer price index for many years, was made in 1978, the 

previous weights for the consumer price index were based on that earlier 

household survey, and comparisons of the prices of goods and services 

had not been updated for many years. Moreover, information for the 

previous price index was gathered only for Khartoum. Although the 

Fifth Population and Housing Census was carried out in 2008, the previous one was made in 1993, and it was based partly on estimates because 

of limited access in the South, again making comparisons unrealistic. 

Similarly, estimates of the real value of production and GDP may not be 

accurate because of limited coverage. There had been no complete collection or analysis of data on the agricultural sector, which is very 

important in Sudan, since 1968. Thus, claims about the economy were 

probably not completely reliable. 

Sudan is a poor country despite its considerable natural resources. 

Economic mismanagement and the disruption of years of civil war 

prevented economic development for many years. Agriculture is the 

most important sector of the economy, but the civil war interfered with 

it, causing farmers to leave their land and disrupting the flow of inputs 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

and the marketing of products (see Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, 

and Forestry, this ch.). The poor road system and transport facilities 

also hindered distribution throughout the country (see Transportation 

and Telecommunications, this ch.). 

Cotton was the leading cash crop in the past, much of it grown on 

the huge Al-Gezira irrigation project south of Khartoum. Production 

declined in recent years, largely as a result of low international prices. 

Sesame displaced cotton in 1996 as the leading revenue earner among 

agricultural exports. Livestock was the fastest-growing non-oil sector 

from 2002. 

Although agriculture remains important, the development of the oil 

industry changed the structure of the economy (see Petroleum, this ch.). 

An oil-export pipeline from the Southern oil fields to the Red Sea 

opened in August 1999, and production rose to an average of 280,000 

barrels per day (b/d) in 2003. An expansion of the pipeline capacity 

allowed output to increase to an estimated 480,000 b/d in 2010. Oilindustry development increased foreign investment in the industrial sector, making petroleum and related products the most important export 

commodity, earning an estimated 95 percent of export revenue in 2008. 

It ended Sudan’s dependency on imported petroleum products, increased 

the country’s foreign-exchange earnings, and improved the balance of 

payments. 

Sudan’s dependence on imports for much of its capital equipment 

and petroleum and its low export earnings, until oil exports began in 

1999, led to trade deficits and a large international debt. In 1997 Sudan 

put in place an economic reform plan and worked with the IMF to 

reduce its debt and increase economic growth. The end of the civil war 

and the conclusion of the peace agreement of 2005 led Sudan to anticipate increased foreign investment and foreign assistance that would set 

it on the path to sustained economic development. However, violence 

and displacement in Darfur prevented that region from benefiting from 

any peace dividend. 

Gross Domestic Product 

GDP at market prices increased steadily over the years from US$12.2 

billion in 2000 to US$ 27.3 billion in 2005, and an estimated US$54.2 billion in 2009. The preliminary government figure for 2010 was US$68.44 

billion. GDP per capita also increased steadily from US$371 in 2000, to 

US$706 in 2005, and to an estimated $1,281 in 2009. 

Real growth of GDP (at constant 1982 prices) averaged 6 percent a 

year after the IMF-monitored economic reform program began in 1997. 

According to foreign analysts, it continued at 6.3 percent in 2005. Growth 

rose to 11.3 percent in 2006 before slowing to 10.2 percent in 2007, to 6.6 

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A vendor selling pipes 

and tobacco in Rumbek, 

Southern Sudan, 2004 

Courtesy Timothy Carney 

percent in 2008, and to 4.2 percent in 2009 as the growth of the world 

economy also slowed. The government’s own figures showed an even 

lower growth rate for 2009 of 3 percent but projected an increase to 6.9 

percent for 2010. 

The primary sector of agriculture (composed of crops, livestock, fishing, and forestry) was always large, but its contribution to GDP declined 

steadily over the years as the contribution of the secondary sector began 

to grow. In 2004, the estimated contribution of the primary sector to GDP 

was 35.4 percent, but by 2010 its share had declined to an estimated 31.3 

percent. The secondary sector of industry, composed of petroleum, other 

mining and quarrying, manufacturing, electricity and water, and construction, was the smallest in 2004, contributing only 26.6 percent to 

GDP. By 2008 that sector contributed an estimated 34.7 percent to GDP 

as a result of the development of the oil industry, but by 2010 it had fallen 

to a projected 24.5 percent as a result of slower growth in the petroleum 

sector. The tertiary sector of services contributed an estimated 38 percent 

in 2004. Its contribution declined to 34.2 percent by 2008 but was projected at 44.2 percent in 2010 (see table 2, Appendix). 

The most recent figures available for GDP by expenditure were for 

the year 2008. Of the major components, private consumption was the 

largest at 52.8 percent, while government consumption was 13.2 percent. Investment totaled 18.2 percent. Net exports (the value of exports 

minus imports) were small, but positive, at 0.6 percent. 

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Prices and Inflation 

During the 1970s, the government compiled monthly data on consumer prices in Sudan, based on data collected in the capital area's 

three cities, Omdurman, Khartoum, and Khartoum North. At the beginning of the 1970s, annual price rises were moderate, between 9 and 10 

percent. From 1973 onward, the inflation rate grew because of continuing worldwide inflation, an increase in the money supply resulting 

from the central government's deficit financing and from borrowing by 

state corporations, shortages of consumer goods, problems of supply 

caused by transport deficiencies, and increased private-sector borrowing. By 1989 prices were increasing by 74 percent annually. 

Inflationary pressures continued into the 1990s. Prices increased by 

more than 100 percent a year during 1991–94, with the rate reaching a 

high of 130 percent in 1996. Implementation of the IMF reform program 

in 1997, along with monetary reforms of the central bank and declining 

prices of imported non-oil commodities and manufactured goods, 

slowed inflation to less than 47 percent in that year, less than 20 percent 

in 1998 and 1999, and to single digits by 2000. Inflation was 7.2 percent 

in 2006. Although other countries in the region experienced recessionled declines in inflation in 2009, a surge in prices in the final months of 

that year pushed the rate of inflation in Sudan to an annual average of 

11.2 percent and to 13 percent in 2010. 

Privatization 

Some privately managed projects in irrigation, water, and electricity 

supply were turned over to state management and control soon after 

independence. In the 1970s, the public sector continued to expand with 

the nationalization, confiscation, and “Sudanization” program. Many of 

the state-owned enterprises were poorly managed, however, and eventually became a financial burden on the economy, requiring budgetary 

subsidies and loans from the Bank of Sudan, guaranteed by the government. To reduce the drain on public finances, to fund infrastructuredevelopment projects that were beyond the capacity of government 

resources, and to support growth in general, the government reversed its 

policy, By the beginning of the 1990s, it began to encourage local and 

foreign investment in sectors of the economy that previously were 

reserved for the state and to privatize state-owned enterprises. 

The Public Sector Enterprises Disposition Bill of 1990 and the Privatisation of State Corporations Act of 1992 selected 190 public corporations for sale. Some 72 enterprises were disposed of in various ways, 

including by liquidation. By 2002, however, fewer than 20 of the enterprises had been sold to the private sector. Negotiations were concluded 

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for the sale of the Real Estate Bank, Atbarah Cement Factory, Friendship Hotel, General Foundation for Printing Publications and Advertisement, Sudan Duty Free Zone Company, and Bridges and Roads 

Corporation. Steps were also taken toward the privatization of Sudan 

Airways, but some 30 large state-owned corporations, including the 

National Electricity Corporation, public banks, transport corporations, 

large-scale irrigation entities, and manufacturing industries, remained to 

be privatized. 

There were some successes in the privatization process, such as the 

formation of the Sudan Telecommunications Company (SudaTel), 

which began as a joint public-private company in 1994. SudaTel oversaw the growth of both the land-line and mobile telephone (Mobitel) 

networks, and attracted investment from both domestic and foreign 

sources. In addition to Mobitel, the Bank of Khartoum, the Real Estate 

Bank, and the River Transport Corporation were sold in recent years, 

and the Sudan Shipping Line and Sudan Railways might be sold in the 

future. Private operators already provided passenger services on the 

railroad. In 2010, the government announced that it intended to privatize all the companies that it owned, starting in 2011. 

Implementation of privatization was constrained by numerous factors, 

including the uncertainties of the war, the economic sanctions imposed 

by the United States since 1997, which isolated the country from international money markets, the compensation costs of affected workers, and 

the limited market of buyers. The dearth of technical expertise among 

senior officials who had to oversee the complex process of valuing the 

enterprises and managing the transactions was also a crucial concern. 

Potential investors were unwilling to take on the companies’ accumulated debts and were also aware of the substantial investment that many 

of the companies would require after years of neglect. Influential labor 

unions opposed privatization, recognizing that there might be job losses 

if the enterprises were operated on a profitable basis. Officials were also 

aware that prices might rise if the businesses had to generate profits without concessional funding. There were also accusations of corruption; 

government officials allegedly demanded payments, and senior members 

of the regime were reported to have bought state assets at bargain prices. 

Foreign Investment 

Foreign direct investment increased steadily after 1990. Passage of 

the Investment Promotion Act in 1990, with amendments in 1993, 

1996, and 2000, helped to rationalize cumbersome financial procedures, 

offer incentives to private investors, and provide assurance of government support of private-sector development. The new law and the 

privatization program succeeded in attracting investments in various 

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sectors, especially oil and oil-related investments, but also in transportation, pharmaceuticals, and agro-processing. The expectation was that, 

provided that the nation’s division progressed peacefully, investments 

should increase in the non-extractive industries as well. 

Investment flows into Sudan have increased from next to nothing in 

1996 (US$400,000) to US$3.5 billion in 2006, or 10 percent of GDP, one 

of the highest ratios in the region, before dropping back to US$2.6 billion 

in 2009, about 5 percent of GDP (preliminary figures). Direct investments increased substantially in 1998, to US$370.7 million, when construction of the oil-export pipeline, the Al-Jayli refinery, and the Port 

Sudan terminal work began. With the success of those investments and 

the implementation of the IMF reform program, other sectors also 

received significant inflows. In 2001 a Chinese firm, Harbin Power Engineering Company, began building the 220-megawatt gas-fired power station near the Al-Jayli refinery, north of Khartoum. In late 2004, the 

government inaugurated a new 275-megawatt power plant outside Khartoum, constructed by a private foreign consortium led by a Malaysian 

company, DIT Power, which operated the US$200 million plant as an 

independent power project (see Energy, this ch.). 

Many of the investments were in urban areas, especially Khartoum 

and Port Sudan. However, investments in food-processing industries, 

such as sugar factories, seemed likely to increase employment in rural 

areas as well. The successful expansion of the Kananah Sugar Company, with significant foreign investment, attracted more companies to 

the sector and led to the construction of the White Nile Sugar Company. Turkish and Persian Gulf investors also examined opportunities 

for further factories in Sudan and showed an interest in the financial 

sector and the telecommunications industry. 

The government concluded agreements in 2008 to enable access to 

substantial agricultural land by Persian Gulf firms and states, in response 

to high international food prices. Continuing this trend, the Egyptian and 

Sudanese governments concluded a deal in September 2010 to give 

Egyptian private-sector companies access to 420,000 hectares (see Glossary) of Sudanese farmland in the well-irrigated Al-Gezira region south 

of Khartoum to cultivate wheat and other cereals to feed Egypt’s growing population. 

The United States initiated trade sanctions against Sudan in 1997 and 

expanded them in 2006 to affect foreign investment throughout Sudan. 

The sanctions prohibited all transactions by U.S. persons relating to petroleum or petrochemical industries in Sudan, including in the South. In 

addition, they prohibited financial dealings of U.S. persons with Sudan 

(except for specified areas of the country), including the negotiation of 

any contract, including a financing contract, in support of an industrial, 

commercial, public utility, or government project. 

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Areas in the South that were outside of the control of the Government 

of South Sudan (GOSS) had not had any foreign investment by 2010, 

although a company law was submitted by the SPLM to encourage 

investment in the area, and the peace agreement of 2005 offered incentives. The global recession, continued conflict in Darfur, and the uncertainty of the outcome of the 2011 referendum caused lower foreign 

direct investment throughout the country in 2008–10. However, GOSS 

did make a belated effort to increase foreign investment in the South as 

the referendum neared. 

Role of the Government 

Development Planning and the Debt 

The government of Sudan drew up its first economic development 

plan in 1960, followed by many others over the succeeding years. Budget 

deficits and debt-service obligations were relatively insignificant in the 

early years, but from 1974 to 1977, large-scale borrowing occurred and 

new commitments were made. As the economy began to deteriorate in 

the late 1970s, the government began a series of reform efforts, although 

the first reforms covering 1978–84 were not fully implemented. 

In 1978 Sudan failed to meet all of its debt-service obligations. In 

1979 public and publicly guaranteed long-term debt increased to more 

than US$2.5 billion, requiring Sudan to seek relief from its creditors, as it 

was apparent that once again it would not meet its obligations. Acting 

through the Paris Club, a group of industrialized creditor countries that 

included the United States, Japan, and nine West European states, Sudan 

rescheduled an estimated US$400 million to US$500 million of the debt 

guaranteed by Western export-credit agencies. The agreed payments 

were to be made over a seven-year period, with an initial three-year grace 

period. In 1981 Sudan rescheduled another US$600 million in loans and 

interest, as its debt burden had increased to US$4 billion. Despite 

repeated rescheduling of Sudan's debt burden, both arrears and debt-service payments continued to increase. 

Sudan's economy steadily weakened, as did its relations with the IMF 

and the Paris Club. In 1989 Sudan repaid the IMF only a token US$15 

million and continued to resist IMF demands for further economic austerity measures. By mid-1990, total foreign debt had risen to US$13 billion, and debt arrears to the IMF totaled more than US$1.1 billion. 

The IMF adopted a “Declaration of Non-Cooperation” in September 

1990, as a prelude to expulsion of Sudan from the fund, citing continuing 

problems with the arrears of its external debt payments since 1984. In 

May 1991, an IMF delegation arrived in Khartoum for discussions with 

the government. Despite declarations by the Sudanese government that it 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

was determined to cooperate with international lending organizations, 

Sudan was declared ineligible for debt relief by the international financial 

community because of its inability to service its debt. In 1993 the IMF 

withdrew Sudan’s voting rights. In 1995 the country continued to struggle with a huge foreign debt as well as with high inflation, a serious 

shortage of foreign exchange, and declining foreign aid. 

In 1997 Sudan put in place an economic reform plan that is credited 

with reestablishing long-term economic growth. Following the 1990 

declaration, Sudan began to work with the IMF to develop a comprehensive economic reform and structural adjustment program. The initial structural reform agenda was implemented within the framework of 

the Comprehensive National Strategy (CNS) for the 1992–2002 period. 

The program included measures to reduce inflation; liberalize trade; 

strengthen the country’s external accounts by removing import and 

export restrictions, reducing customs tariffs, and rationalizing the tariff 

structure; reduce the size of the public sector and increase privatization 

and deregulation; reform the banking sector; and revise investment and 

foreign-exchange controls. It removed price subsidies and eliminated 

trade and non-trade barriers. The reform agenda was supported from 

1997 by successive Staff-Monitored Programs (SMPs) of the IMF. 

Except for a period during 2001, when Sudan failed to meet its obligations to the IMF (and in return the IMF temporarily suspended payments), the country adhered to the program. The IMF credited the reform 

program with providing significant improvements, including a sharp 

reduction in inflation from triple digits to around 10 percent, stabilizing 

the currency, bringing the budget closer to balance, increasing foreign 

investment, and generating substantial economic growth. According to 

the National Accounts, which might not have been very reliable, growth 

of GDP averaged 3.8 percent per annum during 1990–95, but with significant fluctuations attributed to weather-related cycles in agriculture. The 

growth rate increased to an average of 6.6 percent per annum during 

1996–2000, slowed to an average of 5.6 percent per annum during 2001– 

5, and maintained 4.2 percent in 2009 as the world economy struggled. 

External debt arrears remained a critical problem, but repayments and 

adherence to the economic reform program allowed the IMF to remove 

the declaration in 1999 and restore Sudan’s voting rights in 2000. Sudan 

slowly reintegrated into the international financial community. 

Following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) 

on January 9, 2005, delegations of the Khartoum government and the 

Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) launched a sixyear recovery and development plan, the Framework for Sustained Peace, 

Development, and Poverty Eradication in Sudan. The plan was developed 

by a Joint Assessment Mission organized by the United Nations and the 

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World Bank. Sudan’s newly formed Joint National Transition Team presented the plan at the first postwar international donors’ conference in 

Oslo, Norway, in April 2005. As part of the peace agreement, a national 

unity government agreed to divide Sudan’s oil wealth equally between 

the North and the South. 

The World Bank reopened its Sudan office in January 2005, after an 

absence of more than 10 years, to assist with the reconstruction plan. 

The bank originally expected to normalize relations within a year; however, Sudan would have had to reduce its debt to US$5 billion–US$6 

billion before resuming relations. The government continued to pay 

principal and interest, but the debt continued to rise rather than decline. 

By the end of 2009, it had reached US$35.7 billion, an amount that the 

IMF described as unsustainable. Although Sudan had substantial repayment arrears to bilateral and multilateral lenders, creditors probably 

refused to grant debt relief in 2010–11 because of concerns about internal conflict and civil-rights abuses. Therefore, the government might 

have attempted to finance infrastructure projects and the fiscal deficit by 

increasing its debt to Gulf Arab countries, China, and India. Such credit 

was difficult to obtain, however, because of stringent credit conditions, 

which continued throughout the world in 2010–11, and also because the 

government made a commitment to the IMF to limit the amount of new 

non-concessional debt. 

The government announced in May 2010 that the IMF had agreed to 

begin talks about potential debt relief, although it might be years before 

any relief materialized. The government also noted that while the total 

amount had grown by more than 25 percent from the 2005 level, the 

actual debt was just US$15.4 billion, while arrears and interest made up 

the remaining US$20.3 billion. The government sought debt relief 

under the IMF’s and World Bank’s Heavily Indebted Poor Countries 

(HIPC) initiative or an alternative, but it was blocked by a combination 

of its arrears to the IMF and the objections of Western creditor governments because of Sudan’s conduct in the civil war and the Darfur conflict. When negotiations took place, eventually, they would have to 

consider how the debt would be managed or divided when the South 

seceded. 

The Budget 

The budget of Sudan was in deficit for many years, mainly as a result 

of extremely high defense expenditures. Official figures indicated that 

they were about one-quarter of total expenditures, but unofficial estimates suggested that they ran as high as half of total spending. Other 

drains on the budget were various subsidies and the support of poorly 

run state-owned enterprises. The war and corruption also disrupted the 

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tax-collection system. The 1997 IMF reform program, however, did 

lead to some improvements. The government managed to slow the 

increase in expenditures, restricting current spending by holding down 

public-sector wage increases, cutting some subsidies, and increasing 

fees for education and other services. The government also managed to 

increase revenues as a result of both the reform program and the development of the oil sector. These measures permitted an increase in government expenditures, especially an increase in capital expenditures. As 

a result of such reforms, the budget deficit declined from almost 13 percent of GDP in 1990, to less than 1 percent in 1997. By 2003, the budget had a surplus of SDD33.6 billion (for value of the Sudanese dinar— 

see Glossary), then worth US$0.1 billion. 

A short-term increase in the deficit occurred after the transition to 

peace in 2005. Under a wealth-sharing agreement between the North and 

the South, the civil service increased in size, and the National Assembly 

also approved an increase in civil-service salaries. Military spending was 

not expected to decrease, and the government did not intend to increase 

taxes. A deficit of SDD1.2 billion (US$0.5 billion) occurred in 2005. 

Oil-export revenues increased from SDD9.0 billion (US$3.9 billion) in 

2005 to SDG15.4 billion (US$6.9 billion) in 2008—SDG being the 

abbreviation for the Sudanese pound, introduced as the national currency 

to replace the dinar in 2005 (see Currency, this ch.). In the same period, 

total revenues increased from SDD14.7 billion (US$6.4 billion) to 

SDG24.0 billion (US$10.7 billion), and total expenditures also increased 

rapidly from SDD15.9 billion (US$6.9 billion) in 2005 to SDG26.5 billion (US$11. billion) in 2008. Thus, by 2008, the deficit had increased to 

SDG2.4 billion (US$1.1 billion). 

Foreign Aid 

Foreign capital played a major role in Sudan’s development. The 

great reliance on it and the general ease with which it was acquired 

were major factors contributing to the severe financial problems that 

beset the country after the mid-1970s. Sudan obtained public-sector 

loans for development from a wide range of international agencies and 

individual governments. Until the mid-1970s, the largest single source 

was the World Bank, including the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). 

The Arab oil-producing states, as their balance-of-payments surpluses grew in the 1970s following increases in world petroleum 

prices, also became significant suppliers of development capital 

through bilateral loans and Arab international institutions. The largest 

of the latter was the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development 

(AFESD), through which was proposed the 1976 program to develop 

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Sudan as a breadbasket for the Arab world. After the mid-1970s, Saudi 

Arabia, through its Saudi Fund for Development, became the largest 

source of investment capital, apparently convinced that Sudan’s development could complement its own, especially in making up its large 

food deficits. Unfortunately, the ambitious plans for Sudan's becoming 

the Arab world’s major food source faded by the mid-1980s as agricultural production declined sharply. 

In 1977 the United States resumed economic (and military) aid to 

Sudan. This aid followed a 10-year lapse beginning with a break in diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1967, with relations 

restored in July 1972. In 1977 the United States became concerned about 

geopolitical trends in the region, particularly potential Libyan or Marxist 

Ethiopian attempts to overthrow al-Numayri’s pro-Western government. 

In the five-year period 1977–81, U.S. economic aid amounted to almost 

US$270 million, of which two-thirds was in the form of grants. By 1984, 

when the United States had become Sudan's largest source of foreign 

aid, the country’s worsening economic and political situation, particularly al-Numayri’s domestic policies with regard to the South and the 

imposition of sharia on society, caused the United States to suspend 

US$194 million of aid. In 1985, following al-Numayri's visit to Washington, the United States provided Sudan with food aid, insecticides, and 

fertilizers. After al-Numayri's overthrow in April 1985 and Sudan's failure to make repayments on loans, the United States discontinued nonfood aid, which had been administered by the United States Agency for 

International Development (USAID). This aid not only had included 

direct funds for projects and project assistance through commodity 

imports (mainly wheat under the Food for Peace Program), but it also 

had generated local currency to support general development activities. 

USAID continued providing humanitarian relief assistance to distressed 

regions in Sudan. 

Britain also made substantial aid contributions to Sudan. In January 

1991, however, Britain suspended its development aid, which amounted 

to US$58 million in 1989, while continuing humanitarian aid. This policy change was caused by a number of factors, including alleged terrorist 

activities by Sudanese agents against Sudanese expatriates in Britain. In 

addition to Britain, other countries, including France, Germany, Norway, 

and Japan, provided significant economic or humanitarian aid to Sudan. 

In early 1990, the Danish government cancelled Sudan’s outstanding 

debt totaling more than US$22.9 million. 

Major financial assistance came from Arab countries, especially 

from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Economic cooperation was initiated 

with Libya in the 1980s. Saudi Arabia's assistance after 1980 mainly 

took the form of balance-of-payments support and petroleum shipments 

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rather than project aid. Sudan’s support of Iraq in the 1991 Persian Gulf 

War alienated the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia, which sharply curtailed 

their economic aid to Khartoum. The increasingly close ties between 

Sudan and Iran in the early 1990s were another factor in diminished 

Arab financial aid to Khartoum. 

Prior to the collapse of communist regimes in the Soviet Union and 

Eastern Europe, China had been the most important communist provider of development funds. Sudan valued these loans because they 

were interest free and had long grace periods before repayments 

started. Economic cooperation with China has continued. Relations 

between Sudan and the Soviet Union improved markedly following 

al-Numayri’s overthrow in 1985, but the regime change did not result, 

as Khartoum had hoped, in Soviet economic assistance. 

On December 31, 1991, the World Bank closed its Khartoum office. 

The closure resulted from the deterioration in relations between Sudan 

and international monetary bodies after Khartoum ceased repayment 

of debt to the World Bank and the IMF. In August 1999, however, the 

IMF dropped its sanctions after Sudan reduced its arrears and implemented an IMF structural adjustment program. Sudan regained full 

membership and voting rights in the IMF and became eligible for the 

World Bank’s Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative. 

In October 1997, the United States imposed comprehensive economic, trade, and financial sanctions against Sudan as a result of the 

country’s continued support for international terrorism, continued 

efforts to destabilize neighboring governments, and the prevalence of 

human-rights violations. This had a significant impact on foreign aid. In 

2006 the United States expanded the provisions to block the property of 

persons connected with the conflict in Darfur. The United States later 

excluded GOSS from the definition of the government of Sudan, and 

exempted South Kordofan State, Blue Nile State, Abyei, Darfur, and 

marginalized areas in and around Khartoum (four official camps for 

internally displaced persons) from the trade prohibitions. The regulations were later amended to allow nongovernmental organizations 

(NGOs) involved in humanitarian or religious activities to provide 

assistance in the specified areas of Sudan and to allow NGOs to apply 

to the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control for permission to provide 

assistance in the non-specified areas. 

In March 2000, Sudan signed two 25-year, concessionary (3-percent 

interest rate and seven-year grace period) loan agreements with AFESD 

for US$114 million to be used to build highways out of Khartoum and 

upgrade a dam for irrigation. Sudan also came to an agreement with 

AFESD about its arrears of US$214 million. At about the same time, 

Sudan signed for a loan from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) for 

158 
A market in Nyala, 2008 

Courtesy Peter Bechtold 

US$16 million to fund several water and research projects, and it received 

US$10 million from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund for International Development to upgrade the power 

sector. In 2001 the IDB also provided a loan of US$6.5 million for a project to assist refugees from the civil war in South Kordofan State with 

water projects, health centers, and primary schools. 

Sudan continued its commitment to the IMF in 2001–2. However, 

the 2002 budget projected a deficit of 2.3 percent of GDP, exceeding 

IMF limits. In response, the IMF released a report in November 2002 

that criticized military spending and government subsidies on goods 

such as food. To maintain Sudan’s commitment to the reform program, 

the IMF reduced the country’s payments to the fund to US$2 million 

per month in return for Sudan’s promise to reduce its budget deficit to 

1 percent of GDP and to reduce military spending by 13 percent. 

In January 2002, the European Union (EU) resumed aid to Sudan, 

providing an estimated US$155 million during the period 2002–7. In 

July the OPEC Fund for International Development promised US$40 

million for various irrigation projects, 80 percent of the funds for the construction of a US$3 million bridge over the Nile in Atbarah, and US$5 

million for new telephone exchanges. In August 2002, the Kuwait Fund 

for Arab Economic Development signed an agreement with the IDB to 

provide US$200 million for development projects, including renovation 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

of the Roseires Dam. The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, the 

AFESD, Qatar, and other Arab and Islamic development funds agreed to 

provide US$1 billion for the construction of a hydroelectric plant at 

Merowe. 

The United States had spent US$650 million in Sudan’s strife-torn 

Darfur region by 2005, as a result of special appropriations from Congress. In that year, Congress developed further plans to boost emergency 

food aid to Sudan as well as disaster relief and refugee aid, especially for 

Darfur. 

Following the 2005 peace agreement, Sudan produced a six-year 

recovery and development plan. Implementation of the first years, 

2005–7, required US$7.8 billion to establish a health-care system and 

build schools, roads, and railroads in areas neglected or destroyed by 

the civil war in the South. This amount did not include the funds 

required for peacekeeping operations in the South or for restoring stability in the Darfur region. Sudan requested international donors to provide US$2.7 billion (34 percent of the funds) and planned to provide 

US$5.1 billion (66 percent) from the country’s domestic oil revenues. 

Although the World Bank had just returned to Sudan and had not yet 

normalized relations, it had begun to provide technical advice on 

wealth sharing during the peace process, and it had agreed to manage 

foreign aid in a multidonor trust fund. 

In March 2009, after the International Criminal Court issued an 

arrest warrant for President al-Bashir, Sudan expelled 13 international 

humanitarian aid organizations and shut down three national aid organizations. Those organizations had served as U.S. Government and UN 

implementation partners in the provision of water and sanitation, health 

care, and protection. The UN maintained that these actions affected 50 

percent of aid delivery in Sudan. UN agencies and other remaining 

NGOs attempted to fill in to meet immediate humanitarian needs. The 

United States also led the international effort to support implementation of the CPA while providing for the humanitarian needs of conflictaffected populations throughout the country. Such assistance included 

food aid, provision of health care, water, sanitation, and hygiene, as 

well as programs for nutrition, agriculture, protection, and economic 

recovery. 

Money and Banking 

Currency 

In 1992 the Bank of Sudan introduced the Sudanese dinar as a parallel 

currency at a rate of 1 Sudanese dinar (SDD1) equal to 10 Sudanese 

pounds (SDP10), and 100 piastres equal to SDD1. In 1992 and 1993, 

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notes of 50, 25, 10, and 5 dinars were introduced. In 1994 a 100-dinar 

note and in 1996 a 1,000-dinar note entered circulation as well. On March 

1, 1999, the Sudanese dinar officially replaced the Sudanese pound, and 

the pound was withdrawn from circulation on July 31 of that year. 

The Sudanese government informed the IMF in 2005 that it was 

opposed to circulation by the SPLM of an independent currency note, a 

new Sudanese pound, in SPLM-controlled areas. Nonetheless, the government did agree with the SPLM in February 2005 that it would officially replace the Sudanese dinar, which had been in circulation since 

1992, with a new Sudanese pound (Southerners were opposed to the use 

of the Sudanese dinar because it symbolized Islamic culture). In January 

2007, to mark the second anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the Central Bank of Sudan introduced the new 

Sudanese pound. Each pound was divided into 100 piasters. One Sudanese pound (SDG1) was equal to 100 Sudanese dinars (or 1,000 old 

Sudanese pounds), and one piaster equaled 1 Sudanese dinar (or 10 old 

Sudanese pounds). 

The official exchange rate was managed by the Bank of Sudan 

through a crawling peg to maintain an “appropriate” rate against the U.S. 

dollar. At the end of 2008, the exchange rate of Sudanese pounds and 

U.S. dollars was US$1 = SDG2.18. On July, 31, 2011, the rate was US$1 

= SDD2.67. 

Banking 

Sudan inherited its banking system from the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium (1899–1955). When the National Bank of Egypt opened in 

Khartoum in 1901, it obtained a privileged position as banker to and 

for the government, being a semiofficial central bank. Other banks followed, but the National Bank of Egypt and Barclays Bank in Britain 

dominated and stabilized banking in Sudan until after World War II. 

Postwar prosperity created a demand for an increasing number of 

commercial banks. 

Before Sudanese independence, there were no restrictions on the 

movement of funds between Egypt and Sudan, and the value of the 

currency used in Sudan was tied to that of Egypt. This situation was 

unsatisfactory to an independent Sudan, which established the Sudan 

Currency Board to replace Egyptian and British money. It was not a 

central bank because it did not accept deposits, loan money, or provide 

commercial banks with cash and liquidity. 

A three-member commission from the U.S. Federal Reserve System, established in 1956, provided recommendations for establishing a 

central bank in Sudan. In 1959 the Bank of Sudan succeeded the Sudan 

Currency Board, taking over the Sudanese assets of the National Bank 

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of Egypt, and acting as the central bank of Sudan, issuing currency, 

assisting the development of banks, providing loans, maintaining 

financial equilibrium, and advising the government. 

The Bank of Sudan used policy instruments, including interest-rate 

policies, to control the quantity of money in circulation from its establishment until 1984, when Islamic laws were introduced. After the complete Islamization of the banking system in 1992, the Bank of Sudan 

eliminated treasury bills and government bonds that carried interest 

rates. In their place, the bank issued financial certificates conforming to 

the Islamic system. To ensure that banking operations would be free of 

practices that might be deemed usurious, the Sharia High Supervisory 

Board became a part of the Bank in 1993. 

Among the measures introduced by the 1997 IMF economic reform 

program was a system of Islamic open-market operations, with central 

bank short-term and long-term profit-sharing certificates sold at weekly 

auctions to control liquidity. The central bank also began to require 

commercial banks to comply more closely with minimum reserve 

requirements and established a discount window for short-term bank 

credit that increased the impact of the interest-rate policy. The bank 

abolished the extension of low-cost credit to the central government 

and state-owned institutions. 

There were originally five major commercial banks (Bank of Khartoum, An-Nilein Bank, Sudan Commercial Bank, the People’s Cooperative Bank, and the Unity Bank), but the number subsequently grew. In 

1970 the banks were nationalized and became controlled by the Bank of 

Sudan. As of 2003, however, there were once again private- as well as 

public-sector banks. 

To encourage foreign capital investment, in 1974 foreign banks were 

urged to establish joint ventures in association with Sudanese capital. 

Banking transactions with foreign companies operating in Sudan were 

facilitated so long as they abided by the rulings of the Bank of Sudan 

and transferred a minimum of SDP3 million into Sudan. Several foreign banks took advantage of this “open-door” policy, most notably 

Citibank, the Faisal Islamic Bank, Chase Manhattan Bank, and the 

Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development. In early 

2011, two foreign banks had branches in Sudan, Abu Dhabi National 

Bank and Estates Commercial Bank. 

In 2010 the Bank of Sudan had 14 branches, including the Bank of 

South Sudan, which remained a branch and continued to render conventional (non-Islamized) banking services within a dual banking system. There also were 23 commercial banks. In addition to commercial 

banks, the government also established numerous specialized banks. 

They included the Agricultural Bank, the Savings & Social Development Bank (owned by the public sector), and the Financial Investment 

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The Economy 

Bank (owned by the private sector). The commercial and other specialized banks had 535 branches throughout the country. 

The banking system had worked effectively until the late 1970s and 

1980s, when the decline in foreign trade, balance-of-payments problems, spiraling external debt, increased corruption, and the introduction 

of Islamic banking disrupted the financial system. Some reforms were 

introduced in the IMF economic adjustment program, but further reform 

of the system was an important consideration while developing the January 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement to end the civil war in 

Sudan. One of the decisions at that time was that Sudan would have a 

dual banking system. As a result, the North retained an Islamic banking 

system, whereas the South adopted interest-based banking. In 2005 the 

GOSS created a central bank, the Bank of South Sudan, which functioned as a branch of the Bank of Sudan and shared its monetary policies. Several foreign banks established branches in Juba. 

Islamic Banking 

The Faisal Islamic Bank, whose principal patron was the Saudi 

prince, Muhammad ibn Faisal al-Saud, was established in 1977. The 

open-door policy enabled Saudi Arabia, which had a huge surplus after 

the 1973 OPEC increases in the price of petroleum, to invest in Sudan. 

Members of the Muslim Brotherhood (see Glossary) and its political 

arm, the National Islamic Front, play a prominent role on the bank’s 

board of directors. It was the first sharia-based bank to open a branch in 

Khartoum. Other Islamic banks followed. As a consequence, both the 

Ansar (see Glossary) and Khatmiyyah (see Glossary) religious groups 

and their political parties, the Umma and the Democratic Unionist 

Party, formed their own Islamic banks. At the time, both Islamic and 

conventional banking systems operated together. However, the Faisal 

Islamic Bank enjoyed certain privileges denied other commercial 

banks (full tax exemption on assets, profits, wages, and pensions) as 

well as guarantees against confiscation or nationalization. 

Al-Salam Bank’s Sudan affiliate and Emirates and Sudan Bank 

(ESB), established in 2006, were the two newest foreign banks in early 

2011. Al-Salam Bank Sudan was founded by a consortium of United 

Arab Emirates (UAE) and Sudanese investors. The Emirates and Sudan 

Bank was established as a result of the acquisition of 60 percent of the 

Bank of Khartoum by Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB). The government of 

Sudan had previously owned 99 percent of Bank of Khartoum, Sudan's 

first bank, dating from 1913. Both Al-Salam Bank Sudan and Emirates 

and Sudan Bank claimed to be the largest banks in Sudan, with operations fully sharia compliant. Both banks intended to open branches 

throughout the country to support development, including rebuilding 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

the southern areas of Sudan as well as other areas affected by the civil 

war. 

By 1992 the Bank of Sudan eliminated treasury bills and government bonds, instruments on which interest was paid, and substituted 

financial certificates conforming to the Islamic system. The central 

bank continued to be the bank for the central and regional governments 

and for semigovernmental institutions. It also served as the lender to 

the government and lender of last resort to the banks. 

The theory of Islamic banking was derived from the Quran and the 

Prophet Muhammad's exhortations against exploitation and the unjust 

acquisition of wealth defined as riba, meaning interest or usury. Profit 

and trade were encouraged and provided the foundation for Islamic 

banking. The prohibitions against interest were founded on the Islamic 

concept of property as resulting either from an individual's creative 

labor or from exchange of goods or property. Interest on money loaned 

fell within neither of these two concepts and was thus unjustified. 

To resolve this dilemma from a legal and religious point of view, 

Islamic banking employed common terms: musharakah, or partnership 

for production; mudharabah, or silent partnership when one party provides the capital, the other the labor; and murabbahah, or deferred payment on purchases, similar in practice to an overdraft and the mostfavored Islamic banking arrangement in Sudan. To resolve the prohibition on interest, an interest-bearing overdraft would be changed to a 

murabbahah contract. The fundamental difference between Islamic and 

traditional banking systems is that in an Islamic system deposits are 

regarded as shares, hence their nominal value is not guaranteed. 

There were many government-sponsored Islamic initiatives in 

Sudan, resisted by the predominantly Christian South. However, the 

Islamic banks were apparently successful there, too, and avoided the 

controversy of other Islamic initiatives. The sector experienced rapid 

growth, expected to accelerate with future economic reconstruction 

and increased production in Sudan's oil fields. 

Labor Force, Wages, and Unions 

Labor Force 

The size of Sudan’s labor force is difficult to determine because of 

the various definitions of participation in economic activity and the 

absence of accurate data from official sources. In rural areas, large 

numbers of women and girls engage in traditional productive occupations, but many probably are not included in calculations of the active 

workforce. 

164 
The Economy 

More than 7.9 million people were employed in Sudan in 1989, 

according to an International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimate. In the 

early 1990s, the employment scene was exacerbated by the 1991 Persian Gulf War, which resulted in the return home of thousands of Sudanese workers who had been based in Kuwait and Iraq, leaving many of 

their possessions behind. Sudan’s support of Iraq was also a factor in the 

departure of thousands of Sudanese workers from Saudi Arabia. By 

2000, the total labor force of Sudan had grown to an estimated 12 million, of which the government counted 9.6 million as actively employed. 

Approximately 30 percent of the workforce was female. 

Unemployment figures were affected by the severe drought that 

spread throughout Sudan in the 1980s. In 1983–84, for example, several million people migrated from the worst-hit areas in both Western 

and Eastern Sudan to Khartoum and other urban areas along the Nile. 

Many remained in these areas once the drought had eased, living in 

shantytowns and contributing to unemployment, underemployment, or 

employment in the informal sector in the cities. In addition, more than 

2 million people from the South migrated to the North over the years, 

as a result of the civil war and famines in these areas. In 2009 the government estimated unemployment at about 20 percent, perhaps not an 

accurate figure, because a large proportion of Sudanese engaged in 

small-scale and subsistence agriculture. 

The minimum working age in the early 2000s was 18 in theory; however, the law was not enforced, and some 27 percent of Sudanese children aged 10 to 14 were estimated to be in the labor force. For example, 

children as young as 11 or 12 years of age worked in a number of factories outside the capital that produced edible oils. Child labor was widespread in the informal economy, and children traditionally worked on 

the family farm from a young age. Sudan did not adhere to ILO Convention no. 182, the Worst Forms of Child Labor. The Child Act of 

2010, among other laws, governed hours and working conditions of 

young people, but the law was not effectively enforced, particularly in 

the informal sector, where enforcement was especially difficult. 

Agriculture was formerly the predominant activity in Sudan, although 

its share of the labor force gradually declined as other sectors of economic activity expanded. In the 1955–56 census, almost 86 percent of 

those then considered as part of the workforce were involved in agriculture, livestock raising, forestry, fisheries, or hunting. The ILO estimated 

that by 1998, the figure had declined to 70–80 percent. By 2008 the government claimed that the percentage was significantly lower. The services sector, which included a government workforce that grew about 10 

percent a year in the 1970s, emerged as the second largest area of activity, encompassing an estimated 13–22 percent of those economically 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

active in 1998, compared with 4.6 percent in 1955–56. The industry sector, including manufacturing, mining, electric power, and construction, 

accounted for 7–9 percent during 1998, compared to 5.6 percent in 

1955–56. 

The proportions of the labor force in each of these sectors undoubtedly 

changed after the estimates were made in 1998, as the relative importance 

of these sectors altered in the succeeding years. It was difficult to determine the extent of the changes, however, as despite the oil sector’s great 

importance, it did not directly employ many people. Its impact on 

employment occurred as a result of the increased spending allowed to the 

government, which created new jobs, often in the public sector. 

The 1998 constitution prohibited forced and bonded labor, although 

it did not specifically prohibit trafficking in persons. Nevertheless, 

there were credible reports that slavery persisted, particularly affecting 

women and children, and that the seizure and sale of women as 

domestic servants continued. All sides in the Sudanese conflict also 

conscripted men and boys forcibly into their fighting forces. In May 

1998, the government formed the Committee for the Eradication of the 

Abduction of Women and Children, which resulted in the identification and release of several hundred abductees, but the government did 

not police the laws on forced and bonded labor effectively. In November 2001, the government announced the establishment of special 

civilian tribunals in the border regions separating the South and the 

North of the country to prosecute persons involved in the abduction, 

transport, holding, and selling or exchanging of women and children 

from war zones. Even so, as late as 2010, the Committee surmised that 

possibly 10.000 or more abductees from groups such as the Misiriyyah 

and Rizayqat as well as South Sudanese were engaged in some form 

of forced labor in the border regions. 

The Informal Sector 

It is difficult to obtain data on the informal sector, even though it is 

a very large part of the Sudanese economy. However, a 1993 report 

indicated that with close to 60 percent unemployment in the cities as a 

result of high urbanization, only 10 percent of the population could 

find work in the formal sector. A later report indicated that by 1996, as 

a result of declines in the agricultural and services sectors, the informal sector accounted for 90 percent of total job opportunities created 

(1.6 million out of 1.8 million jobs). 

Informal-sector activities in rural areas include labor on small farms 

(with payment in either money or food); selling firewood, charcoal, or 

grass for animal feed; collecting and selling wild fruits; carrying water 

and other low-status labor; or working as paid domestic labor. People 

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A potter decorates her wares in the Nuba Mountains, 1995. 

Courtesy Timothy Carney 

involved in the informal economy also create mechanisms to provide 

credit, wholesaling, and marketing and distribution services throughout the country where formal institutions do not exist.

 In the urban areas, the informal sector includes not only the poor, but 

also many middle-class professionals who have to increase their income 

by working second jobs, often as traders or taxi drivers. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are also among informal-sector entrepreneurs. 

They, among others, are a source of cheap, casual labor, in areas ranging 

from labor in the construction industry to selling tea or cooked food 

along the streets. Some informal-sector work is also illegal, such as the 

production and sale of alcohol and prostitution. Another activity is the 

exchange of hard currency into Sudanese currency, either in Sudan or in 

currency markets outside the country. The remitted income is redistributed through family networks and supports a substantial portion of the 

population. The government has tried to suppress, control, or tax the 

informal sector but without success. 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

Most requirements for operating a business in Sudan, except for 

finance, can be met as easily by informal as formal, registered firms, 

and the market for labor is perhaps more flexible for informal than for 

formal firms. In addition, the costs and risks of informality are sometimes more manageable than the larger risks associated with formally 

paying taxes. Therefore, reducing the informal sector requires actions 

to significantly increase productivity in the formal sector, especially in 

the markets for finance, labor, and other inputs. 

A number of organizations, especially nongovernmental organizations, work in the informal sector, particularly with IDPs, who have to 

change the way they make their living because in the refugee camps 

they no longer have access to agricultural land. The NGOs provide 

training in various technical skills and help participants establish 

small-scale businesses. In many communities, women have had to 

become self-sufficient, feeding themselves and their families, if their 

husbands were killed in the war or migrated to the cities in search of 

work. Some of the most successful projects in those areas train women 

in small-scale food-processing skills, such as production of pasta, 

dehydrated onions and garlic, artificially flavored juices, tomato paste, 

and jams, to help them become more competitive in local markets and 

to have food to eat when they otherwise might not. Other projects help 

organize women’s development associations to produce collectively 

for the market and also to provide various types of support for poor 

women in their areas. 

Wages 

Public-sector wages generally are higher than those of the privately 

employed, except in a few large private firms. Until late 1974, when the 

Minimum Standard of Wages Order (Presidential Order no. 21) was 

issued, there had not been a minimum wage in the private sector, 

although in a few occupations, such as stevedoring at Port Sudan, official wage orders had set certain minimums. The 1974 minimum, established at SDPl6.50 a month, was equivalent to the minimum entry wage 

for public-sector jobs. It applied, however, basically only to workers in 

establishments having 10 or more employees in the Khartoum area, AlGezira, and certain other urban centers. Its geographical limitations 

together with important exemptions—employees below the age of 18, 

all those in enterprises having fewer than 10 workers, seasonal agricultural workers, and some others—excluded about three-quarters of all 

wage earners. 

The Labor Act of 1997 replaced the Manpower Act of 1974 and set 

forth the organization of employment (including provisions for women 

and juveniles), contracts of service, wages, working hours and leave, 

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termination of employment, after-service benefits, and miscellaneous 

other provisions. It also listed categories of persons who were exempt 

from the act, among them domestic servants, agricultural workers other 

than persons employed in establishments that process agricultural 

products, and casual workers. 

The minimum wage was established by a commission consisting of 

specialized members representing the state, workers, and employers, 

and enforced by the Ministry of Labor. Workers denied the minimum 

wage could file a grievance with their local Ministry of Labor field 

office. In April 2004, the Ministry of Labor and Administrative Reform, 

the Sudanese Businessmen and Employers Federation, and the Sudan 

Workers’ Trade Union Federation (SWTUF) agreed to raise the minimum wage to SDD12,500 (US$48) per month. By 2011 it had increased 

to SDG 265 (US$90) per month. 

Unions 

The labor-union movement originated in 1946 with the formation, 

by some Sudan Railways employees, of the Workers’ Affairs Association. Two years later, the Trades and Tradesmen's Union Ordinance of 

1948, which was based largely on the British model and the concepts 

of voluntary association and limited government intervention in union 

affairs, gave official sanction to the unions. A proliferation of mostly 

small, ineffective bodies emerged. The major exception was the rail 

union, which became Sudan’s wealthiest and most powerful union. In 

1949 the workers' association helped start the national Workers' Congress, which in 1950 became the Sudan Workers’ Trade Union Federation. The SWTUF was closely associated with the Sudan Communist 

Party (SCP), and its actions were strongly political. It failed to receive 

government recognition. After national independence, the federation 

had frequent confrontations with the new government, including a 

successful general strike in October 1958. That strike was one of the 

factors that contributed to the military takeover of the government the 

following month. 

The SWTUF controlled roughly 70 percent of all labor-union membership by the 1958 coup. The new military government repealed the 

1948 ordinance, dissolved all unions, and detained many of the federation's leaders. Some union organization was again permitted after 1960, 

but it was prohibited for white-collar workers, and federations were not 

allowed. Upon restoration of the civilian government in 1964, the 1948 

ordinance was reinstated, the SWTUF reemerged, and union membership increased rapidly. Most unions were small, financially weak, and 

generally not very effective. The few larger unions were in the public 

sector, led by the Sudan Railway Workers’ Union. 

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SWTUF leadership remained in communist hands. The SCP was 

allied with the group that carried out the military coup of May 1969. 

Strikes, however, were prohibited by a presidential order issued shortly 

after the 1969 takeover. After the abortive communist coup in mid1971, the government dissolved the SWTUF and executed a number 

of its leaders. 

Late in 1971, the government promulgated the new Trade Unions Act, 

under which directives were issued in 1973 that established a list of 87 

unions based along sectoral, occupational, and industrial lines. Somewhat 

more than half were “employees” unions (for white-collar employees), 

and the rest “workers” unions (for blue-collar workers). The existing 

unions were merged into the specified groupings. The act contained measures to strengthen unionism, including a provision for compulsory dues 

and employer-paid time off to serve as union officials. The SWTUF was 

reinstituted for the workers’ unions, and the Sudanese Federation of 

Employees and Professionals Trade Unions was formed in 1975 for the 

white-collar group. Their representation of union interests was carried on 

within guidelines set by the government and the Sudan Socialist Union 

(SSU), the mass political party established by the government in 1972. In 

the late 1970s, the unions led strikes, which, although illegal, resulted in 

settlement of issues through negotiations with the government. Prior to 

1989, the SWTUF, in its weakened state, included 42 trade unions, representing more than 1.7 million workers in the public and private sectors. 

The federation was affiliated with the International Confederation of 

Arab Trade Unions and the Organization of African Trade Union Unity. 

Following the 1989 coup, the Revolutionary Command Council for 

National Salvation (RCC–NS) temporarily suspended the right to organize and bargain collectively and prescribed punishments, including the 

death penalty, for violations of its labor decrees. Many union leaders 

were arrested. Prior to the 1989 coup, leaders of the SWTUF formed a 

union in exile, the Legitimate Sudan Workers Trade Union Federation, 

which carried on secret trade union activities in Sudan. 

The Trade Union Act of 1992 facilitated the government’s definition of the sectors, industries, and companies that could form trade 

unions, allowed it to intervene in the internal affairs of the unions and 

their elections, and provided for the suspension or dissolution of the 

unions. In 1993 the government amalgamated the 107 sectoral trade 

unions into 26 trade unions. In 1996 the number was reduced to 13 

unions. The Labor Act of 1997 included a section on resolution of trade 

disputes and a requirement that employers negotiate with employees 

through a lawful trade union if they had such representation. 

Strikes and protests occurred in 1998 over the privatization of state 

corporations and public services, an action that had caused massive job 

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The Economy 

losses. In 1999 and again in 2000, teachers went on strike for several 

months, each time to protest the government’s failure to pay salaries. 

The 1998 constitution provided the right of association for tradeunion purposes, but in 2011 the government continued to restrict this 

right. Only the government-controlled SWTUF, the leading blue-collar 

labor organization with about 800,000 members, functioned legally. The 

government again imposed severe punishments, including the death 

penalty, for violation of its labor decrees. However, the International 

Labour Organisation frequently noted that the trade-union monopoly 

was contrary to the principles of freedom of association, and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions continued to recognize the 

Legitimate Sudan Workers Trade Union Federation, the national tradeunion organization that functioned prior to the ban and that continued to 

operate in exile. 

The law allowed labor committees the right to organize and bargain 

collectively; however, in practice, the government’s control of the 

steering committees meant that it dominated the process of setting 

wages and working conditions. The law also did not prohibit anti-union 

discrimination. Moreover, strikes were considered illegal unless the 

government granted approval, which never occurred. Therefore, most 

employees who tried to strike were subject to employment termination, 

although workers who went on strike in recent years, including in 

2008, were not terminated, and there were no reports of union leaders 

being detained or unfairly dismissed in 2011. 

Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, and Forestry 

Agriculture and livestock raising were the main sources of livelihood for the Sudanese population in 2011. It was estimated that 80 

percent of the labor force were employed in that sector, including 84 

percent of the women and 64 percent of the men. 

Agricultural products regularly accounted for about 80 to 95 percent 

of exports until the oil industry came on line. Total sector activities 

contributed an estimated 35.5 percent of GDP in 2006, a decline from 

the years prior to the development of the oil industry. Crop cultivation 

was divided between a market-oriented sector comprising mechanized, 

large-scale irrigated and rain-fed farming (mainly in central Sudan) 

and small-scale farming following traditional practices carried out in 

parts of the country where rainfall or other water sources were sufficient for cultivation. 

Large investments occurred over time in mechanized, irrigated, and 

rain-fed agriculture, which together accounted for roughly two-thirds 

of Sudan’s cultivated land. The early emphasis on growing cotton on 

irrigated land decreased. Although cotton remained important, peanuts, 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

wheat, and sugarcane became major crops, and considerable quantities 

of sesame also were grown. Rain-fed mechanized farming continued to 

produce mostly sorghum, but the cultivation of sesame increased, and 

short-fiber cotton also was grown. Production in both subsectors 

increased domestic supplies and export potential. This gain appeared, 

however, to have been achieved mainly by expanding the cultivated 

area rather than by increasing productivity. 

Most subsistence cultivators produced sorghum as their staple crop, 

although in the northerly rain-fed cultivated areas millet was the principal staple. Subsistence farmers also grew peanuts and sesame. Following food shortages in 2001, there was an attempt to increase land 

area for the production of food. The increase in food production, however, was at the expense of the production of export crops, although 

export crops increased in 2004 and the export of sesame and cotton 

continued to increase through 2008. 

Land Use 

The Ministry of Agriculture estimated that Sudan had 84 million 

hectares (see Glossary) of potentially arable land. The area under permanent crops was estimated at more than 19 million hectares in 2010, 

about 23 percent of potential arable land. 

Substantial variations existed in land classified as actually used or 

potentially usable for livestock grazing. The Ministry of Agriculture 

and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) 

classified about 24 million hectares as pastureland. In 1975, however, a 

United Nations interagency mission to Sudan had estimated the total 

potential grazing land at between 120 million and 150 million hectares. 

Total forest area declined from 71.2 million hectares in 1990 to 61.6 

million hectares in 2000. The use of some woodland areas for grazing, 

the dearth of rainfall during the 1980s, and the ecological damage from 

mechanized farming caused steady deforestation. 

In 2011 Sudan still had a substantial amount of land suitable for 

future cropping. The 1975 UN mission believed that two-thirds of the 

potential area for livestock grazing, however, was already in use, and 

that proportion had probably increased over time with the rising numbers of livestock. In addition to land suitable for cultivation and livestock grazing, Sudan also had about 76 million to 86 million hectares of 

desert. An area of about 2.9 million hectares was covered by swamps 

and inland water, and additional land was occupied by urban settlements and other man-made features. 

172 
 

 

Harvesting cotton in Al-Gezira, 2004 

Courtesy Timothy Carney 

Land Tenure 

The right to own property, to bequeath it to heirs, and to inherit it was 

established by the 1973 constitution (then known as the Permanent Constitution), although that right was suspended in 1985. Sudan has long had 

a system of land registration through which an individual, an enterprise, 

or the government can establish title to a piece of land. Such registration 

was extensive in Northern Sudan, especially in the then-states of AlKhartoum, Al-Awsat, and Ash Shamali. Before 1970 all other land 

(unregistered) belonged to the state, which held ownership in trust for the 

people, who had customary rights to it. 

The Unregistered Land Act of 1970 declared that all waste, forest, 

and unregistered lands were government land. Private land was limited to that registered before 1970 under a 1929 land ordinance and 

was limited to agricultural land along the Nile and a few areas along 

other water courses. Such land amounted to only about 1 percent of all 

land. Individuals could, however, lease land from the government and 

gain usufruct rights. 

The government owned most of the land used by the modern agricultural sector and leased it to tenants (for example, in the Gezira Scheme) or 

to private entrepreneurs, such as most operators of large-scale mechanized 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

rain-fed farming. The lease rights were for specified periods of time; for 

example, leases rights for the large mechanized farms were typically for 

25 years. 

There were also many variants of land tenure. The communal land 

used for pasture and for subsistence cultivation was owned by the government but under the control of the community or local leader, who 

allocated it to households of the village or ethnic group for their exclusive cultivation. The rights to such land might be passed on to heirs, but 

ordinarily the land could not be sold or otherwise disposed of, nor used 

as collateral. The right was also retained to land left fallow, although in 

Bahr al-Ghazal, Upper Nile, and Equatoria there were communities 

where another individual could claim such land by clearing it. 

Among the transhumant communities of the North, the rights to cultivated land were much the same, but the dominant position of livestock 

in community activities introduced certain other communal rights that 

included common rights to grazing land, the right-of-way to water and 

grazing land, the right to grass on agricultural land unless the occupier 

cut and stacked it, and the right to crop residues unless similarly treated. 

In the western savannas, private ownership of stands of hashab (gum 

arabic) trees could be registered, an exception to the usual government 

ownership of the forests, but dead wood for domestic fuel and the underlying grass were common property. Water, a matter of greatest importance to stock raisers, was open to all if free standing, but wells and the 

associated drinking troughs were private property and retained by the 

digger season after season. In Northern Sudan, especially in the western 

region where increasing population and animal numbers placed pressure 

on the land, violations of customary laws and conflicts between ethnic 

groups over rights to pasturage and water increased during the 1990s 

and early 2000s. These were major factors behind the warfare that began 

in Western Sudan in early 2003. 

Agriculture 

Irrigated Agriculture 

Sudan had a modern irrigated agriculture sector totaling about 

800,000 hectares in 2010, out of about 84 million hectares that were 

potentially arable. This was a slight decline from the prior year and 

well below the more than 2 million hectares of the early1990s. The 

Nile and its tributaries were the source of water for 93 percent of irrigated agriculture, and of this, the Blue Nile accounted for about 67 percent. Gravity flow was the main form of irrigation, although pumps 

served part of the irrigated area. 

174 
Harvesting sugar cane on the Kananah sugar plantation, 2003 

Courtesy Timothy Carney 

The waters of the Nile in Sudan were used for centuries for traditional irrigation, taking advantage of the annual Nile flood. Such usage 

continued in the early 2000s, along with the traditional shaduf (a device 

to raise water) and waterwheel to lift water to fields in local irrigation 

projects. These devices were rapidly being replaced by more efficient 

mechanized pumps. Among the first efforts to employ irrigation for 

modern commercial cropping was the use of the floodwaters of the 

Qash River and the Barakah River (both of which originate in Eritrea) 

in eastern Sudan to grow cotton on their deltas. This project was started 

in the late 1860s by the Egyptian governor and continued until interrupted by the turbulent period of the 1880s. Cultivation resumed in 

1896 in the Barakah Delta and after World War I in the Qash Delta. 

Between 1924 and 1926, canals were built in the latter delta to control 

the flood, but sandstorms made canals unfeasible in the Barakah. 

Between the 1940s and the 1970s, various projects were developed to 

irrigate land. Both deltas yielded only one crop a year, watered by the 

flood. Adequate groundwater, however, offered the eventual possibility 

of using pump irrigation from local wells for additional cropping or for 

supplementing any flood shortages. 

The world’s largest agricultural irrigation project under single management in 2010 operated on land between the Blue Nile and White 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

Nile Rivers south of their confluence at Khartoum. This land has a gentle slope to the north and west, permitting natural gravity irrigation, and 

its soils are fertile cracking clays well suited to irrigation. The project 

originated in 1911 when a private British enterprise, Sudan Plantations 

Syndicate, found cotton suitable to the area and embarked in the 1920s 

on what became the Gezira Scheme, intended principally to furnish 

cotton to the British textile industry. Backed by a loan from the British 

government, the syndicate began to construct a dam on the Blue Nile at 

Sinnar (also seen as Sannar and Sennar) in 1913. Work was interrupted 

by World War I, and the dam was not completed until 1925. The project was limited by a 1929 agreement between Sudan and Egypt, which 

restricted the amount of water the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan could use 

during the dry season. By 1931 the project had expanded to 450,000 

hectares, the maximum that could then be irrigated by the available 

water, although 10,000 more hectares were added in the 1950s. The 

project was nationalized in 1950 and operated thereafter by the Sudan 

Gezira Board as a government enterprise. In 1959 a new agreement 

with Egypt greatly increased the allotment of water to Sudan, as did the 

completion in the early 1960s of the Manaqil Extension on the western 

side of the Gezira Scheme. In 2010 the Gezira Scheme accounted for 

the great majority of the country's total land under irrigation. 

The government set up a program in the early 1960s to resettle Nubians displaced by Lake Nubia (called Lake Nasser in Egypt), which was 

formed by the construction of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt. To provide farmland for the Nubians, the government constructed the Khashm 

al-Qirbah Dam on the Atbarah River, a Nile tributary, and established 

the Halfa al-Jadidah (New Halfa) irrigation project. Located west of 

Kassala, this project was originally designed to irrigate about 164,000 

hectares. Part of the irrigated area was assigned to local inhabitants. The 

main commercial crops initially introduced included cotton, peanuts, 

and wheat. In 1965 sugarcane was added, and a sugar factory having a 

design capacity of 60,000 tonnes was built to process it (for value of the 

metric ton, see table 1, Appendix). 

The multipurpose Roseires Dam was built in 1966, power-generating facilities being installed in 1971. Both the water and the power were 

needed to implement the Rahad River irrigation project located east of 

the Rahad River, a tributary of the Blue Nile. Work on the initial 63,000 

hectares of the project began in the early 1970s, and the first irrigation 

water was received in 1977. As of 2009–10, the dam was being heightened in order to increase the amount of water for both irrigation and 

power generation. 

Private irrigation projects using diesel pumps also began to appear in 

Al-Khartoum Province in the 1920s, mainly along the White Nile, to 

improve provision of vegetables, fruit, and other foods to the capital area. 

176 
Crossing the sixth cataract on the Nile north of Khartoum, late 1990s 

Copyright Lillian Craig Harris 

In 1937 the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium government built a dam 

upstream from Khartoum on the White Nile at Jabal al-Awliya to regulate 

the supply of water to Egypt during the August to April period of declining flow. Grazing and cultivated land along the river was flooded for 

almost 300 kilometers. The government thereupon established seven 

pump-irrigation projects, partially financed by Egypt, to provide the area's 

inhabitants with an alternative to transhumance. This irrigation project 

eventually proved successful, making possible large surpluses of cotton 

and sorghum and encouraging private entrepreneurs to undertake new 

projects. High cotton profits during the Korean War (1950–53) increased 

private interest along the Blue Nile as well, and by 1958 almost half the 

country's irrigated cotton was grown under pump irrigation. During the 

1960s, however, downward fluctuations in world cotton prices and disputes between entrepreneurs and tenants led to numerous failures of 

pump irrigation projects. In 1968 the government established the Agricultural Reform Corporation and assumed ownership and operation of the 

larger estates. Subsequently, as leases expired, the corporation acquired 

smaller projects, until May 1970, when all outstanding leases were 

revoked. A considerable number of small pump operations that developed on privately owned land, chiefly along the main Nile but also on the 

Blue Nile, continued to operate. 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

Since the 1950s, the government has constructed a number of large 

pump projects, mostly on the Blue Nile. These have included the 

Junayd project on the east bank of the Blue Nile east of the Gezira 

Scheme. This project, with an irrigated area of about 36,000 hectares, 

went into operation in 1955 with the aim of providing an alternative 

livelihood for nomadic pastoralists in the area. It just produced cotton 

until 1960, when about 8,400 hectares were converted to sugarcane. A 

sugar factory built to process the crop (with a potential capacity of 

60,000 tonnes of sugar a year) opened in 1962. In the early 1970s, the 

As-Suki project, partially funded by Japan and also of 36,000 hectares, 

was established upstream from Sinnar to grow cotton, sorghum, and 

oilseeds. In the mid-1970s, the government constructed a second project near Sinnar of about 20,000 hectares. In addition to cotton and other 

crops such as peanuts, about 8,400 hectares of the area were devoted to 

raising sugarcane. The cane-processing factory, with a design capacity 

of 110,000 tonnes of sugar a year, opened in 1976. Several smaller Blue 

Nile projects added more than 80,000 additional hectares to Sudan's 

overall irrigated area during this time. 

In the 1970s, when the consumption and import of sugar grew rapidly, domestic production became a priority. Consequently, two major 

pump-irrigated sugar plantations were established on the White Nile in 

the Kosti area. The Hajar Asalaya Sugar Project, begun in 1975, irrigated an area of about 7,600 hectares. A sugar-processing factory 

opened in 1977, with a potential annual capacity of 110,000 tonnes. The 

Kananah Sugar Project, which opened in 1981 with a potential of more 

than 33,000 hectares, was one of the world’s largest sugar-milling and 

refining operations. The project, unlike the country’s four other government-owned sugar projects, was a joint venture among the governments 

of Sudan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, and the Arab Investment Company, the Sudan Development Corporation, Kananah Limited, and the 

Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development; it also 

included local Sudanese banks. 

The government’s Dams Implementation Unit signed contracts in 

2010 with two Chinese companies for a US$838 million project in 

northeastern Sudan. The Upper Atbarah Dams Complex Project would 

comprise two dams, on the Setit and the Atbarah, and the Upper Nile 

Dam. The project was part of the dam-construction program that 

included the building of the 1,250-megawatt Merowe Dam and the 

heightening of the Roseires Dam. The new dams were expected to contribute to the irrigation of some 210,000 hectares of agricultural land 

and to help revitalize land in the New Halfa Agricultural Scheme. 

178 
Canoes on the bank of the Sobat at Malakal, late 1990s 

Copyright Lillian Craig Harris 

Mechanized Rain-fed Agriculture 

Cultivation dependent on rainfall falls into two categories. Most Sudanese farmers had always relied on rain-fed farming. In addition to these 

traditional farms, a large modern mechanized rain-fed agricultural sector 

developed after 1944–45, when a government project to cultivate the 

cracking clays of central Sudan started in the area of Al-Gedaref (also 

seen as Al-Qadarif). Its prime purpose was to meet the food needs of army 

units stationed in British colonies in East Africa (present-day Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda). The alkaline clays and loams in this area were not 

suitable for cultivation by hand or by oxen. An average of about 6,000 

hectares a year was cultivated between 1945 and 1953, chiefly producing 

sorghum, under a sharecropping arrangement between the government 

and farmers who had been allocated land in the project. These estates 

proved costly, however, and in 1954 the government began encouraging 

the private sector to take up mechanized farming in the area, a policy that 

continued after Sudan gained independence in 1956. The government 

maintained several state farms to demonstrate production methods and to 

conduct research, but research activities were very limited because of 

staffing and funding problems. 

The private-sector response was positive, and by 1960 mechanized 

farming had spread into other areas of the cracking-clay zone in central 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

and eastern Sudan. The government set aside rectangular areas that 

were divided into plots of 420 hectares (later raised in places to 630 

hectares) each. Half of these plots were leased to private farmers, the 

other half left fallow. After four years, the originally leased land was to 

be returned to fallow and the farmer was to receive a new lease for an 

adjacent fallow area. When the demand for land grew faster than it 

could be demarcated, areas outside the designated project limits were 

taken over by private individuals. The four-year lease proved unpopular because it meant new investment in clearing land every four years, 

and apparently much of the worked land continued to be cultivated 

while fallow land was also placed under cultivation. 

The investment requirements for mechanized farming favored prosperous cultivators, and eventually most farms came to be operated by 

entrepreneurs who raised capital through mortgageable property or 

other assets in the urban centers. Through arrangements with other 

individuals, these entrepreneurs frequently managed to control additional plots beyond the legal limit of two. Their ability to obtain capital 

permitted them also to abandon depleted land and to move into newly 

demarcated uncleared areas, a practice that had a deleterious impact 

on the environment, deprived the indigenous inhabitants of work 

opportunities, and increased desertification. The government established the Mechanized Farming Corporation (MFC) in 1968 as an 

autonomous agency under the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural 

Resources, to expand the operator base and to introduce more control 

over land allocation, crops, and farming methods. With loans from the 

IDA, the MFC was able to provide technical assistance, credit for land 

clearing and machinery, and marketing aid to individual farmers and 

cooperative groups. The MFC also became the operator of state farms. 

The area under this system of management by the late 1990s had 

spread to about 5.9 million hectares in the states of Al-Gedaref, Blue 

Nile, Upper Nile, White Nile, Sinnar, and South Kordofan. The farms 

were then usually well over 420 hectares as a result of combining 

leased plots and creating family partnerships. The government also 

allocated large plots of 21,000–420,000 hectares to Sudanese and Gulf 

state investors. 

Only a few crops were suitable for cultivation in the cracking-clay 

area, principally sorghum. Sesame and short-fiber cotton also grew successfully but in relatively smaller quantities. Land preparation, seeding, 

and most threshing were mechanized on these farms, but some threshing, as well as weeding and harvesting, was done by seasonal labor. 

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Traditional Rain-fed Agriculture 

Traditional rain-fed farming involves nomadic and seminomadic 

peoples and transhumance, as well as settled agriculture, which also 

includes significant numbers of livestock. Although almost all these 

systems exist in every state, they are most prevalent in the Kordofan and 

Darfur States, Sinnar, and the Blue Nile and White Nile States. Livestock, part of almost every farming system, serve as both a capital asset 

and a hedge against the risk of farming, particularly because of recurrent droughts. 

Settled farmers usually produce a combination of food crops and 

cash crops, such as karkade (hibiscus), sesame, and watermelon, on 4.2 

to 6.3 hectares. The total area under crops in the traditional rain-fed 

farming system in 2010 was estimated to be almost 12 million hectares. 

South Sudan has three zones where traditional agricultural systems 

prevail. The Central Rainlands Zone in Upper Nile State receives less 

than 800 millimeters of rainfall per year. Vegetation in the zone is 

open grasslands, bush thickets, and thorn woodland where quickmaturing grains and oilseeds are produced. Semi-mechanized farming 

has begun to take over where farm size is large enough to break even 

on the investment. 

The Flood Plains Zone includes the remainder of the Upper Nile 

State and also parts of Bahr al-Ghazal and Equatoria. Rainfall ranges 

from 800 to 1,000 millimeters per year, concentrated in six to seven 

months. Vegetation is open grasslands with acacia woodlands. The sudd 

(see Glossary), in this area, is a permanent or semipermanent swamp 

that mainly produces papyrus. Farming takes place on the high land; the 

lower land is the most important cattle-grazing land in the South. 

The Equatorial Zone includes the Ironstone Plateau, the Central Hills, 

and the Green Belt in Equatoria. Rainfall is usually 900–1,300 millimeters per year, concentrated in six to eight months, although it is much 

higher in the Green Belt. Farm production includes perennial tree crops, 

such as coffee, tea, and oil palm, and annual crops, such as tobacco, cotton, corn, sorghum, groundnuts, sesame, and vegetables. Tsetse-fly infestation makes it difficult to raise livestock in the area. 

Crops 

Cotton was traditionally the most important export crop and the major 

irrigated crop. The main types of cotton grown were medium-staple 

Akala, some long-staple Barakat, and a little long-medium staple Shambat B. A small amount of rain-fed, short-staple cotton was also grown. 

Cotton’s contribution to export revenue decreased from 53 percent in the 

1970s to 1 percent in 2008. Exports of cotton provided US$134 million 

in earnings in 2008 but fell to an estimated US$40.4 million in 2010. 

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Sesame seed became Sudan’s prime agricultural export commodity in 

the mid-1990s, and it was also used domestically to produce oil for cooking. The yield varied in recent years, with a high of 416,000 tonnes in 

1996. It was 350,000 tonnes in 2008 and about 248,000 tonnes in 2010 

because of a decline in productivity. Sesame exports earned US$141 million in 1996, some 23 percent of export revenues. They decreased to 

US$93 million in 2007, constituting 1.2 percent of export earnings, but 

increased to US$167.3 million in 2010. 

Gum arabic is the most important forest product of Sudan, which 

accounts for 80 percent of the world’s supply. It is collected from acacia trees in Darfur and Kordofan and used widely in industry for products ranging from mucilage (for postage stamps), to foam stabilizers, 

to excipient in medicines and dietetic foods. The Gum Arabic Company markets the product, with restraints placed on the right of any 

private company to independently export unprocessed gum arabic. 

The justification given for regulating its sale is that its quality would 

deteriorate and export quantities and prices would decline if sales were 

deregulated. Moreover, even though gum arabic requires minimal processing and packaging, the prices received by producers in 2000–2001 

were only 21 percent of world market prices. Export markets for it are 

price sensitive, as there are synthetic substitutes and competition from 

Chad, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, and Nigeria. Production in 1994–95 

was 84,000 tonnes. It declined to 16,000 tonnes by 2000 but surpassed 

30,000 tonnes in 2010. Export earnings were US$40 million in 2003 

and about US$24 million in 2010. 

Peanuts were one of Sudan’s major cash crops until recently. In 1993 

Sudan was the fourth largest producer in Africa, after Nigeria, Senegal, 

and Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo). Peanuts grow on 

rain-fed land in the far west and also under irrigation. They are both a 

domestic source of food and oil and a major export. Production had been 

decreasing as a result of low producer prices, low world market prices, 

disease, and drought, but conditions turned around in the early 2000s. 

Production was 1.2 million tonnes in 2003, although revenues remained 

low. Production declined to 716,000 tonnes in 2008 but rose to 942,000 

tonnes in 2009, only to fall to an estimated 549,000 tonnes in 2010. 

Exports provided US$741,000 in 2007 and some US$200,000 in 2010. 

Sorghum is the Sudanese staple food crop, but the yield varies, 

depending on weather conditions and the amount of irrigated land used 

for it. Production is also cyclical; when there are large surpluses of the 

grain, prices fall, discouraging production in the subsequent year. Output reached a high of nearly 5.2 million tonnes in 2003 but declined to 

3.9 million tonnes in 2008 and to an estimated 2.6 million tonnes in 

2010 as production continued to drop. Exports in 2010 realized an estimated US$200,000. 

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The Economy 

Wheat is also grown in irrigated areas as an import substitute. Its 

production varies in a pattern similar to that of sorghum, reacting to 

changes in prices. Production was 587,000 tonnes in 2008 but fell to 

403,000 tonnes in 2010 because of a decrease in the cultivated area. 

Overall, grain production (sorghum, millet, and wheat) is insufficient 

for rising domestic demand, even with good harvests in recent years, 

requiring Sudan to depend upon imports, especially imports of wheat. 

Sugar production began in the 1960s to replace the second most expensive import after petroleum. The largest of the parastatal sugar projects, the 

Kananah Sugar Project, opened in 1981 and was important in eliminating 

sugar imports by 1986. In 1999 plans were announced for a large production facility in the White Nile region, with major funding from the Chinese 

government. Sudan and the People’s Republic of China also agreed to 

build a sixth sugar plant. And, in May 2002, Sudan inaugurated a new 

facility at the state-owned Sudan Sugar Company in New Halfa, which by 

the late 2000s produced 60,000 tonnes of white sugar per year. In 2008 

sugar cane production throughout Sudan totaled 7.5 million tonnes. 

Livestock 

Livestock raising is important throughout Sudan except in the 

extremely dry areas of the North and the tsetse-fly-infected area in the 

far South. It provides a large part or the entire livelihood of nearly half 

the population of Sudan, mainly in the traditional farming sector. In 

recent years, the government has encouraged commercial livestock production of camels, goats, sheep, and cattle for sale abroad. The range of 

offerings in the sector includes live animal exports, meat, hides and 

skins, and dairy products. 

Livestock is of increasing importance in the agricultural economy, 

and it has become the fastest growing non-oil export sector. The Arab 

states of the Gulf, especially Saudi Arabia, are the source of especially 

strong demand for Sudan’s livestock. 

Sudanese cattle are of two principal varieties: Baqqara and Nilotic. 

The Baqqara and two subvarieties constitute the majority of the country’s cattle. This breed is found chiefly in the western savanna regions 

and in fewer, although significant, numbers farther to the east from 

Jonglei State north to Kassala. Nilotic cattle are common in the eastern 

hill and plains areas of southern East Equatoria State, which are free of 

the tsetse fly, and in those parts of West Bahr al-Ghazal, Lakes, and 

Jonglei lying outside the tsetse-fly zone. Because of periodic rinderpest epidemics, the total number of cattle was relatively small until 

about 1930. A vaccination program begun about that time, and mass 

inoculations during the succeeding decades resulted in a great increase 

in numbers. 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

In the vast areas used by pastoral herders, cattle husbandry is conducted in an economic, cultural, and social context that evolved over 

generations. This includes an emphasis on increasing herd size as an 

investment for future family security. Small surpluses (usually bulls) 

are available for subsistence use, exchange, or sale for local consumption or export. Cattle are also used for marriage payments and for rituals. Numbers of cattle help to establish or increase status and power in 

a social system in which cattle are the measure of wealth. 

Transhumant groups own most of the Nilotic variety of cattle, and 

their migrations, related to the wet and dry seasons, usually do not 

exceed 150–60 kilometers. The majority of Baqqara cattle belong to 

the Baqqara Arabs, who were once largely nomadic, but since at least 

the early 1900s usually maintained a settled base in which to cultivate 

crops. The farmers, their relatives, or their agents move the cattle over 

traditional migratory routes northward during the rainy season and 

southward to the area of the Bahr al-Arab as the dry season progresses. 

Migrations in either direction might amount to 400 kilometers. 

The expansion of mechanized rain-fed agriculture in the region 

used by the Baqqara, continued government efforts to enlarge the cultivated area, and pressures on the land from the growing population 

gradually reduced grazing areas. At the same time, traditional cultural 

forces brought about a steady increase in cattle numbers. The result 

was a growing overstock and pasture depletion until the outbreak of 

civil war in 1983, which was followed by the devastating droughts of 

the 1980s and early 1990s that greatly reduced livestock numbers 

throughout Sudan. 

Sheep are herded chiefly by transhumants in Darfur and Kordofan. 

Large numbers are found in the drier areas at greater elevations than 

the usual cattle zone. There were several breeds but the predominant 

and preferred one is the so-called desert sheep, which has both good 

weight and good milk yield. Villagers in Al-Gedaref and Sinnar also 

raise large numbers of sheep, mostly on a nonmigratory basis. Fodder 

comes from crop residues on irrigated and rain-fed farms and from 

vegetation along the rivers and canals. 

Goats, of which there are three principal breeds (desert, Nubian, 

and Nilotic), are found throughout the country south of the northern 

desert areas. They are raised mainly by settled families for milk and 

meat. Goat meat, although less popular than mutton, forms part of the 

diet of most families, particularly the poorer ones. Goat milk is an 

important source of protein, and many families in urban areas keep a 

few goats for their milk. 

Camels are largely concentrated in the desert and subdesert regions 

of northern Darfur, northern Kordofan, and southern Al-Gedaref. They 

184 
 

A cattle camp in Bahr al-Ghazal, 

late 1990s 

Copyright Lillian Craig Harris 

are kept almost entirely by nomadic and seminomadic peoples, for 

whom the animal represents the preferred mode of transport. Camels 

are also important for milk and for meat. Camel ownership and numbers are sources of prestige in nomadic societies. 

Donkeys, horses, and a small number of pigs (kept by such non-Muslim peoples as the Nuba) are also raised in Sudan. Poultry is raised 

mainly by farm families and villagers, although a modern sector consisting of government commercial operations and some semicommercial 

private ventures has developed. A significant poultry industry exists in 

Khartoum, and beekeeping has also been introduced. 

In 1983 Sudan’s more than 50 million animals comprised the second 

largest national herd in Africa, exceeded only by that of Ethiopia. By 

1991 the herd had been reduced by perhaps one-third by the droughts of 

the 1980s–91, the August 1988 floods in the South, described as the 

worst in Sudan's history, and the ravages of civil war in the South. 

Many families and indeed whole ethnic groups, who traditionally survived on their cattle, sheep, goats, or camels, lost all of their herds and 

were forced to migrate to the Three Towns (Omdurman, Khartoum, 

and Khartoum North) in search of sustenance. 

Total livestock production increased rapidly in the second half of the 

1990s. The numbers of sheep quadrupled in the 1990s in response to the 

export market in the Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia. In 2000, however, exports were affected by an outbreak of Rift Valley fever in Saudi 

Arabia. The Saudi government blamed the problem on livestock 

imported from East Africa, and Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states placed 

185 
 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

a ban on imports from the region, which had a severe impact on Sudan’s 

livestock sector. By 2004, livestock had rebounded from the impact of 

drought, floods, and Gulf-state import bans, with sales in that year of 

US$134 million. Another outbreak of Rift Valley fever caused some 

losses once again in 2007–8 and resulted in temporary import restrictions 

against Sudanese livestock. Sales declined to US$80 million in 2007, and 

to US$42 million in 2008. 

Total livestock numbered almost 142 million head in 2010, including nearly 42 million cattle, 52 million sheep, 43.4 million goats, and 

4.6 million camels, as well as thousands of horses, donkeys, and mules. 

The same year, Sudan exported 91,700 head of livestock at an estimated value of US$136 million. Further growth of the sector was predicted as Gulf investors, particularly from Saudi Arabia, had committed 

to investment in new production facilities. 

Fisheries 

Fishing is largely carried out by the traditional sector for subsistence, 

although a number of small operators also use the country's major reservoirs in the more populated central region and the rivers to catch fish 

for sale locally and in nearby urban centers. There are also some modern fishing ventures, mainly on Lake Nubia and in the Red Sea. 

Sudan’s total production of fish, shellfish, and other fishing products 

had significant growth in recent years. Production averaged 58,000 

tonnes by 2001, with estimates by the then-Ministry of Livestock Services of a potential yearly catch of 150,000 tonnes per annum from 

freshwater sources and 10,000 tonnes from the Red Sea. The principal 

source of fish is the Nile River system. In central and northern Sudan, 

several lakes and reservoirs were formed by the damming of the river 

and its branches: the 180-kilometer section of Lake Nubia on the main 

Nile in Sudan and the reservoirs behind the Roseires and Sinnar dams 

on the Blue Nile, the Jabal al-Awliya Dam on the White Nile, and the 

Khashm al Qirbah Dam on the Atbarah. 

Production from Lake Nubia was initially far below its potential. 

Inhabitants around the lake, which had formed gradually in the 1960s, 

had no previous experience in fishing, and the first significant commercial exploitation of the lake’s resources was undertaken by the 

government’s Fisheries Administration. In 1973 a private company 

also started operations. Somewhat later, an ice plant and a cold-storage 

facility were built at Wadi Halfa with assistance from China. China 

also furnished fishing vessels and other fishing equipment. New cooling plants at Khartoum and Atbarah held fish transported from Wadi 

Halfa by railroad. Fish production from the lake reached 2,000 tonnes 

by 1997–99, but declined to 1,000 tonnes by 2000–2001. 

186 
The Economy 

The largest potential source of freshwater fish is in the South, where 

the extensive river network and flooded areas in Al-Sudd are believed 

able to provide 100,000 to 300,000 tonnes of fish on a sustained basis. 

Estimated production in 2003 was 68,000 tonnes. 

The country’s second source of fish, the Red Sea coastal area, was 

relatively unexploited until the late 1970s. In 1978 the British Ministry 

of Overseas Development began a joint project with Sudan’s Fisheries 

Administration to raise output by making boats, motors, and equipment 

available to fishermen. A new ice plant at Sawakin (also seen as Suakin) 

provided local fishermen with ice for their catch. By 2000–2001, about 

5,000 tonnes of fish, shellfish (including pearl oysters), and other marine 

life were taken annually. 

The quantity of fish, crustaceans, and mollusks caught in Sudan in 

recent years amounted to between 57,000 tonnes in 2002 and 2006 

and 72,000 tonnes in 2010. Aquaculture production reached a high of 

1,950 tonnes in 2007. 

Forestry 

The forestry subsector embraces both traditional gatherers of firewood and producers of charcoal—the main sources of fuel for homes 

and some industries—and a modern timber and sawmilling industry, 

the latter government-owned. Forestry activities started with Condominium rule in 1899, when the government commissioned an Indian 

forester to produce a comprehensive report on the state of forests in the 

country. As a result, the Woods and Forests Ordinance was published 

in 1901, and the Department of Woodlands and Forests established. 

The First Forest Act replaced the ordinance in 1908, and legislation 

continued to evolve over the next century. 

The Forests National Corporation (FNC) has coordinated forestry 

development in Sudan since 1989. The FNC emphasizes the development 

of a forestry information system and planning database for effective planning, policy analysis, and program implementation. 

Extensive areas of woodland and forest have been converted to 

agricultural use since the early 1900s. In 2000, however, Sudan still 

had a large quantity of natural forest, much of which remained almost 

totally unexploited. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that forest areas, defined as land under natural or planted stands 

of trees, whether productive or not, occupied 61.6 million hectares, 

25.9 percent of the total land area. Extensive as this was, it represented 

a loss of nearly 10 million hectares since 1990. 

About one-quarter of the forestland is located in the dry and semiarid regions of northern Sudan. The main value of these forests is as 

protection for the land against desertification, but they also serve as a 

187 
Sudan: A Country Study 

source of fuel for pastoral peoples in those regions. The continued 

population pressure on the land has resulted in accelerated destruction 

of forestland, particularly in the Sahel, because charcoal remains the 

predominant fuel. The loss of forestland in the marginal areas of northern Sudan, accelerated by mechanized farming and by drought, has 

resulted in the steady southward encroachment of the Sahara. 

The productive forest extends below the zone of desert encroachment 

to the nation’s southern borders. It includes the savanna woodlands of 

the central and western parts of the country, which are dominated by 

various species of acacia, among them Acacia senegal, the principal 

source of gum arabic. 

The principal area of productive forest and woodland is in the more 

moist southern part of the country. Covering an area of more than 

200,000 square kilometers and consisting mainly of broadleaf deciduous hardwoods, it remains largely undeveloped. Timber produced by 

government mills in the area includes mahogany for furniture and 

other hardwoods for railroad ties, furniture, and construction. 

Plantations established by the Forestry Administration totaled about 

641,000 hectares of both hardwoods and softwoods in 2000; most were 

in southern Sudan. They included stands of teak and, in the higher elevations of the Imatong Mountains, exotic pines. Eucalyptus stands 

were established in the irrigated agricultural areas as windbreaks and to 

supply firewood. Several national parks and game reserves offered 

some protection of forest and woodland areas. 

The second civil war of 1983–2005 disrupted forestry production in 

the South. During that time, looting of teak plantations, deforestation, 

and forest degradation occurred around major towns in Equatoria and 

Bahr al-Ghazal to a radius of 5–10 kilometers as people sought land 

for subsistence agriculture and for building poles and fuelwood. Along 

the northern border region of Upper Nile, there was large-scale tree 

clearance for mechanized rain-fed agriculture. However, the total 

impact of the civil strife on forests and wildlife was not known for certain, as surveys did not cover the areas affected by hostilities. 

Sudan annually produced 2,173,000 cubic meters of industrial 

roundwood, and 16,700,000 cubic meters of fuelwood in 1999–2001, 

as well as 52,000 cubic meters of wood-based panels, and three tonnes 

of paper and paperboard. There was continued high demand for charcoal, the one major forest product not dependent on the South. Because 

wood of any kind could be turned into charcoal, the acacia groves of 

the Sahel were used extensively for this purpose, with a resulting rapid 

advance of deforestation in the area. Deforestation throughout the 

country was occurring at an unsustainable rate approaching 2 percent a 

year in the early 2000s, especially in the northern states and in Darfur. 

188 
The Economy 

There is potential for development of a timber industry, as about 30 

percent of South Sudan is covered with forests and natural woodlands, 

including many exotic species. Some of that area is taken up by reservations under formal management, owned by communities, or a part of 

an official government forest reserve. The Government of South Sudan 

was working on a land policy and forest law. In the meantime, it had 

placed a moratorium on any extraction of major forest products. 

Industry 

Manufacturing 

The development of modern manufacturing received little direct 

encouragement in Sudan during the Condominium period. British economic policies aimed at expanding the production of primary products, 

mainly cotton, for export. Imports and traditional handicraft industries 

met the basic needs for manufactured goods. Indirectly, however, the 

vast Gezira Scheme led to the construction of cotton gins, of which 

more than 20 were in operation by the early 1930s. A secondary development was the establishment of several cottonseed oil-pressing mills. 

During World War II, small import-substitution industries arose, 

including those manufacturing soap, carbonated drinks, and other consumer items. These operations did not survive the competition from 

imports after the war's end. Foreign private interests invested in a few 

larger enterprises that included a meat-processing factory, a cement 

plant, and a brewery, all opened between 1949 and 1952. 

At independence the Sudanese government supported a private-sector industrial development policy. It adopted the Approved Enterprises 

(Concessions) Act of 1956, to encourage private Sudanese and foreign 

investment. The act placed few restrictions on foreign equity holdings. 

By 1961, however, the government had concluded that the private sector 

lacked either interest or funds to establish certain enterprises important 

to the national economy, so it entered the manufacturing field itself. The 

first government project was a tannery, which was followed by a sugar 

factory. In 1962 Khartoum formed the Industrial Development Corporation to manage government plants. Several additional government enterprises were built in the 1960s, including a second sugar factory, two fruit 

and vegetable canneries, a date-processing plant, an onion-dehydrating 

plant, a milk-processing plant, and a cardboard factory. The private sector also made substantial investments then, which resulted in factories 

making textiles and knitwear, shoes, soap, soft drinks, and flour. Other 

private enterprises included printing facilities and additional oil-pressing 

mills. Among the largest private undertakings was the foreign-financed 

and foreign-built oil refinery at Port Sudan, which opened in 1964. Well 

189 
 

Sudan: A Country Study 

over half the investment in the private sector during the decade came 

from foreign sources. 

Direct government participation in the manufacturing sector 

increased dramatically after the 1969 military coup and policies aimed 

at placing the country's economic development in government hands, 

although private ownership continued. During 1970 and 1971, Khartoum nationalized more than 30 private enterprises. In 1972, however, 

to counter the drop in foreign private investment that followed, Colonel Ja’far al-Numayri announced that private capital would again be 

accorded favorable treatment, and the government passed the Development and Promotion of Industrial Investment Act of 1972, containing provisions that were more liberal than earlier legislation. 

The economy remained dependent on private capital from developed nations, so the government incorporated further incentives in a 

1974 revision of the industrial investment act and added provisions 

against arbitrary nationalization. Moreover, in 1972 Khartoum denationalized some enterprises and returned them to their former owners 

under a joint public–private ownership arrangement. 

Throughout the 1970s, the government continued to establish new 

public enterprises, some state-owned, others in conjunction with private 

interests, and some having foreign government participation, especially 

by the Arab oil-producing states. The new plants included three sugar 

factories, two tanneries, a flour mill, and more than 20 textile plants. A 

joint venture with U.S. interests built Sudan’s first fertilizer plant south 

of Khartoum, which was in operation by 1986. Private investment continued, particularly in textiles. 

Total manufacturing output declined in the 1980s. Capacity utilization was as low as 30 percent in many plants, and down to 10 percent 

at some textile factories in 1997, despite a ready local supply of highquality cotton. About 85 percent of all factories in Khartoum’s main 

industrial area were operating below full capacity in 1998. A shortage 

of fuel in oil-fired power stations in Khartoum caused frequent power 

outages, which forced plant owners to install generators, but a shortage of foreign exchange for diesel fuel for the generators kept capacity 

utilization low. Obsolete equipment, lack of trained personnel, and 

uncompetitive costs also contributed to the slow growth of the sector. 

Growth of the manufacturing sector increased in 1998 with the construction of an oil pipeline, a new refinery, and work on the terminal at 

Port Sudan. The development of the export oil industry provided foreign exchange for imported machinery. Reforms in the financial sector 

and privatization also contributed to growth. Telecommunications and 

food processing, especially sugar refining, gained from these changes, 

as well as from increased foreign investment. The manufacturing sector 

grew by 6 percent in real terms in 1999, by 11.5 percent in 2000, and by 

190 
The Economy 

5.7 percent in 2008, although it began from a low base. The government’s 1997 economic reform program facilitated this growth. 

Food processing was the most successful category of investment, 

especially sugar refining. Production of refined sugar exceeded domestic 

demand, allowing Sudan to become the Arab world’s only net sugar 

exporter. There are five government-owned sugar producers, but the 

leading producer is the Kananah Sugar Company, the major part of 

which is privately owned. Its success attracted investment in the White 

Nile Sugar Company, which began production in 2011 and was expected 

to reach full capacity of 450,000 tonnes per year by 2012. A new refinery 

designed to produce 100,000 tonnes per year was also being planned in 

Sinnar State. The production of sugar reached 738,500 tonnes per year in 

2009 but fell to 642,000 tonnes in 2010. 

Government estimates suggest that the textile industry, which uses 

domestic cotton, could produce 110 percent of Sudanese requirements 

if it operated at full capacity. There are 75 small, privately owned 

companies and nine large state-owned factories producing spun yarn 

and fabric. The largest factory is the government-owned Friendship 

Textile Mill built by the Chinese in the 1960s, with a capacity of 2,100 

tonnes of yarn per day and 16 million meters of fabric per year. The 

most important private-sector factory is the Sudan Textile Industries, 

with a capacity of 64 million meters per year. Although Sudan is an 

important producer of high-quality cotton, textile production declined 

continuously from 274 million meters in the 1970s to just 13.72 million meters in 2003, a capacity-utilization rate of just 5 percent. 

Work began on the Red Sea Free-Trade Zone between Port Sudan 

and the port of Sawakin in July 1999. The project was designed to 

cover 600 square kilometers. The initial zone of 26 square kilometers 

included a warehouse and industrial and commercial areas. The original investors were from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. In January 

2000, a cooperation agreement was signed between the Red Sea FreeTrade Zone and the Free-Trade Zone of Jebel Ali, UAE, in which the 

UAE pledged to help Sudan establish free-trade zones in all of its border areas, thus linking trade between East Asia and Africa via Sudan. 

The UAE also promised to increase marketing and shipping activities 

and to exchange personnel and technical information. Saudi Arabia’s 

Jiddah Free-Trade Zone signed a similar agreement. The Red Sea FreeTrade Zone was opened in February 2000. Two years later, however, 

there were reports that only seven of the factories in the zone were still 

functioning; since then, the zone apparently has collapsed. 

In October 2000, the US$450 million GIAD industrial city opened 

40 kilometers south of Khartoum. As of 2010, it had 13 separate companies, including factories for manufacturing cables, electrical wires, 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

steel, and pipeline products. It also had large arms-manufacturing and 

automotive-manufacturing industries. Other factories assembled small 

autos and trucks, and some heavy military equipment such as armored 

personnel carriers and the proposed “Bashir” battle tank. The town also 

had housing, health, and education facilities. 

There are other small-scale manufacturing sectors in Sudan. They 

include pharmaceuticals, electrical goods, cement, textiles, and paints. 

Energy 

The chief sources of energy in 2010 were wood and charcoal, 

hydroelectric power, and oil. Wood and charcoal were principally used 

for household cooking and heating. Substantial quantities of wood 

fuels were also used by commercial operations—chiefly baking and 

brick making and, to a lesser extent, tobacco curing. Other vegetable 

matter including sugarcane bagasse also came into use, meeting a significant part of the energy needs of the sugar mills. Cotton stalks were 

also used for household fuel. Consumption of wood and charcoal continued to increase as the population grew, and there was concern over 

the gradual depletion of forest and woodland resources serving the 

large towns. Overuse of the sparser vegetation in the semidesert grazing areas reportedly resulted in some fuel deficiencies in those regions, 

as well as in desertification. 

A search for oil in the early 1960s along the Red Sea coast also discovered natural gas. In the mid-1970s, additional oil explorations 

revealed more gas finds, but development was not considered at the time 

to be commercially feasible. In October 1988, Sudan announced that 

natural gas production would start in one year. Although it was estimated in 2002 that there were 3 billion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, 

production had not yet begun by 2010. 

Electricity generation began in 1908 when a private company constructed the first power station at Burri al-Daralsa near Khartoum. The 

modern system dates from 1925 with the establishment of the Sudan 

Light and Power Company, an enterprise financed and managed by 

British entrepreneurs but owned by the Condominium government. 

This company, acquired in full by the colonial government in 1952, 

was the precursor—through several name changes and reorganizations—of the National Electricity Corporation (NEC). 

The Sinnar and Roseires dams were originally constructed to provide 

irrigation, Sinnar in 1925 and Roseires in 1966 (see fig. 11). Electricpower generating facilities were added only when increasing consumer 

demands made them potentially viable. The first hydropower station 

began operating at the Sinnar Dam in 1962, and a transmission line carried power to the Khartoum area. The main hydropower station began 

192 
 

The Economy 

producing electricity in 1973 at the Roseires Dam on the Blue Nile, 

approximately 315 miles southeast of Khartoum. A plan for electricity 

production over the next 25 years evaluated the potential for hydro-generation on the Nile River and the locations for electricity generation. 

The National Electricity Corporation and the Ministry of Energy 

and Dams are responsible for generation and supply of electricity in 

Sudan’s two interconnected grids, the Blue Nile Grid and the small 

Western Grid, although they cover only a small portion of the country 

around Khartoum and south to Blue Nile State, areas that include only 

about 30 percent of the population. Even in those areas, the supply is 

inadequate, with output around 500 megawatts for much of the 2000– 

2010 period, far below the demand for electric power, and unreliable; 

power outages were common, even in the capital. As a result, power 

production is dependent on small diesel-fired power stations and consumers’ oil-driven generators. 

Sudan relies heavily on hydroelectricity. In 2006, the country had 

total installed capacity of 4,520 gigawatt-hours (about 115 kilowatthours per head), 41 percent of which was provided by hydropower stations. As a result, power tended to fluctuate according to the flow of 

the Nile. Until recently, the Roseires Dam was the largest of the hydroelectric facilities, with smaller ones existing elsewhere on the Blue 

Nile and the Atbarah River. 

The sector deteriorated in the 1990s because of a lack of funding. In 

2000, however, the NEC launched the Rehabilitation and Performance 

Improvement Program supported by a US$10 million loan from the 

OPEC Fund for International Development to upgrade the existing infrastructure and improve the reliability of the electricity supply. In 2001 the 

NEC announced that Sudan and Ethiopia had agreed to link their power 

grids, and a related report announced that Ethiopia had also agreed to 

export power to Sudan. 

In January 2010, a contract was awarded to Norplan, a Norwegian 

organization, to design three new power stations on tributaries of the 

Nile in Ethiopia. This project would come under the auspices of the 

Nile Basin Initiative, an organization promoting water cooperation 

among the Nile Basin countries. Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan would 

contribute to the cost of the power stations, and the electricity would 

be shared among the three countries. The stations were to be built at 

Kara Dubi (1,600 megawatts), Mendia (2,000 megawatts) and Bako 

Ambo (2,100 megawatts). The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation 

was expected to be the main contractor, but Asian companies such as 

the Chinese firms that constructed the Merowe Dam were also likely 

to be involved. Construction work on a high-voltage electricity connection between Sudan and Ethiopia had already begun. 

193 
Sudan: A Country Study 

194



Kajbar

Merowe

Sinnar

Roseires

Jabal

al-Awliya

Khashm

al-Qirbah

Port Sudan

Dongola

Malakal

Melut

Juba

Bentiu

Khartoum

Red

 Sea Nile Nile

White

Atbarah

Sobat

Blue Nile

Bahr al-Jabal

ETHIOPIA

KENYA UGANDA

DEMOCRATIC

REPUBLIC

OF THE CONGO

CHAD

LIBYA

EGYPT

ERITREA

CENTRAL

AFRICAN

REPUBLIC

SAUDI

ARABIA

Boundary representation

not necessarily authoritative

0

0

100 200 Kilometers

100 200 Miles



International

 boundary

Administrative

 boundary

National capital

Populated place

Oil pipeline

Hydropower dam



Several newly completed projects have increased installed capacity. 

The 257-megawatt diesel power station constructed by a Malaysianled consortium outside Khartoum became operational in 2004. The 

Chinese firm Harbin Power Engineering Company built another power 

station near Al-Jayli refinery north of Khartoum (see Foreign Investment, this ch.).

The largest projects are the Kajbar and Merowe hydroelectric facilities. The Kajbar Dam, on the second cataract of the Nile, has a planned 

capacity of 300 megawatts. Sudan and China signed an agreement to 

build the dam in 1997, with China financing 75 percent of the project 

Figure 11. Oil Pipelines and Hydroelectric Sites, 2011
 

The Economy 

(approximately US$200 million), but construction had not yet started 

by January 2011. Environmental groups have been concerned about 

potential damage to the Nile ecosystem and the culture of the displaced 

Nubian residents. 

The 1,250-megawatt Merowe Dam, the most ambitious project, is 

located about 350 kilometers north of Khartoum on the fourth cataract of 

the Nile. The Dams Implementation Unit (DIU), a public body that 

reports to the presidency, was established in 2005, primarily to oversee 

construction of the dam. The China International Water and Electric Company was the main contractor for construction of the dam, and Harbin 

Power agreed to build seven substations and approximately 1,610 kilometers of transmission lines. Two consortia of Chinese, Greek, and Italian 

firms bid for the contract to build three packages of the civil works portion 

of the dam, which was estimated to cost US$1.9 billion. Several Arab 

funds (including the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, 

the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, and the Saudi Fund for Development) agreed to provide US$600 million in concessional funding. The dam should more than 

double previous production after extensive investment in the two interlocking national grids and transmission systems. The project is also 

expected to create a large, new area of cultivable land, although it has 

already required evacuation of tens of thousands of residents from the reservoir area. The project also included other major construction work, 

including an international airport at Merowe, a bridge over the Nile at 

Kuraymah, and upgrading the local railroad line. In March 2009, President al-Bashir attended a ceremony to inaugurate the tenth and final electricity unit at the power station, which brought the Merowe Dam up to its 

full generation capacity. Its completion helped account for Sudan’s total 

power generation of 7,653.3 gigawatts per hour in 2010, of which 81.0 

percent (6,199.3 gigawatts) came from hydropower. 

Other projects in the program to increase output included a planned 

doubling of capacity at the oil-fired Khartoum North power plant, the 

construction of a 500-megawatt oil-fired power station in Kosti in White 

Nile state, construction of a dam on the Setit tributary of the Atbarah 

River in eastern Sudan, and further construction to heighten the Roseires 

Dam on the Blue Nile in order to double its electricity-generating capacity to 560 megawatts. The DIU also had plans for water-harvesting projects in North Kordofan (a state that has no year-round flowing rivers), 

and proposals to build dams and water reservoirs in Sodiri, Al-Nuhud, 

and Hamrat al-Sheikh. There was no significant power-generating capacity in the South or West in 2010, although there were plans for hydroelectric projects and the electrification of 20 Southern towns with local 

diesel-powered grids, as well as for the extension of the national grid in 

the North to Darfur and Kordofan. 

195 
 

Sudan: A Country Study 

In January 2010, Taqa Arabia of Egypt entered a joint venture with 

ASEC Cement of Egypt and the Sudanese Pension Fund to build a 42­

megawatt power station to provide electricity for the Takamol cement 

plant being built by ASEC at Atbarah, 200 kilometers north of Khartoum. The cement plant had a capacity of 1.6 million tonnes a year to 

help meet demand from the construction-related boom in and around 

Khartoum. 

Mining 

The mining industry contributed little to GDP until the discovery of 

commercially exploitable quantities of petroleum in the late 1970s 

offered hope that the sector would play an increased role in the economy 

in the future. Nonhydrocarbon minerals of actual or potential commercial value include gold, chrome, copper, iron ore, manganese, asbestos, 

gypsum, mica, limestone, marble, uranium, silver, lead, talc, tungsten, 

zinc, and diamonds. 

Gold mining in the Red Sea Hills began in pharaonic times. Between 

1900 and 1954, several British enterprises worked gold mines in the area 

and extracted a considerable quantity of the metal—one mine alone 

reportedly produced three tonnes of gold between 1924 and 1936. Gold 

was also mined along the borders between Sudan and Uganda and Zaire, 

but not in amounts that were commercially profitable. During the 1970s, 

the government's Geological Survey Administration located more than 

50 potential gold deposits in different parts of the country. In recent 

years, most gold mining has resulted from joint ventures with Chinese or 

French companies. According to the government, gold mining amounted 

to about three tonnes per year as of the early 2000s, but output was 

declining steadily as reserves became depleted. Reserves were then estimated at 32 tonnes, concentrated around the Red Sea Hills. 

Chrome ore is mined in the Ingessana Hills southwest of AlDamazin. By 1983, when the civil war brought a halt to mining there, 

chrome production had declined from a high of 20,000 tonnes per year 

to half that amount. By 1994 it had declined to 3,000 tonnes per year, 

but by 2004 it had climbed to an estimated 24,000 tonnes. Production in 

2010 amounted to 56,800 tonnes. Reserves are estimated to be 1 million 

tonnes. Asbestos of good commercial grade is also found in the Ingessana Hills area. 

The Sudan Mining Corporation (SMC) produced about 20,000 

tonnes of gypsum annually in the early 2000s from a quarry in the Red 

Sea Hills, with an estimated 500 million tonnes of reserves, and there 

has also been some mining of limestone, marble, mica, manganese, 

and iron ore. Uranium ores were discovered in the area of the Nuba 

Mountains and at Hufrat al-Nahhas in South Kordofan, and they might 

196 
 

The Merowe Dam under construction on the fourth cataract, 

north of Khartoum, April 2009 

Courtesy Donielle DeToy and Hussein Askary 

also exist near the western borders with Chad and the Central African 

Republic. Other untapped deposits of minerals include lead, talc, tungsten, and diamonds. 

Another potential source of mineral wealth is the Red Sea bed, 

where zinc, silver, copper, iron, and other minerals were discovered. 

Explorations below the 2,000-meter mark indicate that large quantities 

of the minerals are present. 

Petroleum 

Prior to the discovery of oil, roughly 80 percent of the nation's 

energy requirement for industry, modern agriculture, transportation, 

government services, and households (in addition to fuelwood, charcoal, and the like) came from imported petroleum and petroleum products. Approximately 10 percent of those imports were used to generate 

electricity. Foreign-exchange costs for oil imports rose dramatically 

after 1973. The discovery of domestic petroleum deposits at the end of 

the 1970s and during the early 1980s thus promised to—and eventually did—lessen the dependence on expensive external sources. 

The search for oil began in 1959 in the Red Sea littoral and continued 

intermittently into the 1970s. In 1974 the U.S. firm Chevron began 

exploration in southern and southwestern Sudan. Drilling began in 1977, 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

and the first commercial flow started in July 1979 at Abu Jabrah in 

South Darfur. In 1980 major finds occurred at the company’s Unity 

Field near Bentiu; by early 1981, drilling had brought in 49 wells having 

a combined flow of more than 12,000 barrels per day (b/d). Other oil 

companies—including some from the United States, Canada, and 

France—also obtained concessions, and by 1982 almost one-third of 

Sudan had been assigned for exploration. Oil exploration and production 

were hampered, however, by the almost total lack of infrastructure and 

by the civil war in the South. 

The domestic processing of crude petroleum began in late 1964, 

when the Port Sudan oil refinery went into operation. The refinery, 

which was financed, built, and managed by the British Petroleum and 

Royal Dutch Shell companies—from July 1976 as a joint-equal shareholding project with the government—had a capacity of about 21,440 

barrels per day. Its capacity was well in excess of Sudan's needs at the 

time it was built, and refined products were exported. As domestic 

demand increased in the 1980s, and with new petroleum discoveries, 

several plans were developed for a new oil refinery and an export pipeline. By 1986, however, those plans had been cancelled. Sudan had to 

import both gas oil (used in diesel motors and for heating) and kerosene for domestic use, although a substantial quantity of other products 

refined by the plant, in excess of Sudan’s own needs, continued to be 

exported. 

Further seismic studies were undertaken in the swamps of Al-Sudd, 

but all of Chevron's exploration and development activities came to an 

abrupt end in February 1984, when rebels attacked the main Chevron 

base across the Bahr al-Ghazal from Bentiu, killing four Chevron 

employees. The company immediately terminated its development 

program and, despite repeated demands by successive Sudanese governments, refused to return to work its concession until the safety of its 

personnel could be guaranteed by a settlement of the Sudanese civil 

war. Total, the French oil company, shut down its operations several 

months later. 

The Canadian firm Arakis bought the Chevron concession in the 

Muglad basin, north of Bentiu, and in March 1997 formed a consortium, the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), with 

the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the Malaysian state 

oil company Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS), and the publicly owned Sudan National Petroleum Corporation (Sudapet). In 1998 

another Canadian firm, Talisman Energy, purchased the share of Arakis 

and then, under pressure from international nongovernmental organizations (which were opposed to the Islamist regime in Khartoum), sold it 

to a state-owned Indian oil company in 2003. Other companies that also 

198 
 

Raising the height of the Roseires Dam on the Blue Nile, April 2009 

Courtesy Donielle DeToy and Hussein Askary 

invested in concessions included the Qatar-based Gulf Petroleum and 

the French oil company Total. The Swedish company Lundin Oil and 

the Austrian firm OMV were also involved, but both withdrew from the 

country because of deteriorating security conditions. 

Prior to 2005, the only concession producing petroleum was GNPOC. 

However, many other fields were under development, such as the concession being developed by the consortium led by CNPC, PETRONAS, 

Sudapet, Sinopec, and Cairo-based Tri-Ocean Energy. In 2003 and 2004, 

the consortium began construction of a new export pipeline and export 

terminal, as well as in-field production and transportation facilities. South 

Sudan’s national oil company, Nile Petroleum Corporation (Nilepet), was 

also involved in allocating licenses. 

In 2005 Sudan established the National Petroleum Commission to 

improve the development of the country’s oil resources. The commission allocates new oil contracts and ensures equal sharing of oil revenues 

between the national government in Khartoum and the Government of 

South Sudan (GOSS). It also resolved duplicate oil contract issues in 

which the GOSS allocated blocks that overlapped the contracts previously granted by the national government in Khartoum. 

Intensive exploration by GNPOC resulted in known reserves of 800 

million barrels in 2004. At that time, however, studies suggested that 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

production might eventually increase to more than 4 billion barrels, with 

recovery rates of 30–35 percent, and generate total oil income of about 

US$30 billion. Exploration was expected to continue not only in the 

South, but also in the North near Dongola, the East around Port Sudan, 

the West, and also offshore. As of 2009, proven oil reserves increased to 

5 billion barrels, and there were proven natural gas reserves of 3 trillion 

cubic feet, although there was no production of natural gas by early 

2011. The majority of the reserves were in South Sudan. 

Additional refining capacity became essential as oil production 

increased. A US$600 million refinery at Al-Jayli, north of Khartoum, 

came online in mid-2000 with a capacity of around 60,000 b/d, which 

allowed Sudan to become self-sufficient in refined products. The export 

pipeline, which passed close to it, provided the resources for the refinery, which also produces a small surplus of refined goods, especially 

benzine, for export. 

In addition to the refineries at Al-Jayli and Port Sudan, there are 

also some smaller refineries. They include Al-Obeid, with a capacity 

of 15,000 b/d, Abu Jabrah, with a capacity of about 2,000 b/d, and a 

topping plant built by Concorp with a capacity of 5,000 b/d. 

Refining capacity increased in July 2006 as CNPC completed the 

expansion of the Al-Jayli refinery north of Khartoum to 100,000 b/d. An 

Indian energy company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), had 

a contract to increase the capacity of the 40-year-old Port Sudan refinery 

from 21,000 b/d to 70,000 b/d, while PETRONAS was awarded a $1 

billion joint venture with the government to build a second 100,000 b/d 

refinery in Port Sudan to process the new Dar Blend crude from its 

Melut concession in southeastern Sudan. This project had been postponed several times by 2010, however, and its status is unknown. 

Among other developments, Malaysia’s Peremba has begun construction of a marine export terminal, with a capacity of 2 million b/d, known 

as the Melut Basin Oil Development Project. 

Domestic production of petroleum was about 480,000 b/d in 2008, 

and consumption was approximately 86,000 b/d, with the remaining 

394,000 b/d exported to Asian markets, the majority to China, Japan, 

and Indonesia. Most of the oil was exported as crude, although some 

refined products were also exported. Sudanese Nile Blend oil is a 

medium, sweet crude, with low sulphur and metal content. It is sold at 

a discount to the Indonesian blend, Minas, the medium-sweet benchmark in Asia. Dar Blend is also exported to Asian markets, but its 

heavy, sour quality causes it to trade at a discount, often severe, to 

Minas crude. There has been a continuing trend of declining output of 

Nile Blend oil and increasing output of the less valuable Dar Blend, 

although total output remains relatively steady. The shift from Nile to 

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The Economy 

Dar, however, means that a larger share of Sudan’s oil is being produced in the South, about 78 percent. 

Sudan’s minister for energy and mining indicated in May 2010 that 

there might be modest output increases over the next several years. He 

also indicated, however, that the recoverable reserves in the existing 

fields, using current technology, were only about 1.6 billion barrels, 

less than a decade of production at current output rates, and that production at those fields would only be a quarter of their current level by 

2019. He was confident, however, that new recovery technology could 

increase the amount recoverable from the fields and that new fields 

would be discovered. He also was confident that production of natural 

gas would occur by that time. 

Satellite photographs were available in 2011 that provided evidence 

of oil exploration taking place in North Darfur, although the consortium of Arab companies holding the concession had not confirmed the 

exploration or indicated whether oil was discovered there. This region 

has geological connections to the oil-producing regions in southeastern 

Libya. 

In May 2006, Sudan was invited to become a voting member of 

OPEC. The country had had observer status since 1999 and was now 

qualified to join OPEC according to conditions set by the organization, although as of 2011 it had not yet become a member. 

Transportation and Telecommunications 

Sudan’s transport infrastructure in the early 2000s included an 

extensive railroad system that served the more-important populated 

areas except in the far South, a rudimentary road network (very little of 

which consists of paved, all-weather roads), a natural inland waterway 

(the Nile River and its tributaries), a national airline that furnishes international as well as domestic services, and several private charter airlines. Complementing this infrastructure were Port Sudan and Sawakin, 

two major deep-water ports on the Red Sea, and a small national merchant marine. Additionally, a pipeline transporting petroleum products 

extended from Port Sudan to Khartoum and another pipeline carried 

petroleum from the oil fields in the south-central area to the oil-export 

terminal near Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Overall, however, the transportation infrastructure was inadequate and constituted a major obstacle 

to economic development. 

Railroads 

The first segment of present-day Sudan Railways, from Wadi Halfa 

to Abu Hamad, was built by the British for use in General Herbert 

201 
 

Sudan: A Country Study 

Kitchener’s drive against the Mahdiyyah in the late 1890s. The line 

reached Atbarah during the campaign and, after the defeat of the Mahdiyyah in 1898, extended to Khartoum. The line was built to 1.07­

meter-gauge track, the result apparently of Kitchener’s pragmatic use 

of the rolling stock and rails of that gauge from an older line. This 

gauge was used in all later Sudanese mainline construction. 

The rail line opened a trade route from central Sudan through Egypt 

to the Mediterranean and beyond. It became uneconomical, however, 

because of the distance and the need for transshipment via the Nile. In 

1904 construction began on a new line from Atbarah to the Red Sea. In 

1906 the new line reached recently built Port Sudan to provide a direct 

connection between Khartoum and ocean-going transport. During the 

same decade, a new line connected Khartoum southward to Sinnar, the 

heart of the cotton-growing region. A westward continuation reached 

Al-Obeid in 1911, when it was the second largest city and center of 

gum arabic production. In the north, a branch line that tied the navigable stretch of the Nile between the fourth and third cataracts into the 

transport system was built from near Abu Hamad to Kuraymah. 

In the mid- and late 1920s, a spur of the railroad linked Taqatu 

Hayya, a point on the main line 200 kilometers southwest of Port 

Sudan, southward to the cotton-producing area near Kassala, then on to 

the grain region of Al-Gedaref, and finally to a junction with the main 

line at Sinnar. An extension connected Sinnar to Al-Damazin on the 

Blue Nile. Additional construction in the 1950s included an extension 

of the western line to Nyala (1959) in Darfur and a southwesterly 

branch to Wau (1961). 

The railroads essentially had a monopoly on transportation for the 

export and import trade through the 1960s, and operations were profitable. Beginning in the 1970s, however, losses occurred because of 

declining operational efficiency. A gradual erosion of freight traffic followed. The 1980s also saw a steady loss of tonnage as a result of a combination of inefficient management, union intransigence, the failure of 

agricultural projects to meet production goals, the dearth of spare parts, 

and the continuing civil war. 

Despite the rapidly growing use of roads, the railroads remained of 

paramount importance because of their ability to move a large volume 

of agricultural exports at lower cost and to transport inland the increasing imports of heavy capital equipment and construction materials for 

development, such as requirements for oil exploration and drilling operations. Efforts to improve the rail system in the late 1970s and the 1980s 

included laying heavier rails, repairing and purchasing new equipment, 

and improving training and repair facilities. Foreign governments and 

international organizations provided substantial assistance to fund these 

202 
 

 

The Economy 

projects. Implementation of much of this work was hampered by political instability, debt, the dearth of hard currency, the shortage of spare 

parts, and import controls. 

By the late 1990s, the system was in poor condition and required 

substantial refurbishment and investment in new signaling systems, and 

addition of double tracks to increase both capacity and speed. The rolling stock had deteriorated as a result of poor maintenance, low investment, and age; as much as half the rolling stock was out of service. In 

2006 the network carried only 1.3 million tonnes of freight and 61,000 

passengers, a decrease from the previous year. Figures for 2010 were 1 

million tonnes and 47,000 passengers. 

The country has two railroads. The main system, Sudan Railways, 

which is operated by the government-owned Sudan Railways Corporation (SRC), provides services to most of the country’s production and 

consumption centers. In 2010 it consisted of 4,578 kilometers of narrowgauge, single track running from Wadi Halfa, via Khartoum, Sinnar, and 

Kosti, to Al-Obeid. Tracks also ran from Khartoum to Port Sudan, from 

Al-Obeid to Nyala and to Wau, and from Sinnar to Port Sudan via AlGedaref and Kassala. However, there was no service on the tracks to 

Nyala and Wau in early 2011 because of poor relations between North 

and South (the Nyala line had only handled freight, not passengers). 

Short extensions ran from Sinnar to Al-Damazin and from Abu Hamad 

to Kuraymah. The other railroad, the 1,400-kilometer Gezira Light Railway, was owned by the Sudan Gezira Board and served the Gezira 

Scheme and its Manaqil Extension (see fig. 12). 

The Gezira Light Railway, one of the largest light railroads in 

Africa, evolved from tracks laid in the 1920s during construction of 

the canals for the Gezira Scheme. At the time, the railroad had about 

135 kilometers of 1.61-meter-gauge track. The railroad grew as the 

project area increased, and by the mid-1960s it consisted of a complex 

system totaling more than 716 kilometers. Its primary purpose was to 

serve the farm area by carrying cotton to gins and fertilizers, fuel, 

food, and other supplies to the villages in the area. Operations usually 

ceased during the rainy season. 

The rehabilitation of the country’s main lines and rolling stock, 

announced in September 1997, was essential to transport petroleum. In 

May 1999, the SRC announced plans to privatize both passenger and 

cargo services, with the SRC retaining responsibility for management 

of the rails, the stations, and signaling equipment. The government 

claimed that it had received a number of inquiries from foreign private 

companies interested in managing and developing the network. 

In April 2001, the IDB granted Sudan a loan of US$10.7 million to purchase 180 railroad cargo wagons. China announced that it was prepared to 

203 
Sudan: A Country Study 

204



 



















Port

Sudan

Sawakin

Tawkar

Hala’ib

Wadi Halfa

Dongola

Kuraymah

Atbarah

Kassala

Al-Obeid

Al-Gedaref

Kosti

Wad

Madani

Malakal

Bor Rumbek

Yambio

Wau

Juba

Yei Nimule

Bentiu

Al-Damazin

Sinnar Al-Fashir

Al-Junaynah

Nyala

Khartoum

Red

 Sea

Nile Nile

White

Atbarah

Sobat

Blue Nile

Bahr al-Jabal

ETHIOPIA

KENYA UGANDA

DEMOCRATIC

REPUBLIC

OF THE CONGO

CHAD

LIBYA

EGYPT

ERITREA

CENTRAL

AFRICAN

REPUBLIC

SAUDI

ARABIA

Boundary representation

not necessarily authoritative

0

0

100 200 Kilometers

100 200 Miles







International

 boundary

Administrative

 boundary

Railroad

Main road

Track

River

National capital

Populated place

Major airport

Port



finance the purchase of new Chinese locomotives and support repairs to 

the network. In late 2000, the governments of Sudan and Ethiopia proposed to build a US$1.5 billion, 2,200-kilometer railroad to link Port 

Sudan with Addis Ababa. There was also talk of connecting with existing 

lines south of Ethiopia to create a single route across much of Africa. No 

funding was found for this project, although there was renewed interest in 

it after the signing of the CPA in January 2005.

The government began an ambitious railroad rehabilitation program 

in 2007 with the signing of a $1.2 billion contract with China to upgrade 

the Khartoum to Port Sudan line to a double track and to provide new 

Figure 12. Transportation System, 2011
 

 

 

 

The Economy 

locomotives and rolling stock. The government was also planning to 

improve the 830-kilometer northern sector of the network to Wadi 

Halfa. Limited service was available on the western and southern sectors of the network to Nyala and Wau as of 2010, but service on both 

lines was suspended by 2011. 

Roads 

Sudan remains heavily dependent on railroads, but the road network 

has played an increasingly important role since 1980. Estimates of the 

road network in 2009 ranged upwards from 55,000 kilometers, but it is 

an inadequate network for the size of the country. Asphalted allweather roads, excluding paved streets in cities and towns, amounted to 

roughly 3,600 kilometers, of which the Khartoum–Port Sudan road, the 

most important highway, accounted for almost 1,200 kilometers. There 

were about 3,740 kilometers of gravel roads and an estimated 45,000 

kilometers of mainly seasonal earth roads and sand tracks, about half of 

which were classified as feeder roads. 

The roads were generally in poor condition in 2009–10 but usable 

all year round, although travel might be interrupted at times during the 

rainy season. Most of the gravel roads in South Sudan became unusable after being heavily mined by the insurgent forces of the Sudan 

People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). 

The government favored the railroads until the early 1970s, believing that they better met the country's requirements for transportation 

and that the primary purpose of roads was to act as feeders to the rail 

system. The railroads were also a profitable government operation. 

Disillusion with railroad performance led to a new emphasis on roads 

in a readjustment of the Five-Year Plan in 1973—the so-called Interim 

Action Program—and a decision to encourage competition between 

rail and road transport as the best way to improve services. Paving of 

the dry-weather road between Khartoum and Port Sudan via AlGedaref and Kassala was the most significant immediate step. 

Other important road-paving projects of the early 1980s included a 

road from Wad Madani to Sinnar and an extension from Sinnar to 

Kosti on the White Nile completed in 1984. Since then the paved road 

was extended to Umm Rawabah and Al-Obeid. A number of main 

gravel roads radiating from Juba were also improved. These included 

roads to the towns southwest of Juba and a road to the Ugandan border. In addition, the government built a gravel all-weather road east of 

Juba that reached the Kenyan border and connected with the Kenyan 

road system. All of these improvements radiating from Juba, however, 

were vitiated by the civil war, in which the roads were extensively 

205 
 

 

 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

mined by the SPLA and the bridges destroyed. In addition, because 

roads were not maintained, they deteriorated seriously. 

New asphalt roads to the north and south of Khartoum had been 

completed or were under construction in the mid-2000s, as well as 

new roads in the oil regions and a road linking Sudan to Chad. Grants 

and concessionary loans mainly from the Islamic Development Bank, 

the Arab Monetary Fund, and other Arab development organizations 

financed these projects. The highway from Al-Gedaref to Gondar in 

Ethiopia was refurbished and reopened in 2002 to allow expansion of 

trade following improvement in diplomatic ties. A newly paved highway from Port Sudan to Atbarah, funded by the Kuwait Fund for Arab 

Economic Development at a cost of US$110 million, reopened in 

2009. It reduced travel time by several hours between Port Sudan and 

Khartoum. The “Northern Lifeline” Khartoum–Atbarah–Abu Hamid– 

Merowe road was also newly paved, open, and continued northward in 

2011, and a paved road went from Khartoum to Kosti and on southward. Road transport and bus services seemed likely to increase as 

improved roads were extended south of Khartoum in the country's 

main agricultural areas. 

In anticipation of the signing of the peace treaty in 2005, the World 

Food Programme appealed for US$64 million to clear the land mines 

and repair the roads in the South to facilitate the delivery of food to 

millions of people in the region and to allow another million people to 

safely return to their homes. Much work was being done to increase 

the network of all-weather roads there because many existing roads 

became impassable during the rainy season. 

Other new roads under construction included access roads in the oil 

regions, and a road from Port Sudan to Egypt. New bridges were built 

over the Nile, all in Khartoum except for one that opened in 2007 in 

Merowe. One new road linking the North and South was planned, as 

part of the commitment of the CPA, although it had not been built by 

2011. Construction was underway in 2009 to extend the small network 

of all-weather roads in the South; however, this work was still hampered 

by the presence of land mines. 

Inland Waterways 

The Nile River, traversing Sudan from south to north, provides an 

important inland transportation route. Its overall usefulness, however, 

has been limited by natural features, including a number of cataracts in 

the main Nile between Khartoum and the Egyptian border. The White 

Nile to the south of Khartoum has shallow stretches that restrict the 

carrying capacities of barges, especially during the annual period of 

low water, and the river has sharp bends. Most of these impediments 

206 
The Economy 

were eliminated by Chevron, which as part of its oil exploration and 

development program dredged the White Nile shoals and established 

navigational beacons from Kosti to Bentiu. Manmade features such as 

the growing number of dams also restricts use of the river, and in the 

South the White Nile meanders through Al-Sudd, a vast swamp with 

continually shifting channels. 

Sudan has 4,068 kilometers of navigable rivers overall, but only 

1,723 kilometers are open throughout the year, making river transport 

minimal. The most important route used to be the 1,436-kilometer 

stretch of the White Nile from Kosti to Juba (known as the Southern 

Reach), which provided the only generally usable transport connection 

between the central and southern parts of the country. Such river traffic ended in 1984 when the SPLA regularly sank the scheduled steamers, but it began to recover following the signing of the CPA in 2005. 

Transport services also ran at one time on tributaries of the White 

Nile (the Bahr al-Ghazal and the Jur River) to the west of Malakal. 

These services went as far as Wau but were seasonal, dependent on 

water levels. They were discontinued during the 1970s because vegetation blocked the waterways, particularly the fast-growing water hyacinth. In early 2003, a tributary of the White Nile east of Malakal, 

known as the Sobat River Corridor, reopened, improving the distribution of food aid in the region. On the main Nile, a 287-kilometer stretch 

from Kuraymah to Dongola, situated between the fourth and third cataracts and known as the Dongola Reach, also has regular service, except 

during the low-water period in February and March. Since 1981 the 

government has tried to remedy past neglect and requested foreign assistance to dredge the rivers, improve the quays, and provide navigation 

aids. 

The River Transport Corporation (RTC) operated as a parastatal from 

1973 until 2007 when two private companies, the Nile River Transport 

Corporation and the Sudan River Transport Corporation, took it over. 

Before that, the latter companies were run by the Sudan Railways Corporation essentially as feeders to the rail line. Another parastatal, the 

joint Sudanese-Egyptian River Navigation Corporation, operated services between Wadi Halfa and Aswan, but service often was disrupted 

by political tension between Egypt and Sudan. Since the privatization of 

the RTC, other private operators started providing services. There were 

six private companies operating river vessels in 2009. 

The government began in 2003 to expand the Sea Ports Corporation 

in order for it to manage river services and river-navigation studies to 

qualify three new ports at Malakal, Juba, and Al-Renk. In 2006 a 

Kuwaiti group signed a preliminary agreement to redevelop the port of 

Juba on the White Nile. 

207 
 

 

 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

River cargo and passenger traffic varies from year to year, depending in large part on the availability and capacity of transport vessels. 

During the 1970s, roughly 100,000 tonnes of cargo and 250,000 passengers were carried annually. However, the closing of the Southern 

Reach in 1984 made river traffic insignificant. Cargo had declined to 

fewer than 44,000 tonnes and passengers to fewer than 5,000 per year 

by the early 2000s, but by 2010, inland waterways transported 114,000 

tonnes and 13,000 passengers despite rapids, cataracts, a growing 

number of dams, and seasonal variations in water levels that continued 

to hinder river traffic. 

Civil Aviation 

Sudan Airways provides scheduled domestic air service. The company began its operations in 1947 as a government department, and it 

has operated commercially since the late 1960s. In 2010 Sudan Airways provided international services from Khartoum, Port Sudan, and 

Juba to countries in the Middle East, mainly Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and 

the UAE, and to several countries in Africa. However, the European 

Union banned Sudan-based airlines from flying into member states, on 

the basis of safety assessments by the International Civil Aviation 

Organization.

 Sudan Airways had scheduled flights from Khartoum to 15 other 

domestic airports in 2010, of which Khartoum, Port Sudan, Al-Obeid, 

Al-Fashir, and Juba were the most important, and the only ones where 

night flights could operate. There were also airstrips at many other locations, especially in the South where they could be the only means of 

access during the rainy season, and there were airstrips at the oil fields 

north of Bentiu. Sudan Airways had a monopoly on domestic passenger 

flights in the North, although there were a number of private air-freight 

companies and airlines flying between the North and the South. 

In May 2005, the government announced that a new $530 million 

international airport would be built some 45 kilometers southwest of 

Omdurman. The following month, Sudan's Civil Aviation Authority 

allocated $452 million to develop and upgrade 17 airports in the capital cities of the Sudanese states. Construction of the new international 

airport was underway in 2010 with completion expected in 2012. 

Sudan Airways and Ethiopian Airlines signed an agreement in mid2006 to cooperate broadly on fleets, joint operation of flights, maintenance, and ground handling. They would also cooperate on flights 

linking Khartoum with Bombay and Beijing. 

The Sudan Airways fleet in 2010 consisted of four Airbus planes 

(three A300s and one A310), four Fokker 50s, and one Boeing 707 

cargo plane. This fleet carried more than 479,000 passengers and 8,200 

208 
 

The Economy 

tonnes of air freight that year, slightly less than in 2004, when passengers were estimated at nearly 562,800 and air freight amounted to 

approximately 9,400 tonnes. In 2004 five companies provided charter 

freight services to Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. 

Sudan Airways operations generally showed losses in the past, and 

in the early 1980s the corporation reportedly was receiving a sizable 

annual government subsidy. In 1983 the government proposed to privatize the airline, but plans were put on hold following the coup in April 

1985. Like the railroads and steamers, Sudan Airways suffered from a 

shortage of skilled personnel, overstaffing, and lack of hard currency 

and credit for spare parts and proper maintenance. Plans for privatization revived in 1991 and again in 1999, when Sudan contracted two 

Western companies to advise on the sale. In March 2002, the government announced its intention to sell up to 51 percent of the airline’s 

shares to local investors on the Khartoum Stock Exchange and to 

locate a foreign investor to manage the airline. By mid-2004 the minister of finance and national economy announced that the government 

would hold 30 percent of the shares in the new firm, while 21 percent 

would be offered to Sudanese businessmen and 49 percent to foreign 

investors. The privatization was completed in 2007. 

Marine Ports and Shipping 

Port Sudan, situated on an inlet of the Red Sea, is the country’s major 

commercial port, although about 20 percent of its traffic passes through 

Sawakin, 65 kilometers to the south. Petroleum is exported from 

Bashayir Marine Terminal near Port Sudan. Construction began in 1905 

on Port Sudan, planned as the entry and exit point for the foreign trade 

that the railroad line was to carry between Khartoum and the Red Sea. It 

operated as a department of the SRC until 1974, when it became part of 

the Sea Ports Corporation, a public enterprise set up to manage Sudan’s 

marine ports. Facilities at the port eventually included 15 cargo berths, 

sheds, warehouses, and storage tanks for edible oils, molasses, and 

petroleum products. 

Port traffic had reached capacity level by the mid-1970s. Physical 

expansion of the harbor and adjacent areas was generally precluded by 

natural features and the proximity of the city of Port Sudan. However, 

surveys showed that modernization and improvement of existing facilities and the addition of further cargo-handling equipment could considerably increase usage. In 1978, with the assistance of a loan from the 

IDA, work began on adding deep-water berths and providing roll-on 

roll-off container facilities. A West German group provided a loan to 

purchase equipment. In 1983 a US$25 million World Bank credit aided 

209 
 

 

 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

another phase. Two of the major improvements made the port more 

readily usable by road vehicles and increased storage facilities. 

Construction of another deep-water port at Sawakin had long been 

under consideration in response to the projected growth of port traffic 

in the latter part of the twentieth century. The port opened in 1991 and 

could handle some 1.5 million tonnes of cargo per year. The port at 

Bashayir was a storage facility and a tanker terminal, built to act as the 

country’s oil export point. It had five storage tanks and a capacity of 

around 2 million barrels following an expansion completed in 2007. 

A national merchant marine, Sudan Shipping Line, was established 

in 1962 as a joint venture between the government and Yugoslavia. In 

1967 it became wholly government owned. From the initial two Yugoslav-built cargo vessels, the fleet expanded to a total of 16 ships by 

2003 and to 19 thereafter. Sailings, which had been mainly between 

Red Sea ports and northern Europe, included several Mediterranean 

ports. In 2010 the merchant marine transported 21,000 tonnes of goods, 

a decline (although only temporary) from the 33,000 tonnes carried in 

2009. 

Pipelines 

Operational problems on the Port Sudan–Khartoum section of Sudan 

Railways had resulted by the early 1970s in inadequate supplies of 

petroleum products reaching Khartoum and other parts of the country. In 

1977 an 850-kilometer oil pipeline from the port to Khartoum, parallel 

to the railroad line, relieved traffic pressure on the railroad. It reached its 

capacity of 600,000 tonnes a year by mid-1981, but the next year saw 

capacity boosted to 1 million tonnes. The pipeline carried only refined 

products, including gasoline, gas oil, kerosene, and aviation fuel, either 

from the refinery at the port or from import-holding facilities there. 

These products were moved to storage tanks at Khartoum, with some 

capacity offloaded at Atbarah. Rail tank cars released by the pipeline 

then carried increased supplies of petroleum products in the western and 

southwestern regions of the country. 

In August 1999, GNPOC completed an oil-export pipeline connecting 

the South’s Unity and Heglig oil fields near Bentiu to the export terminal 

at Bashayir near Port Sudan, via Khartoum and the Al-Jayli refinery (see 

fig. 11). Oil exports began the next month. The 1,610-kilometer pipeline, 

the longest in Africa, had a design capacity of 450,000 b/d. First-phase 

capacity was 250,000 b/d, sufficient until new production fields came on 

stream in 2002. At that time, GNPOC increased the capacity of the pipeline to 300,000 b/d, completing work by the end of 2003, and taking 

capacity up to 400,000 b/d in 2004. 

210 
 

President al-Bashir opens 

a new oil pipeline (undated). 

Courtesy Embassy of the 

Republic of the Sudan, 

Press and Information Section 

Sudan opened the 1,500-kilometer Petrodar pipeline in April 2006 to 

take crude from the Melut basin in the South to Port Sudan on the Red 

Sea; it had been scheduled to go online in August 2005 but was delayed 

by faulty foundation work. The new pipeline had an initial capacity of 

180,000 b/d and its design allows for a future boost to 500,000 b/d. 

Short extensions connect outlying oil fields with the Petrodar and Bentiu 

lines. Petrodar is a partnership, mainly consisting of China's state-owned 

CNPC and Malaysian PETRONAS, and several smaller companies. 

Pipeline potential in Sudan would exceed 1 million b/d if all existing pipelines were to be upgraded. Expansion was restricted by limited 

refinery capacity, among other restraints in 2011. 

Telecommunications 

Telecommunications in Sudan improved rapidly in the twenty-first 

century, although the country was only beginning to emerge from 

decades of government monopoly. In 1990 the entire nation had fewer 

than 75,000 telephones (a teledensity ratio of nearly 0.3 per 100 people), two-thirds of which were in the Khartoum area. In 2002 the Sudan 

Telecommunications Company (SudaTel), a monopoly formed from 

the old Ministry of Post and Telecommunications in 1994, initiated an 

expansion. Initially a parastatal, SudaTel eventually listed its shares on 

the Khartoum Stock Exchange and later traded them abroad, especially 

in the Gulf. UAE and Qatari telecommunications companies bought a 

substantial share, increasing capital to around US$300 million by the 

beginning of 2002. That capital subsequently supported development, 

including installation of a fiber-optic network, expansion of the system 

to more remote rural areas, and an increase in the number of telephones 

to 356,100 by 2008. 

In 2004 the KanarTel consortium won the second license to provide 

landline-telephone service in Sudan after promising to invest US$200 

million in the project in the first two years of operations. The main shareholder (40 percent) of the consortium was Emirates Telecommunications 

Corporation (Etisalat) from the United Arab Emirates. Other members 

included the Saudi Arabian group, Alrawabi, owned by Abdeleziz Ben 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

Turk, Swedish company Swedtel AB, and three Sudanese partners. 

South African payphone manufacturer Psitek also entered the market two 

years after its establishment in East Africa. In 2006 the firm received the 

necessary regulatory approvals for Sudan. However, there were still 

fewer than 5 landlines per 1,000 people in 2008. 

SudaTel cofounded (with a 40-percent share) MobiTel, Sudan’s 

Global System for Mobile (GSM) network in Khartoum State in February 1997. By the end of 2003, there were more than 650,000 MobiTel mobile cellular telephone subscribers in 17 cities, a user rate of 

about two per 100 people, well below the average of 6.2 for Africa. 

However, SudaTel's expansion plan increased the number of subscribers to 1.83 million by 2005. Zain, a Kuwait-based company, bought 

MobiTel in 2006 and increased its subscription base to 5 million by 

2008. Its main competitors were Sudani, a subsidiary of SudaTel with 

4 million subscribers, and Areeba (owned by a South African firm, 

MTN). In 2008 the total number of mobile phone subscriptions was 

11.2 million, with a penetration rate of about 35 percent. Large areas of 

Sudan are not covered by mobile-phone networks, so satellite phones 

are also used. 

SudaTel was also the majority owner of Sudan’s first Internet service provider, SudaNet, which began operation in 1998. Usage grew 

from 5,000 Internet users in 1999, to 30,000 in 2000 and 4.2 million in 

2008. Several providers offered service by 2011, there being no barriers to foreign ownership. Although the number of users grew rapidly, 

the user rate is still well below that of neighboring Uganda and Kenya. 

Growth has been held back by the low number of personal computers 

in the country (just 300,000 in 2003), and by concerns about the quality 

of service provided. Users complain about slow and unstable connections and high cost relative to average incomes. Although personal 

computers are not yet in widespread use, cyber cafes are common, 

especially in Khartoum. 

A domestic satellite system with 14 ground stations, supplemented 

by coaxial cable and a microwave network, linked telephone exchanges 

and broadcast facilities within the country in 2008–9. Eleven cities had 

amplitude modulation (AM) radio stations. Khartoum, Atbarah, and 

Wad Madani had television stations with broadcasts in Arabic seven 

hours nightly; Juba had a local station, TV Channel 1. The country had 

an estimated 7,550,000 radio receivers in 1997 and 8,500,000 television sets in 2000. In August 2005, the general manager of the Sudan 

Radio and Television Corporation announced that 46 frequency modulation (FM) and four short-wave (SW) radio stations would be set up to 

provide coverage in all Sudanese states. He also announced that 26 new 

television stations would be set up. 

212 
The Economy 

The government controls TV and radio in the North, requiring that 

the media reflect government policies, and there is a permanent military 

censor of TV programming. The Sudan National Broadcasting Corporation provides government-run television services on two channels, 

and also via satellite. The Sudan National Radio Corporation broadcasts 

the government-run, national and regional networks in Arabic, English, 

and other languages. Mango 96 FM is a private, music-based station in 

Khartoum. 

The Southern government controls telecommunications in the South, 

providing TV services from Juba, as well as Radio Juba programs. There 

are also several private FM stations in the South, and some foreign radio 

broadcasts. Miraya (Mirror) is operated by the UN mission from Juba, 

and Liberty FM broadcast from Juba and Yei. Radio Dabanga, founded 

in 2008 in the Netherlands, broadcasts three hours a day to the people of 

Darfur. 

International Trade and Balance of Payments 

International Trade 

Sudan’s exports in 2008 amounted to US$12.4 billion, and its 

imports totaled US$8.9 billion. Agricultural products dominated Sudanese exports until Sudan began to export petroleum and petroleum 

products. By 2000 the value of petroleum-based products surpassed the 

total of all other exports combined. By 2008, they had reached US$11.6 

billion and have accounted for 80 to 94 percent of all export revenue 

since 2000, the result of expanded oil production, as well as higher oil 

prices. Because oil provides such a large proportion of export earnings, 

Sudan is now vulnerable to the volatility of the international price of 

oil. 

Sudan had long been the world's second largest exporter of longstaple cotton. Cotton exports provided more than 50 percent of total 

export revenues in the 1960s but declined to only 1.1 percent of export 

revenues in 2008. Gum arabic was in second place until the 1960s, but 

its importance was even less than that of cotton in 2008. Livestock 

was the most important non-oil product in 2002, displacing cash 

crops. The government encouraged the increase in livestock production, especially camels, goats, sheep, and cattle, but the export of livestock declined dramatically thereafter, with proceeds providing only 

0.3 percent of export revenues in 2008. Sesame increased in importance in the 1990s and displaced cotton as the most important export 

commodity in 1996, until petroleum exports became dominant. Sesame remained the most important agricultural export product, provid213 
Sudan: A Country Study 

ing 2.3 percent of export revenues in 2008. Other important exports in 

2008 were gold, sugar, and peanuts. 

The share of machinery and transport equipment was 32.8 percent 

of the value of total imports in 2008. Large quantities of capital goods 

were imported, mainly for the development and expansion of the oil 

industry and the expansion of related infrastructure. Government plans 

for self-sufficiency through the development of import-substitution 

industries achieved only limited success, as manufactured goods still 

equaled 24.7 percent of the value of imports. Economic growth and 

the need for a peace dividend following the signing of the January 

2005 CPA, led to increased import spending in 2004–6, meaning that 

there was a trade deficit during those years. The trade balance returned 

to a surplus in 2007. 

In the early Condominium era, Egypt was Sudan’s main customer. 

The development of the Gezira Scheme, however, resulted in large-scale 

exports of cotton to Britain, which by the end of the 1920s was purchasing about 80 percent of Sudanese exports. At the time of Sudanese independence, Britain continued to be the largest customer. During the 

1960s, India, West Germany, and Italy emerged as major buyers; late in 

the decade, Japan also became a major customer. 

After the May 1969 coup, Khartoum took steps to expand trade with 

the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Exports to the Soviet Union rose 

dramatically in 1970 and 1971 as that country became Sudan's leading 

customer. After the abortive communist-led coup of 1971, however, 

relations deteriorated, and Soviet purchases dropped almost to nil. 

Saudi Arabia became Sudan’s main export market in the late 1980s, 

buying sorghum and livestock. Britain also remained an important export 

destination. Other major customers were France and China. The United 

States, although not one of Sudan’s largest purchasers, became a major 

customer in the later 1980s, mainly buying cotton, gum arabic, and peanuts. Saudi Arabia continued to be the leading export market throughout 

the second half of the 1990s, purchasing 20 percent of Sudan’s exports, 

especially livestock. However, the development of the oil industry changed 

the direction of trade, with China and Japan purchasing 63 percent of 

Sudan’s exports in 2001. The trend continued as the oil industry developed 

further, with East Asia replacing the Middle East as the main export market. In 2007 China absorbed 67.9 percent of Sudan’s exports, followed by 

Japan (19.0 percent), South Korea (2.0) and Saudi Arabia (1.7 percent). 

Sudan's imports come from a wide range of countries, led by Saudi 

Arabia in the late 1980s. In 1989 Saudi Arabia supplied nearly 14.1 

percent of Sudan’s total imports, with petroleum the chief import item. 

Britain was Sudan’s main import source until 1980; in the late 1980s, 

it became Khartoum’s second largest provider, supplying an estimated 

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The Economy 

8.3 percent of the country’s imports in 1989. Britain had well-established commercial and banking operations in Khartoum and a leading 

position in exporting manufactured goods, vehicles, tobacco, beverages, chemicals, and machinery to Sudan. 

Iraq was a prime source of Sudan’s imports through 1978, because it 

was the principal supplier of crude petroleum, a function that was taken 

over by Saudi Arabia in 1979 after Iraq cut off oil supplies because 

Sudan backed Egypt in the latter’s peace initiative with Israel. In the 

last years of the al-Numayri government (1969–85), bilateral trade 

with Egypt declined sharply, but in April 1988, and again in June 1991, 

Sudan and Egypt signed large trade agreements. 

Improved relations with Libya enabled Tripoli to become Sudan’s 

third largest import supplier in 1989. In January of that year, Sudan and 

Tripoli signed an agreement for Sudan to buy Libyan crude oil, and in 

December Sudan agreed to purchase Libyan fuel, chemicals, fertilizer, 

cement, and caustic soda. 

China was the prime import supplier in 2007, having superseded Saudi 

Arabia in 2004. In 2007 China provided 27.9 percent of Sudan’s imports, 

followed by Saudi Arabia (7.5 percent), India (6.3 percent) and Egypt 

(5.6 percent). Libya, which previously had supplied most of Sudan’s 

imports, especially petroleum products, saw its exports decline dramatically from 15 percent of Sudan’s total imports in 1999, as demand for 

imported refined products ended. 

Balance of Payments 

An accurate presentation of Sudan’s balance of payments—the summary in money terms of transactions with the rest of the world—was 

hampered in the past by what foreign economists considered understatements in official statistics of imports and public-sector loans. The balance of trade from 1960 through 1999 usually showed a deficit, except 

for 1973, in the current account (covering trade, services, and transfer 

transactions). From 1973 until 2000 (when Sudan became self-sufficient 

in petroleum and petroleum products), the balance of trade was unfavorably affected by higher petroleum-import costs as well as by the higher 

costs of other imports that resulted from worldwide inflation caused by 

oil price increases. The impact on the balance of payments was especially serious because of its coincidence with the implementation after 

1973 of an intensive development program that required greatly 

increased imports. 

Beginning in 1999, export receipts increased dramatically as Sudan 

began to export oil. In 2000 export earnings increased to US$1.9 billion, 

with oil earnings accounting for 78 percent of the total. Revenues continued to increase to US$4.8 billion in 2005 as oil prices remained high. 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

The development of the oil industry not only increased export earnings, 

but also saved foreign exchange as Sudan became self-sufficient in 

refined petroleum products. The sum of those changes produced trade 

surpluses in 2000 and 2001—the first surpluses in recent history. The 

years 2005 and 2006 fell into deficit as surging imports and delays in 

bringing new oil concessions on stream had a negative effect on the 

trade balance. Although 2007 and 2008 produced trade surpluses once 

again, preliminary information for 2009 revealed a deficit produced by a 

decline in the value of oil exports (see table 3 Appendix). 

The services sector (insurance, travel, and other) and investment 

income regularly experiences a net loss, which has increased since oil 

exports began. Service debits reached US$2.9 billion in 2007 and 2008, 

as a result of costs associated with the increasing volume of Sudanese 

imports, as well as the increasing costs of transporting the government’s share of oil to market. 

Investment-income debits increased as a result of the repatriation of 

profits of the foreign firms that have developed the oil sector. In 2008 

income debits reached US$5.7 billion. 

Transfers usually had a positive balance, but they were insufficient 

to offset the usual deficit in trade and services. They were composed 

mainly of remittances from Sudan’s overseas workforce, exceeding 

US$20 million in 2007, according to official data. The growth of remittances reflected the strong economic growth in the Gulf where many 

Sudanese worked, and also the increased confidence in the Sudanese 

banking system, which encouraged expatriate Sudanese to transfer and 

convert remittances through official channels rather than by informal 

methods. Thus, part of the increase might also have reflected the capturing of flows that were previously unrecorded. Current transfers went 

temporarily into deficit in 2008, but preliminary data from 2009 indicate that they recovered. 

The increase in the non-merchandise account raised net outflows to 

US$5.2 billion in 2008, continuing deficits in the current account. As 

the economy grew, however, the value of the deficits as a percentage 

of GDP declined on average, compared to the five years before oil 

exports began. 

Net inflows and disbursement of foreign loans and other capital 

generally failed to cover the negative balance in the current account, 

and the overall balance of payments was regularly in deficit. The 

shortfall in 2011 was estimated at US$406 million. 

Prospects for the Future 

Sudan remains a poor country as a result of previous inadequate 

economic management; years of drought, which have had a negative 

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The Economy 

impact on the agricultural economy; and the disruption caused by civil 

war—all of which have blocked economic development over the 

years. One of the important steps that will be necessary in the future is 

to improve the long-term, overall management of the economy. 

The economy continues to be based on agriculture, although the 

development of the oil-export industry has changed its structure. As oil 

became the most important export commodity, eliminating previous 

trade deficits and promising even greater revenues in the future, it has 

the potential to continue to stimulate economic growth. Development 

of the oil sector has increased foreign investment, which, in turn, has 

stimulated development in the industrial sector, with potential for further development and diversification henceforth. 

Within the agricultural sector, livestock has become the fastest 

growing segment. As exports became established in the markets in the 

Gulf, especially in Saudi Arabia, they also attracted foreign investment. Strong demand for livestock in the international market and government encouragement of commercial livestock production (with 

close attention to disease prevention) are likely to allow increased 

diversification from traditional crops within the agricultural sector. 

Future development, however, must address the inadequate transport network. In particular, improving the road system is critical, especially increasing the infrastructure of paved, all-weather roads, to allow 

the distribution of food crops and other goods throughout the formerly 

united country and to neighboring nations. It will be especially important to reconstruct the roads that were destroyed in South Sudan during 

the civil war. The railroad infrastructure also needs upgrading, as it is in 

poor condition as a result of both its age and lack of maintenance and 

investment. The proposed rail link with Ethiopia would also increase 

communication between the two countries and would be especially 

beneficial to trade with South Sudan, were it ever to be built. 

The most important key to economic development is a lasting peace 

supported by good governance. Whereas a peace treaty was signed in 

2005 between the SPLM/A and the government of Sudan, it is important to find a way to end the conflict in the Darfur region as well. With 

peace, bilateral donors and international organizations would be more 

willing to assist North and South with development efforts, private 

investors more willing to risk their capital, and the governments of both 

countries would be able to use domestic resources, previously drained 

by war, for purposes of economic development. 

The referendum in early 2011 determined that Sudan would become 

two separate countries. As separation proceeds, it is necessary to agree 

on the division of Sudan’s resources, especially since most of the 

known oil reserves are in the South, the region most in need of economic development. Above all, it is also important to maintain peace 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

throughout the area in order to sustain and increase the current momentum of economic development. 

* * * 

The economic and political upheavals that have characterized Sudan 

for many years have made statistical data difficult to obtain, unreliable, 

and often out of date. War with the SPLM/A has made it particularly 

difficult to obtain data for areas in Southern Sudan because of lack of 

access to those areas that have not been under central government control. Nevertheless, there are important texts that can be consulted for 

the background information to obtain an understanding of Sudan's 

economy. 

Peter Woodward’s Sudan, 1898–1989: The Unstable State describes 

the political, and, to some extent, the economic evolution of Sudan 

from the establishment of the Condominium until 1989. Tim Niblock’s 

“Pariah States” and Sanctions in the Middle East: Iraq, Libya, Sudan 

addresses the political, psychological, and economic impact of sanctions designed in response to Sudan’s transgressions during its civil 

wars. Douglas H. Johnson examines the historical, political, economic, 

and social factors involved in Sudan’s civil wars in The Root Causes of 

Sudan’s Civil Wars. The newest text is Ruth Iyob and Gilbert M. 

Khadiagala’s Sudan: The Elusive Quest for Peace, which examines the 

factors that have contributed to the civil wars and concludes with recommendations for political and economic reforms that will be required 

for lasting peace. 

Some older materials continue to be valuable. These include Medani 

M. Ahmed’s The Political Economy of Development in the Sudan, Muddathir Abdel-Rahim’s Sudan since Independence: Studies of the Political 

Development since 1956, as well as P. P. van de Well and Abdel Ghaffar 

Muhammad Ahmed’s Perspectives on Development in the Sudan: 

Selected Papers for a Research Workshop in The Hague, and the discussion papers of the University of Bremen’s Sudan Economy Research 

Group. 

Statistical information can be found in the Bank of Sudan’s annual 

reports as well as Sudan’s Central Bureau of Statistics. However, it is 

difficult to obtain access to official publications unless they have been 

posted on each agency’s Web site. Valuable international sources of 

data include the most recent Africa South of the Sahara yearbooks, and 

both the annual Country Profile and the quarterly Country Reports on 

Sudan published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, although publication of the Country Profile was discontinued after the 2009 issue. 

Other valuable sources include the publications of the International 

Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the African Development Bank, 

218 
The Economy 

as well as those of UN organizations such as the Food and Agriculture 

Organization and the International Labour Organisation. 

An excellent introduction to reach an understanding of Islamic banking 

in Sudan is to be found in Endre Stiansen’s “Interest Politics: Islamic 

Finance in the Sudan, 1977–2001.” More general works on Islamic banking include Fuad Al-Omar and Mohammed Abdel-Haq’s Islamic Banking: Theory, Practice, and Challenges and Mervyn K. Lewis and Latifa 

M. Algaoud’s Islamic Banking. Zubair Iqbal and Abbas Mirakhor’s 

Islamic Banking is another influential study. (For further information and 

complete citations, see Bibliography.) 

219 

Chapter 4. Government and Politics 
The Presidential Palace in Khartoum, executive headquarters of the 

national government 
 

EARLY IN 2005, SUDAN’S GOVERNMENT reached a significant milestone as Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) 

signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) on January 9. After 

the signing, the SPLM leader John Garang de Mabior, since deceased, 

described the agreement as just and honorable, adding that it would change 

Sudan forever. The agreement officially ended a civil war that had resumed 

in the summer of 1983 and an Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) peace process that began in 1993 and advanced in fits and 

starts. A major provision of the accord gave the people of South Sudan the 

right to vote for secession from Sudan at the end of a six-year period under 

a unified interim government. A protocol on power sharing divided power 

primarily between the National Congress Party and the SPLM, but it left 

some room for other Northern and Southern political parties to join the 

new government. Both sides experienced numerous obstacles in their 

efforts to implement this complex and far-reaching agreement. 

The peace agreement with the SPLM did not deal with serious governance issues in Eastern and Western Sudan. The outbreak of violence in 

Darfur in February 2003 could be attributed in part to the success that the 

Southerners achieved as a result of their war with Khartoum. Conflict 

also increased in the area along Sudan’s eastern border with Eritrea, but a 

2006 agreement brokered with the assistance of Eritrea significantly 

reduced tension in this region. Other marginalized groups throughout 

Sudan also sought a voice in national affairs. Territory that radiated about 

300 kilometers north and south of Khartoum along the Nile River and 

extending a similar distance east and west of the Nile was the traditional 

heartland of Sudan. This was the area where the government exercised 

real control and devoted most of its resources. Outside this core region, 

government control decreased with distance. Most persons living at the 

peripheries of Sudan never felt they were an integral part of the country. 

It is not surprising that Sudanese in other parts of Sudan followed the 

Southerners by putting increasing pressure on Khartoum to share equitably both power and resources. 

Sudan obtained independence from Britain and Egypt on January 1, 

1956. It subsequently experienced political instability and a variety of 

regimes. Indeed, after independence, government in Sudan was characterized by the military periodically stepping in to seize power from civilian regimes only to find that it could not remain in control permanently. 

Sudan’s latest experiment with democratic rule ended with another military coup on June 30, 1989, which brought Colonel Umar Hassan Ahmad 

al-Bashir to power. His government was long characterized by autocratic 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

rule and an internal power struggle between those who supported him and 

those who favored the Islamist leader Hassan Abdallah al-Turabi. The alBashir government cracked down hard on opposition elements while permitting the trappings of democratic institutions, such as a new constitution, 

a national legislature, and national elections such as those in 1996 and 

2000 that major opposition parties boycotted. Somewhat more meaningful 

elections occurred in April 2010 when al-Bashir again won the presidency, 

although several key parties boycotted them and most international 

observers found widespread discrepancies. 

Relations between Sudan and the West, especially the United States, 

have been strained ever since al-Bashir took power. The United States has 

expressed concern over Sudan’s support for terrorist groups, unhappiness 

about its policies on human rights and sharia, and displeasure with its handling of the crisis in Darfur and with the war in the South until there was a 

cease-fire in 2002. Sudanese oil production also became an important feature of the political dynamic by the beginning of the twenty-first century. 

The People’s Republic of China, India, and Malaysia became major developers and buyers of Sudan’s oil, resulting in new allies for Khartoum. The 

September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda caused 

Sudan to reassess its links with terrorist groups and to increase cooperation 

on counterterrorism with Washington. 

Early in 2011, implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the war between the North and the South and the continuing but reduced violence in Darfur in Western Sudan were the overriding 

issues for the Khartoum government. Following signature of the CPA 

with South Sudan, Khartoum began the process of creating a new government that included significant Southern representation. As the process 

neared an end and with the prospect of an independent South Sudan, it 

still faced several serious challenges and unforeseen consequences. In the 

meantime, there appeared to be no early solution to the violence, displaced persons, refugees, and human-rights abuses in Darfur. 

The al-Bashir Era 

The leaders of the 1989 coup that installed Umar Hassan Ahmad alBashir abolished executive and legislative institutions, suspended the constitution, arrested many prominent civilian politicians, banned political 

parties, and restricted freedom of the press. They purged hundreds of army 

personnel, senior civil servants, and teachers perceived as being insufficiently Islamic and announced in 1990 that sharia would be applied in the 

North. They established the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), 

which initially became Sudan’s legislative authority. The chairman of the 

15-member RCC was al-Bashir, who immediately promoted himself to 

lieutenant general and served as prime minister, minister of defense, and 

224 
President Umar Hassan 

Ahmad al-Bashir 

Courtesy Embassy of the 

Republic of the Sudan, 

Press and Information Section 

commander in chief of the armed forces. All members of the RCC were 

middle- and lower-ranking military officers. Many of them had personal 

and ideological ties to the Islamist political party, the National Islamic 

Front (NIF), led by Hassan Abdallah al-Turabi, who exercised enormous 

power in the government but had no official position until 1996. Although 

al-Bashir remained in charge of the government, it became increasingly 

apparent that al-Turabi led a shadow regime. 

From the beginning, al-Bashir and al-Turabi used each other to 

achieve their objectives. Al-Bashir also played the al-Turabi faction of 

the NIF against another element led by Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha. 

The RCC appointed a Transitional National Assembly in 1992 as a legislative authority pending the election of a legislative chamber. The RCC 

dissolved itself in 1993 and appointed al-Bashir as president of Sudan. In 

1995 al-Bashir approved a constitutional decree that provided for the 

election of a National Assembly and president of the republic. Elections 

in March 1996 confirmed al-Bashir as president and returned a parliament dominated by the National Congress Party (NCP), the successor to 

the NIF. Al-Turabi became the speaker of the new assembly. Sudan’s traditional political groups refused to participate in a process they judged to 

be illegitimate. Al-Bashir and al-Turabi effectively froze them out of any 

possibility of achieving power through the electoral process. 

Three central objectives determined government policies in the early 

1990s: to turn Sudan into an Islamic republic as soon as possible; to use 

military force rather than negotiation to end the war in the South; and to 

repress all dissent in order to maintain control. Sudan also stepped up 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

its support for international terrorist groups. Osama bin Laden moved 

his headquarters from Afghanistan to Sudan late in 1991 and remained 

until the government asked him to leave in mid-1996. These policies 

led to a decision by the United States in 1993 to add Sudan to the list of 

states that sponsor terrorism. Egypt and Ethiopia implicated Sudan in 

the attempted assassination of Egyptian president Husni Mubarak while 

he was visiting Addis Ababa in 1995. In addition, the government in 

Khartoum tried to export its Islamist ideology to neighboring countries. 

As a result, Sudan’s relations with Egypt, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Eritrea 

deteriorated sharply in the first half of the 1990s. They soon recovered 

with Egypt and later with Uganda, Ethiopia, and Eritrea, following the 

outbreak of war in 1998 between the latter two countries. 

The war in South Sudan dominated most of the 1990s, and the 

development of its oil resources by the end of the century began to provide Khartoum revenue to continue the civil war. The al-Bashir government also spent much of the 1990s defending its poor human-rights 

record and working to ensure that opposition groups could not achieve 

power. By 1996 al-Turabi sought to build alliances with social forces 

that would allow him to assume autonomous political power and cast 

himself as a reformist leader who expressed the voice of the people. As 

speaker of parliament and secretary-general of the NCP, al-Turabi was 

a growing threat to al-Bashir. 

The power struggle between al-Bashir and al-Turabi reached a crisis 

by 1999. Al-Bashir suspended parts of the constitution, dissolved parliament and, hence, al-Turabi’s role as speaker, and declared a state of 

emergency. In May 2000, al-Bashir rescinded al-Turabi’s appointment 

as secretary-general of the ruling NCP and stated that al-Turabi and his 

followers were trying to undermine the government. Al-Turabi accused 

al-Bashir of leading the country down a dangerous path. In the December 2000 election, which was boycotted by most opposition parties, alBashir won an overwhelming victory. Continuing tension between alBashir and al-Turabi led early in 2001 to the arrest of al-Turabi and four 

of his aides for conspiring to depose al-Bashir. A few months later, alBashir released al-Turabi from prison and put him under house arrest. 

The two then patched up their differences, and al-Bashir released alTurabi from house arrest in 2003 and allowed him to return to politics. 

Al-Bashir rearrested al-Turabi and about 70 key supporters in March 

2004 for an alleged plot to topple him. He also banned political activity 

by al-Turabi’s party. Al-Bashir eventually released al-Turabi again. 

Relations with Europe began to improve by the late 1990s. Following 

the September 11, 2001, attacks against the United States, Sudan decided 

to improve cooperation with the United States on counterterrorism. The 

most important change in Khartoum’s policy, however, was a decision to 

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negotiate an end to the war with the South. This process achieved success 

in January 2005 following two years of negotiations with the SPLM, 

when Sudan began to create a new government that included significant 

Southern representation. Implementing the CPA became, however, an 

enormous challenge for both Khartoum and the SPLM. In the meantime, 

the crisis that broke out in February 2003 in Darfur posed a serious new 

setback to internal stability and Sudan’s international standing. On the 

positive side, there was no return to war between Khartoum and South 

Sudan, and violence decreased significantly in Darfur. Controversial 

national elections in April 2010 kept the door open for the vote by Southerners in January 2011, in which they opted for independence from the 

North. 

On March 4, 2009, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an 

arrest warrant for al-Bashir as an indirect perpetrator or as an indirect 

co-perpetrator of five counts of crimes against humanity—murder, 

extermination, forcible transfer, torture, and rape—and two counts of 

war crimes—intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population 

or against individual civilians not taking part in hostilities, and pillaging 

in Darfur between March 2003 and July 2008. The ICC later added the 

charge of genocide. Most Arab and many African governments stood 

by al-Bashir, although he has had to significantly limit his international 

travel so as to avoid arrest. 

Institutions of Government 

Following the military coup in 1989, there was significant change in 

Sudanese government institutions and in the movement of key persons 

who direct those institutions. One constant was President al-Bashir. 

Another was the critical role played behind the scenes by the military 

and security forces in maintaining the government in power. A third was 

the important and sometimes conflictive position that Islam held in a 

government representing a diverse society. Some experts believed the 

Islamist model had run its course; others were not convinced. Finally, 

there was the highly circumscribed role permitted for institutions and 

practices judged as democratic by Western governments. The impact of 

Sudan’s 1998 constitution and the federal system that it created, as modified by the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, continued to unfold 

in the North in early 2011. 

The primary institutions of the central government are the presidency, 

the National Council of Ministers, and the bicameral National Legislature, or parliament. The civil service is subservient to the central government; South Sudan had a separate civil service. Sudan also has an 

elaborate system of state and local government. The CPA between the 

central government and the SPLM signed on January 9, 2005, in Nairobi, 

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Kenya, was based on a series of individual protocols that significantly 

changed the system of governance in Sudan in the next few years. It also 

resulted in the new Interim National Constitution of the Republic of the 

Sudan and an Interim Constitution of South Sudan, both taking effect in 

2005. Most importantly, it provided for national elections in 2009 (postponed until 2010) and a referendum on self-determination for South 

Sudan that occurred in January 2011. 

Recent Constitutional Developments 

The military coup of April 6, 1985, led to suspension of Sudan’s 1973 

constitution and its replacement with an interim constitution later in the 

year. One of the first acts of the RCC after seizing power in 1989 was to 

abolish the interim constitution. Al-Bashir promised to prepare a new 

constitution. It was not until January 1998, however, that Sudan convened 

a constitutional conference to draft a constitution. It consisted of legal and 

political scholars representing different political groups sympathetic to alBashir’s rule. The Umma Party and the Democratic Unionist Party 

refused to participate. Most Southerners boycotted the conference. Voters 

in Sudan’s single-party system approved the constitution in a 1998 referendum, a process that raised questions about the degree to which the public accepted the document. 

The constitution entered into force on July 1, 1998. A significant feature of the individual-rights provisions of the 1998 constitution was the 

frequent use of the qualifier “in accordance with law” attached to most 

freedoms. On the other hand, there was no requirement that only Muslims could hold public office, including the office of president. NonMuslims were free to practice, convert, and doubt the main tenets of their 

religion as long as they did not interfere with the spiritual life of Muslims. There were, nevertheless, inherent conflicts between Sudan’s 

Islamic political system and the way in which Muslims applied the principles of shura (see Glossary). The constitution attempted to balance a 

strong preference for Islamic beliefs and a grudging acceptance of internationally accepted human rights. In 1999 dissenting members of the 

National Assembly tried to amend the constitution by restricting the president’s involvement in the selection of candidates for governors of the 

federal states. Speaker of the National Assembly al-Turabi supported the 

amendment, but the proposal led al-Bashir to dissolve the National 

Assembly (the lower house of the legislature) and declare a state of 

emergency under the constitution. These steps had the effect of suspending the decentralization process stipulated in the constitution and gave alBashir full authority over the states. Legislators supporting al-Turabi 

challenged the state of emergency before the Constitutional Court, which 

concluded that al-Bashir’s actions were constitutional. 

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Government and Politics 

On May 26, 2004, the government and the SPLM signed the Protocol 

on Power Sharing, later part of the CPA. The protocol provided for a 

National Constitutional Review Commission (NCRC) composed of representatives from the NCP, SPLM, other political forces, and civil society. It was charged with preparing a legal and constitutional framework 

based on the peace agreement and the 1998 constitution for adoption by 

the National Assembly and the SPLM. The result was the Interim 

National Constitution of the Republic of Sudan, which the National 

Assembly and the SPLM National Liberation Council adopted on July 

6, 2005. For its part, the Government of South Sudan (GOSS) then 

adopted on December 5, 2005, an Interim Constitution of South Sudan 

that did not contradict any of the provisions contained in the Interim 

National Constitution. The NCRC prepared a model constitution for all 

25 states, compatible with both the Interim National Constitution and 

the one for South Sudan. The states of South Sudan adopted their own 

constitutions, which had to conform to both interim constitutions. 

Before the end of the six-year interim period mandated by the CPA, the 

NCRC was also responsible for organizing an inclusive constitutionalreview process. According to the Interim National Constitution, the crucial six-year interim period began officially on July 9, 2005. 

Both the Interim National Constitution and the Interim Constitution 

of South Sudan authorized the 15 states in the North and the 10 states in 

South Sudan to have their own constitutions. States in the North began 

the constitutional drafting process in mid-2005 based on a model constitution drafted by a subcommittee of the National Constitutional Review 

Commission. The most controversial process was in Khartoum State 

where there were concerns about the rights of non-Muslims and human 

rights generally. Blue Nile and South Kordofan States, disputed areas 

that are also strategically located, posed problems for the constitutionaldevelopment process. The drafting of state constitutions in the South 

began later than in the North but was relatively uncontroversial because 

the SPLM held a 70 percent majority in the state legislatures and could 

largely control the outcome. 

The Federal System 

During most of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium period (1899– 

1955), the British relied on a system called indigenous administration to 

control local governments in rural areas. Under this system, traditional 

tribal and village leaders held responsibility for administrative and judicial 

functions within their own areas and received financial and, when necessary, military support from the central authorities. The British abandoned 

this system in 1951 in favor of a system of local government councils. The 

councils were responsible to the minister of local government, whereas 

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provincial governors and district commissioners remained under the supervision of the minister of interior. This division led to many difficulties. 

The Local Government Act of 1961 created a system of provincial 

commissioners appointed by the central government as chairmen of the 

provincial authorities, an executive body of officials representing Khartoum. Following the military coup of 1969, the new government abolished local and regional government structures and in 1971 created a 

pyramidal structure with local community councils at the base and progressively higher levels of authority up to the executive councils of the 

10 provinces. Above the community councils was a second tier of local 

government structures that included rural and urban councils. A third 

tier consisted of sub-provincial district councils. At the top, a provincial 

governor appointed by Khartoum presided over the provincial commissions. In 1991 the RCC introduced a federal structure that divided the 

country into nine states, 66 provinces, and 218 local-government areas 

or districts. The RCC appointed a governor, deputy governor, and council of ministers for each state. 

The 1998 constitution prescribed a federal system of government 

with the country divided into 25 states, each with its own capital. Each 

state had a governor, called a wali in the North, and a state assembly. The 

federal government exercised power over national security, international 

and state boundaries, foreign relations and trade, immigration, elections, 

judiciary, currency, federal taxation, land and natural resources, waterways and national electricity, and interstate transportation. The states had 

authority over state administration, taxes and fees, trade, land, water and 

electric power, and road maintenance. The federal and state governments 

had concurrent jurisdiction over a wide number of issues, including the 

civil service, local government, media, education, health, economic policies, industry, social welfare, environment, and tourism. The federal 

government derived its revenue primarily from customs duties, seaport 

and airport revenue, corporate taxes, profits from national projects, and 

taxes collected from Sudanese working abroad. The states obtained revenue from business profits, some of which went to local councils, a share 

of tax on state industrial production, state licenses, taxes and duties, and 

profits from state projects. 

The 2005 Interim National Constitution, which drew many principles from the 1998 constitution and incorporated the provisions of the 

CPA, created a national government with authority to protect and promote the national sovereignty of Sudan. It permitted creation of a government in South Sudan exercising authority in respect of the people 

and states there. The decentralized system of government also established state and local governments throughout Sudan. The link between 

the national government and the states in South Sudan was through the 

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Government of South Sudan. All levels of government had to respect 

each others’ autonomy and assist each other in fulfilling their respective constitutional obligations. The constitution permitted freedom of 

religion and declared its respect for the promotion and development of 

all indigenous languages. At the national level, it established Arabic 

and English as the official working languages. In 2009, South Sudan 

passed the Local Government Act, which specified the different kinds 

of local government. 

The Interim National Constitution contained an extensive bill of 

rights. It detailed the powers reserved to the national government, South 

Sudan government, states, and concurrent powers. The national government was responsible for, among other areas, security, defense, foreign 

affairs, nationality and naturalization, currency, national police, civil aviation, central banks, customs, national debt, national states of emergency, interstate transport, and national taxation and budget matters. The 

South established a Bank of South Sudan as a branch of the national 

Bank of Sudan. It offered conventional banking services within the 

framework of a single national monetary policy. GOSS controlled its 

own police, military during the interim period, legislation, borrowing of 

money, planning, and civil service relating to the administration of South 

Sudan. The Interim National Constitution also reserved numerous lesser 

responsibilities to GOSS. Other states in Sudan had somewhat lower 

responsibilities. They included control over the police, local government, the civil service at the state level, social welfare, cultural matters, 

regulation of religion, and a host of other issues. The national government, Government of South Sudan, and state governments had a number 

of concurrent powers, including tertiary education, health policy, commerce, delivery of public services, banking and insurance, traffic regulations, and gender policy. 

On December 5, 2005, South Sudan adopted its own Interim Constitution, which was longer and more detailed than the Interim National 

Constitution. Like the latter, it proclaimed the boundary of South Sudan 

as the one that existed at Sudan’s independence on January 1, 1956. It 

divided the territory into 10 states to be governed on the basis of decentralization. It stated explicitly that South Sudan is a multiethnic, multicultural, multilingual, multireligious, and multiracial state. English and 

Arabic were designated as the official working languages, but all indigenous languages in South Sudan were to be considered national languages. It treated all religions equally and did not establish an official 

religion. The Interim Constitution of South Sudan separated religion and 

state. It underscored a provision in the Interim National Constitution, 

which stated that six months before the end of the six-year interim 

period there would be an internationally monitored referendum for the 

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people of South Sudan to either confirm the unity of Sudan or vote for 

secession. 

Governance in Sudan had traditionally been seen as a North–South 

problem. By the 1980s, however, it became apparent that separatist tendencies were not confined to the South. The tensions in Darfur in the 

West and among the Beja in the East also threatened to pull the country 

apart. The Nubians along the northern Nile and the Nuba in South Kordofan also had significant grievances. For that matter, separatist tendencies began to develop within South Sudan after Southerners took 

charge of their own government. These separatist proclivities had long 

existed among ethnic groups in Equatoria in the far south and between 

the Dinka and the Nuer people. 

The agreement between Khartoum and the SPLM provided an 

opportunity to solve the differences between the North and South, but it 

also raised serious challenges as Sudanese in both parts of the country 

tried to implement the CPA. The agreement shifted attention to peripheral regions, especially in Western Sudan and Eastern Sudan, which 

also requested new arrangements with Khartoum. It raised the question 

of whether federalism could prevent Sudan from disintegrating into a 

number of independent parts. In 2006 one key rebel group in Darfur 

signed a highly flawed peace agreement with Khartoum that did not 

end the violence. By late 2010, there were even more political factions 

in Darfur. The 2006 peace agreement in Eastern Sudan was more successful but also remained tenuous. 

Elections 

The interim military government of Abd al-Rahman Siwar al-Dhahab 

authorized general elections in Sudan in April 1986. They were among 

the freest and fairest elections in Africa up to that time, except for the 

fact that civil war prevented balloting in most of South Sudan. Sadiq alMahdi’s Umma Party won the largest number of votes and formed a 

coalition government in June. Following al-Mahdi’s overthrow in 1989, 

the RCC appointed a Transitional National Assembly in 1992. The alBashir government held its first presidential and parliamentary elections 

in March 1996. Of the National Assembly’s 400 members, 125 had previously been selected during a national conference in February. About 

900 candidates vied for the remaining 275 seats, although 51 of these 

seats were uncontested. Al-Bashir faced 40 challengers for president. All 

candidates ran in an individual capacity. Al-Bashir and his supporters 

won handily. Opposition groups boycotted the elections, claiming they 

were unfair. Because of the civil war, no voting took place in 11 Southern districts. 

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National elections took place again in December 2000. About 66 percent of Sudan’s eligible voters cast ballots. Major opposition parties, 

including Umma, Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), and Popular 

National Congress (later renamed the Popular Congress Party—PCP) 

led by al-Turabi, boycotted the elections, accusing the government of 

vote rigging. Only al-Bashir’s NCP and a small number of minority parties contested the elections. Al-Bashir received 86.5 percent of the votes 

cast for a five-year presidential term. Former President al-Numayri, who 

had returned to Sudan from exile in Egypt, polled 9.6 percent of the 

vote, and three other candidates received less than 4 percent among 

them. Voters also elected 275 members of the National Assembly to 

four-year terms. The ruling NCP won all but 10 seats; no other party 

contested 112 of the seats. Of the 90 specially selected positions, 35 

went to women, 26 to university graduates, and 29 to trade union representatives. Women constituted about 10 percent of the legislature’s 

membership. An Organization of African Unity observer team concluded “that the overall exercise was an important step towards democratization and that it was conducted in a conducive atmosphere and in a 

satisfactory manner.” Political parties that boycotted the elections had a 

decidedly different view. 

Following the CPA, elections initially did not play a role in determining the composition of the interim national government, the South 

Sudan government, or the state legislatures. An out of date national census and, in the case of South Sudan, a complete lack of infrastructure for 

conducting an election, rendered the electoral process moot. As a result, 

all government officials and all governing bodies consisted of appointed 

officials until the completion of a census in 2008 and national elections 

in 2010. The SPLM rejected the results of the census, claiming that it 

underestimated populations in the South. The National Elections Act of 

2008 provided the legal framework for conducting elections in Sudan, 

South Sudan, and in each state. The National Elections Commission 

was responsible for developing the regulations, rules, and orders for the 

election of the national president, South Sudan president, state governors, National Assembly, South Sudan Legislative Assembly, and state 

assemblies. 

Sudan held national elections on April 11–19, 2010. At the last minute, the Umma Party withdrew, and the SPLM candidate for the national 

presidency, Yasir Arman, declared he was no longer seeking the position. As the ballots had already been printed, however, their names 

remained. Al-Bashir won just over 68 percent of the vote for president. 

Yasir Arman won almost 22 percent, PCP candidate Abdullah Deng 

Nhial won almost 4 percent, and DUP candidate Hatim al-Sir took 2 

percent. All of the other candidates obtained less than 1 percent each. 

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The SPLM candidate, Salva Kiir Mayardit, won 93 percent of the vote 

for the presidency of South Sudan, and his challenger, Lam Akol from 

the SPLM-Democratic Change, won 7 percent. Although monitors from 

the African Union and Arab League gave the elections a passing mark, 

those from the Carter Center and more than 4,000 Sudanese representatives of civil society in both the North and South declared the elections 

had serious flaws. The United States and European Union said they did 

not meet international standards. 

Corruption and Governance Issues 

Corruption has long been a problem throughout Sudan. The sharp 

rise in oil revenue contributed significantly to the challenge. Out of 180 

countries ranked in 2009, the Transparency International Corruption 

Perceptions Index placed Sudan in position 176, or fifth from the bottom. Sudan also scored poorly on the 2006 Global Integrity Index, 

which assesses the existence of anticorruption mechanisms that promote 

public integrity. Sudan ranked in the lowest quintile in the overall category. It fell in the lowest category that considered voting and citizen participation, the integrity of elections, and regulations concerning political 

financing; the lowest category for accountability across the executive, 

legislative, and judicial branches of government as well as the budget 

process; the lowest category for oversight and regulatory mechanisms 

such as a national ombudsman, auditing, taxes and customs, financialsector regulation, and business licensing; and the lowest category for 

anticorruption and rule of law. It did better in the category considering 

administration and civil-service regulations, whistle-blowing measures, 

and regulatory processes around procurement and privatization. It also 

did somewhat better on anticorruption laws, its anticorruption agency, 

access to justice, and law enforcement. An auditor’s report on fiscal year 

2008 found that unnamed persons embezzled US$2.3 billion from government institutions. 

South Sudan was also plagued by corruption, which contributed to 

the collapse of the 1972 peace agreement with Khartoum. Probably 

recalling this history, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir launched a 

major anticorruption campaign following allegations of rampant corruption. He relieved a number of senior officials, including the minister 

of finance, of their posts and asked them to answer charges of embezzlement and bribery, including the alleged embezzlement of US$60 million transferred to the SPLM by the NCP soon after signing the CPA. 

South Sudan officials often engaged in corrupt practices with impunity, 

and corruption was a problem in all branches of the government. 

In an especially embarrassing ranking, Foreign Policy magazine and 

the Fund for Peace, an independent research organization, looked at 12 

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Government and Politics 

economic, political, and military indicators in an evaluation of the 

world’s 60 most-failed states in 2010. They assessed state vulnerability 

to violent internal conflict and social deterioration. Sudan ranked number three, after Somalia and Chad. Sudan scored particularly low in the 

following categories: refugees and internally displaced persons, group 

grievance, delegitimization of the state, human rights, and external 

intervention. 

The Presidency 

Sudan has gravitated between elected presidents and those who 

seized power by force ever since it became independent in 1956. Some 

of the elections were highly suspect. Al-Bashir in 2011 had been 

Sudan’s only president since the military coup in 1989. Born in 1944, 

he was at the time of the coup the commander of a paratroop brigade in 

South Sudan. He returned to Khartoum with 175 paratroopers just a few 

days before the coup. Al-Bashir’s governing authority varied over time. 

He ruled initially through the RCC, declared himself president in 1993, 

and orchestrated elections in 1996 and again in 2000. His authority 

changed again after approval of the Interim National Constitution in 

2005. 

Under the Interim National Constitution, the presidency consisted of 

the president and two vice presidents. The elections of 2010 continued 

this arrangement; al-Bashir remained as president of Sudan and commander in chief of the armed forces. The president of South Sudan, 

Salva Kiir, following the death of John Garang in a helicopter accident, 

became the first vice president of the new Government of National 

Unity effective on August 4, 2005. Salva Kiir also served as commander 

in chief of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. A Northerner, Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha, became the second vice president on September 

20, 2005. The outcome of the referendum on self-determination meant 

that al-Bashir continued in office as president of the Northern government, and there would no longer be a Southerner as first vice president 

after mid-2011. Three other key officials in the presidency were senior 

advisers to the president. The most senior until December 2010 was 

Minni Arkoi Minnawi, a leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement in 

Darfur who signed the May 5, 2006, Darfur Peace Agreement. The two 

others were Nafie Ali Nafie, a Northerner who held numerous senior 

positions in the al-Bashir government, and Musa Mohamed Ahmed, an 

Eastern Front leader and special assistant to al-Bashir. 

The people directly elect the president of Sudan. Eligible candidates 

must be of Sudanese nationality, of sound mind, literate, and at least 40 

years of age. There are no religious or gender restrictions. The presidential 

term is five years, and a president can only be reelected once following the 

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2010 election. The president has wide-ranging power and serves as both 

chief of state and head of government. He is commander in chief of all 

security forces and supervises foreign relations, the judiciary, justice and 

public morals, constitutional institutions, and economic development of 

the country. The president appoints personnel for federal office, presides 

over the National Council of Ministers, summons or adjourns the National 

Legislature, can declare war and a state of emergency, approve death sentences and grant pardons, and initiate amendments to the constitution. The 

constitution gave the president, with the consent of the first vice president, 

the authority to declare a state of emergency. The declaration must be submitted within 15 days to the National Legislature for approval. Once 

approved by the National Legislature, the president can suspend the powers of states and take over those powers; he can suspend the provisions 

pertaining to individual rights, with several specified exceptions. The 

president, with the consent of the first vice president, has virtually unlimited power to deal with a state of emergency. 

The president appointed two vice presidents in 2005–10, one from 

South Sudan and one from the North, who had to meet the same eligibility requirements as the president. The president was also able to appoint 

assistants and advisers and to define their functions and responsibilities. 

The first vice president acted in the absence of the president and was a 

member of the National Council of Ministers, National Security Council, and Presidential Council in the preelection period. The Presidential 

Council consisted of the two vice presidents and the speaker of the 

National Assembly; the council would assume the functions of the president if that office fell vacant. The second vice president acted in the 

absence of the president and first vice president and was a member of the 

same organizations as the first vice president. Should the office of the 

national president fall vacant, the second vice president would become 

commander in chief of the Sudan Armed Forces. The constitution had 

elaborate provisions in the event of a vacancy in the office of the president both before and after the elections. 

Al-Bashir was not known for his ability to conceptualize. He tried to 

rule by consensus but ultimately made the key decisions. First Vice 

President Salva Kiir played a minimal role in the Government of 

National Unity in 2005–10 and instead focused his energy on governing 

South Sudan. Taha’s role as second vice president was significant but 

unclear, although he had had broad authority to negotiate the CPA with 

the SPLM. 

Eligibility requirements for the president of South Sudan mirrored 

those of the Interim National Constitution. In addition to responsibilities 

in the national government, Salva Kiir was responsible for the security of 

South Sudan, presided over the South Sudan Council of Ministers, could 

summon or adjourn the South Sudan Legislative Assembly, declare a 

236 
The Presidential Palace beside the Nile in Khartoum 

Courtesy Timothy Carney 

state of emergency in South Sudan, and appoint advisers. South Sudan’s 

vice president, Riek Machar Teny, acted as president in the absence of 

the president and was a member of the South Sudan Council of Ministers 

and the South Sudan Security Committee. 

National Council of Ministers 

After the coup led by al-Bashir in 1989, the RCC appointed members of the National Council of Ministers, which was also known as the 

cabinet. The RCC gave al-Bashir authority to appoint and dismiss ministers, and he regularly reshuffled the cabinet. Before the CPA, it consisted of some 34 ministers he had appointed. Members of the ruling 

NCP dominated the ministerial positions. Al-Bashir served as the prime 

minister on the council. Less than 7 percent of the federal ministers and 

about 2 percent of state ministers were women. Because the ministers 

were appointed by the president, they were effectively subservient to 

him and the small group of personal advisers who exerted so much 

power behind closed doors. 

Under the Interim National Constitution, the president, after consultation within the presidency, appointed the members of the National Council of Ministers. The president and two vice presidents were members of 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

the presidency and the National Council of Ministers. The presidency 

and the National Council of Ministers together constituted the highest 

executive body in Sudan’s government. The interim government had to 

allocate ministerial positions in accordance with a 70–30 North–South 

ratio: 52 percent of positions for the NCP (49 percent for Northerners 

and 3 percent for Southerners), 28 percent for the SPLM (21 percent for 

Southerners and 7 percent for Northerners), 14 percent for other Northern political forces, and 6 percent for other Southern political forces. The 

first iteration of this process was controversial and did not follow precisely this formula. Of the original 29 cabinet ministers, 16 were from the 

NCP, nine from the SPLM, and four from other opposition parties. There 

were 33 ministers of state or junior ministers. Southerners were especially unhappy that the ministries of energy and mining, finance and 

national economy, finance and planning, defense, interior, justice, and 

prosecutor general went to the NCP. The most senior ministry assigned 

to the SPLM was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

Following the April 2010 elections, the Government of National Unity 

increased and reallocated ministerial positions. Al-Bashir announced the 

appointment of 35 federal ministers and 42 state ministers. The NCP 

received 24 ministerial positions while the SPLM obtained eight, including the elusive oil ministry. Other political parties received three positions. Each minister was responsible for his ministry and answerable to 

the president, National Council of Ministers, and National Assembly. 

Ministers were expected to plan state policy, implement the CPA, initiate 

legislation, and prepare reports. 

South Sudan Council of Ministers 

The president of South Sudan appointed the South Sudan Council of 

Ministers (SSCM) in consultation with the vice president and following approval of a simple majority of all members of the South Sudan 

Legislative Assembly. The president and vice president were members 

of the SSCM, which had a quota requiring that least 25 percent of the 

members should be women. The SSCM was the highest executive 

authority in South Sudan, and its decisions prevailed over all other 

executive decisions. SSCM responsibilities included planning and general administration; approving general policies; preparing reports; and 

negotiating international and regional agreements on matters of trade, 

investment, and foreign aid with foreign governments and nongovernmental organizations. It also implemented South Sudan legislation, initiated bills before the South Sudan Legislative Assembly, and 

mobilized the public to achieve the objectives of government policy. A 

further responsibility was keeping the South Sudan Legislative Assembly informed about the progress of the CPA. 

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The president appointed 23 ministers to the SSCM in 2005; the number of ministerial positions increased to 32 after the April 2010 elections. According to the Interim Constitution of South Sudan , 70 percent 

should have come from the SPLM, 15 percent from the NCP, and 15 

percent from other South Sudan political forces. The SPLM assigned 

only two unimportant ministries to the NCP after the 2010 elections. 

The president was expected to select ministers with due regard to the 

need for inclusiveness based on ethnic and regional diversity and gender. Each minister was in charge of his or her ministry. Ministers could 

be removed by the president in consultation with the vice president, or 

the assembly could pass a vote of no confidence against a minister by a 

two-thirds majority, at which point the minister would have to resign or 

be removed from office. 

National Legislature 

During periods of military rule, Sudan’s legislature rarely served as 

an institution independent of the executive. When it seized power in 

1989, the RCC dissolved the elected legislature. Al-Bashir suspended 

the National Assembly in December 1999 following a dispute with 

Speaker al-Turabi; it did not resume operation until February 2001. 

The CPA significantly revised Sudan’s legislative structure. A bicameral National Legislature that consisted of a 450-member National Assembly (lower house) and a 50-member Council of States (upper house) 

replaced the former unicameral National Assembly that existed under the 

1998 constitution. President al-Bashir, in consultation with First Vice 

President Salva Kiir, initially appointed the 450 (including about 80 

women) members of the National Assembly according to a 70–30 North– 

South ratio using the formula laid out in the Interim National Constitution. 

President al-Bashir, following complex consultations, also appointed the 

two representatives from each of Sudan’s 25 states and two observers 

from Abyei Area to the Council of States. 

In April 2010, nationwide elections determined the makeup of the 

National Assembly. The NCP won 189 and the SPLM 56 of the 270 

geographic seats. Other parties or independents won 17 seats, and 

eight remained undecided. There were 68 seats on the list chosen from 

political parties; the NCP won 50, the SPLM 17, and the Popular Congress Party one. There were 112 seats on the list chosen from women; 

the NCP won 82, the SPLM 26, and other parties four. The NCP easily 

controlled the National Assembly with more than 320 seats compared 

to 99 for the SPLM while other parties controlled the remainder, and 

four were postponed. 

The Council of States had two representatives from each of the 25 

states, elected by the state legislatures in accordance with the National 

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Elections Act and regulations set forth by the National Elections Commission. Following the 2010 elections, the Council of States filled 46 

of the 50 seats; NCP members accounted for 25 and the SPLM for 21. 

Four seats in Al-Gezira and South Kordofan remained unfilled. Abyei 

Area had two observers in the Council of States elected by the Abyei 

Area Council. Candidates for both houses had to be at least 21 years of 

age and literate. Both houses of parliament met in Omdurman (so close 

to Khartoum that it is really a suburb of the capital); representatives 

were elected for a term of five years. 

Functions of the National Legislature included amending the constitution, approving a declaration of war, impeaching the president or first 

vice president, and authorizing resources and revenues. The National 

Assembly had the authority to approve the national budget, ratify international treaties, summon national ministers to present reports, and 

interrogate national ministers. The Council of States could initiate legislation of interest to the states, approve by two-thirds majority appointments of justices to the constitutional court, and issue resolutions and 

directives to guide all levels of government concerning certain articles 

of the constitution. Each chamber had a speaker and deputy speaker. 

South Sudan Legislative Assembly 

In accordance with the Interim Constitution of South Sudan, GOSS 

had its own parliament. The Transitional South Sudan Legislative 

Assembly (TSSLA) began in October 2005 with 170 members appointed 

by the president of South Sudan after broad consultation with relevant 

political forces and on the basis of the following percentages: 70 percent 

were to come from the SPLM, 15 percent from the NCP, and 15 percent 

from other South Sudan political forces. Eight political parties had at least 

one representative in the interim assembly, which met in Juba under the 

leadership of a speaker and deputy speaker. 

South Sudan held its first elections for membership of the TSSLA in 

April 2010. There were 102 geographic constituencies, 25 seats from a 

political party list, and 43 seats from a women’s list for a total of 170 

seats in the TSSLA. The SPLM won 161 seats, independents five seats, 

the SPLM–Democratic Change party, an offshoot of the ruling SPLM, 

three seats, and the NCP one seat. 

Members were elected on the basis of universal adult suffrage to represent territorial constituencies for a term of five years. At least 25 percent of the members had to be women; all members were required to be 

at least 21 years of age and literate. Powers of the assembly include 

authority to amend the constitution, enact legislation on all matters 

assigned to it by the CPA, authorize resources and revenue, impeach the 

president and vice president of the Government of South Sudan, approve 

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Government and Politics 

annual budgets, interrogate ministers, and ratify bilateral technical cooperation agreements. The largest party or coalition of parties not forming 

part of the government elected the leader of the opposition from among 

members of the assembly. The leader of the opposition in early 2011 was 

from the SPLM–Democratic Change party. 

Civil Service 

Northern Sudan historically had one of the more effective civil services in Africa as a result of early British attention to development of 

the civil service and the premium it placed on educating government 

employees. Independent governments carried on this tradition, although 

public service became increasingly politicized. In fact, many Sudanese 

held civil-service positions or equivalent jobs in foreign countries, especially the Arab Gulf states, because of the reputation the civil service 

enjoyed. The 1998 constitution expressly provided for a civil service 

that was responsible for the administration of the country. It mandated a 

system based on merit and proportional representation from all areas of 

the country. 

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs 

helped the government in 2001 lay the groundwork for implementation 

of the National Public Service Strategy that covered the early twentyfirst century. This program was designed to change individual behavior 

and the work environment for all civil servants, establish a database 

and information system, conduct a survey of public-service training 

needs, and formulate a concrete plan for the first phase of the strategy. 

The government began restructuring the civil service in 2002 and 

increased the salaries of civil servants in 2003 by 20 percent. 

Because of the long-running civil war and the lack of trained Southern civil servants, it was understandably difficult for the SPLM to 

establish a functioning bureaucracy in the South. The vast majority of 

senior administrators were ex-army officers appointed by the SPLM 

leadership. Merit-based recruitment was unknown, and administrative 

capacity was extremely limited. Until several years ago, the SPLM did 

not pay civil administrators but authorized them to collect a wide variety of taxes, such as a social services tax, personal income tax, customs 

and excise duties, vehicle registration, road tolls, market fees, cattle 

auction tax, fishing and game hunting licenses, etc. The nature of tax 

collection varied widely among states and counties. There were no 

financial management or control systems, little or no budgeting, and 

no financial audit systems. The management of the civil administration 

was highly personalized, hierarchical, and militaristic. Many South 

Sudanese viewed the administration primarily as an opportunity for the 

enrichment of its senior officers. 

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The Interim National Constitution created a national civil service 

that theoretically was based on merit, fair competition for jobs, affirmative action, and additional training for conflict-affected people. It established a National Civil Service Commission (NCSC) that advised the 

national government on the formulation and execution of policies 

related to public service employment. The NCSC was tasked to recruit 

Southerners into 20 to 30 percent of the national civil service positions. 

Not less than 20 percent of the middle- and upper-level positions in the 

national civil service, including undersecretaries, were meant to be 

filled by qualified Southerners within the first three years of the interim 

period, 25 percent within five years, and 30 percent at the end of the six 

years. This goal was overly ambitious in view of the relatively few 

Southerners trained to fill such positions and a history of highly questionable administration in the South. The constitution also called for a 

National Employees Justice Chamber to consider and determine grievances by national public-service employees. The national government 

passed the National Civil Service Act and the National Civil Service 

Commission Act. 

The Interim Constitution of South Sudan established a broad set of 

values and guidelines for the civil service that, under the circumstances, constituted wishful thinking rather than reality. After years of 

civil war, South Sudan simply did not have sufficient trained personnel to staff the civil service, although the government was paying the 

salaries of 100,000 civil servants. The constitution established a South 

Sudan Civil Service Commission (SSCSC) to advise the government 

on the formulation and execution of policies related to public service, 

employment, and employees. Independent and impartial, the SSCSC 

had the power to investigate, monitor, and evaluate the organization, 

administration, and personnel practices of the civil service. It could 

propose measures to improve efficiency, review existing practices and 

guidelines, address imbalances in the civil service, and hear employee 

grievances. The constitution also established a South Sudan Employees Justice Chamber to consider grievances from South Sudan civilservice employees. South Sudan set up some 19 independent commissions and chambers, including the Anticorruption Commission, to 

support services provided to South Sudanese. 

State and Local Government 

Relations between the central government and local authorities have 

been a persistent problem in Sudan (see The Federal System, this ch.). 

The 1998 constitution prescribed 25 states. The national government 

subsequently added Lakes State in the South, increasing the number to 

26. Following the 2005 CPA, South Kordofan State absorbed West Kor242 
 

Government and Politics 

dofan State, which returned the number to 25—15 states in the North and 

10 in the South (see fig. 1). According to the Interim National Constitution, each state had its own legislative, executive, and judicial organs. All 

of these positions were appointed until the April 2010 elections. 

The state-empowered local government and state constitutions determined the organization and electoral procedures for local government. 

Each state was headed by a governor and a state council of ministers. 

The governor, together with the state council of ministers, exercised the 

executive powers of the state in compliance with the schedule of 

responsibilities set forth in the Interim National Constitution. Each state 

had its own capital and was divided into several localities or provinces, 

which, in turn, were subdivided into administrative units. 

The system in the North remained centralized, although governors 

were elected in 2010, and they appointed their own ministers. All 15 

Northern governors were from the NCP except for the Blue Nile governor, who was a member of the SPLM. Revenue flowed upward to the 

federal treasury. Some levels of government became so small, however, that they did not have a solid financial base. Oil-rich and highly 

contested Abyei Area straddling the North–South border area had a 

special administrative status under the presidency. Residents of Abyei 

Area were citizens of both South Kordofan State in the North and 

North Bahr al-Ghazal State in the South. Eventually, the residents were 

to hold a referendum to determine if they wished to retain their special 

administrative status with the North or join the South, but it was repeatedly postponed. 

The South Sudan president initially appointed all state governors in 

consultation with the vice president. All governors became elected 

officials in 2010; they were all from the SPLM except for the West 

Equatoria governor, who was an independent. Local government in 

South Sudan had three tiers: county, city, municipal, and town councils; the payam (district encompassing several villages) and block 

councils (coordinated administrative units); and the boma (one village) 

in the rural areas and a local neighborhood council in the urban areas. 

The Interim Constitution of South Sudan specifically incorporated traditional authorities and customary law in the local government system. 

Local governments had the power to levy, charge, and collect fees and 

taxes in accordance with the law. 

There were significant differences between the organization of local 

government in the North and South. For example, Red Sea State in the 

North had four localities and 19 administrative units. Chiefs or traditional 

tribal leaders were in charge of the localities. South Darfur State had nine 

localities and was further divided into 10 urban and 33 rural administrative units. Commissioners were in charge of the localities. Because of a 

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lack of infrastructure and skilled personnel, local government in South 

Sudan remained a work in progress. Each of the 10 Southern states was 

divided into counties that ranged in number between seven and 13. Each 

state and county had a capital. For example, the capital of West Bahr alGhazal was Wau, and the state had seven counties. The capital of Upper 

Nile was Malakal, and it had 13 counties. 

The Legal System 

The basis for law in Sudan evolved over time. The legacy of British 

colonial rule had a significant impact even after independence. Most of 

the lawyers and judges were British trained and initially tended to rely 

on judicial precedent. Soon after independence, however, pressure 

began to build to change the legal system. By the time al-Numayri 

seized power in 1969, a commission had been working on recommendations for a new system, but he dissolved it and formed another commission dominated by 12 Egyptian jurists. Based on recommendations 

received from them, Sudan adopted a new civil code that looked much 

like the Egyptian civil code of 1949. The new system was controversial 

because it disregarded existing laws and customs and introduced many 

new legal terms and concepts from Egyptian law without source material to interpret the codes. In 1973 the government repealed these codes 

and returned the legal system to its pre-1970 common-law status. In 

1977 al-Numayri agreed to consider a Muslim Brotherhood (see Glossary) demand that the system be based on Islam. He appointed al-Turabi 

as chairman of a committee to draft new Islamic laws. Al-Numayri 

accepted few of the proposals from this committee. He then established 

a small, new group in 1983 that developed a “cut-and-paste” version of 

sharia laws based on practice in other countries. In September 1983, alNumayri issued several decrees, known as the September Laws, which 

made sharia the law of the land. 

Secular Muslims and the predominantly non-Muslim Southerners 

strongly opposed the imposition of Islamic law. Even before issuance of 

the September Laws, however, SPLM leader John Garang had defected 

from the government and begun to organize Southern opposition to overthrow al-Numayri. The enforcement of hudud (see Glossary) punishment, 

which included flogging and amputation of hands and feet, aroused widespread opposition to the al-Numayri government. Following al-Numayri’s 

overthrow in 1985, the Siwar al-Dhahab government suspended the 

harshest hudud penalties. Both Siwar al-Dhahab and his democratically 

elected successor, Sadiq al-Mahdi, supported sharia but criticized its 

method of implementation by al-Numayri. By early 1989, a reluctant alMahdi expressed willingness to consider abrogation of the controversial 

sharia laws. This caused his coalition partner, al-Turabi and the NIF, to 

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resign from the government in protest. Al-Mahdi announced that the cabinet would consider draft legislation repealing the September Laws on July 

1, 1989, and would meet with SPLM leaders to resolve peacefully an end 

to the civil war. The military coup of June 1989 led by al-Bashir occurred 

only 24 hours before the al-Mahdi government was scheduled to vote on 

rescinding the September Laws. 

The al-Bashir government initially retained the official freeze on 

implementation of the sharia laws but unofficially advised judges to apply 

them in preference to secular codes. Al-Bashir asked al-Turabi to prepare 

new laws based on Islamic principles. In January 1991, al-Bashir decreed 

that Islamic law would be applied in courts throughout the North, but not 

in the South. The 1998 constitution specified that the source of law for 

Sudan was sharia and national consent through voting in addition to the 

constitution and custom. In practice, Sudan treated Islam as the state religion and expected it to inspire the country’s laws, institutions, and policies in the North. The Interim National Constitution was less emphatic on 

this point and stated explicitly that Sudan was a “multireligious country” 

where diversity meant coexistence. Nevertheless, the government continued to place restrictions on non-Muslims, non-Arab Muslims, and Muslims from tribes or sects not affiliated with the NCP. 

The CPA significantly altered the judicial structure in the North and 

created a new legal system for South Sudan, the states, and the national 

capital of Khartoum. The Interim National Constitution established an 

independent national judicial authority headed by a chief justice. The 

chief justice served as the president of the National Supreme Court and 

was answerable to the president of the republic. Structures of the national 

judiciary included the National Supreme Court, national courts of appeal, 

and other national courts. Nevertheless, the judiciary remained largely 

subservient to the president or the security forces, particularly in cases of 

crimes against the state. The Interim Constitution of South Sudan created 

a separate, independent judiciary consisting of the Supreme Court of 

South Sudan, courts of appeal, high courts, county courts, and other 

courts or tribunals as deemed necessary. Lack of qualified personnel prevented full staffing of the judiciary in South Sudan. 

The Courts 

Since 1958 Sudan’s various military governments have interfered 

with the judicial process. Following the military takeover in 1989, for 

example, the RCC issued a decree that gave the president power to 

appoint and dismiss all judges. Al-Bashir dismissed many, apparently 

because they were insufficiently committed to applying sharia in their 

decisions, and replaced them with supporters of the NIF. The judiciary 

effectively became responsible to the president or security forces. 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

The National Supreme Court was the highest court in the land. It was 

the court of final appeal and review with respect to any criminal, civil, 

or administrative matter arising out of national laws or personal matters. 

It had criminal jurisdiction over the justices of the Constitutional Court 

and could review death sentences imposed by any court. The president 

of the republic appointed the chief justice and members of the National 

Supreme Court on the advice of the Supreme Judicial Council. The 

chief justice served as the president of the National Supreme Court and 

presided over the National Judicial Service Commission (NJSC), which 

was responsible for overall management of the national judiciary. The 

NJSC regulated relations between the judiciaries at the national, South 

Sudan, and state level. In the case of South Sudan, the NJSC consulted 

with the president of the Supreme Court of South Sudan. The National 

Supreme Court consisted of 70 judges operating through panels consisting of three judges. It reached decisions by majority opinion, subject to 

revision only if and when the chief justice concluded that a judgment 

infringed sharia laws. Four circuits of the National Supreme Court operated outside the capital in the Western, Central, and Eastern states. 

A separate Constitutional Court of nine justices served as the custodian of the constitution. The court had jurisdiction to interpret the constitution and original jurisdiction to decide disputes that arose under the 

constitution and the constitutions of Northern states. It decided on 

appeals against the decision of the Supreme Court of South Sudan, the 

Interim Constitution of South Sudan, and the constitutions of states in 

the South. It heard cases involving human rights and fundamental freedoms and adjudicated the constitutionality of laws or provisions in 

accordance with the Interim National Constitution, the Interim Constitution of South Sudan, and relevant state constitutions. The Constitutional Court adjudicated constitutional disputes between levels and 

organs of government and had criminal jurisdiction over the president 

of the republic, vice presidents, speakers of the National Legislature, 

and the justices of the National Supreme Court and Supreme Court of 

South Sudan. The president of the republic appointed the president of 

the Constitutional Court and all justices upon recommendation of the 

NJSC and subject to approval of a two-thirds majority of all the representatives of the Council of States. 

According to the Interim National Constitution, the number, competences, and procedures of the national courts of appeal would be determined by law. In 2010–11 Sudan had some 130 judges in courts of 

appeal that functioned in 28 appeal circuits throughout the country, each 

one consisting of three judges. They reached decisions by majority opinion and dealt with appeals against the preliminary and appellate decisions of the public courts and the preliminary judgments of first-level 

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courts in civil, criminal, and personal cases. National courts of appeal 

occasionally overturned decisions of lower courts in political cases, 

especially from the public courts, which consisted of a single judge. The 

public courts had appellate jurisdiction over judgments of magistrates of 

third and second grade in criminal cases. 

In 2005 there were 133 public-court judges and 397 district courts of 

the first instance. Civil and criminal codes passed in the 1980s and 

1990s prescribed their powers. There were 98 town courts, 67 intermediate courts, and 897 rural courts. Local citizens chose the members of 

these courts from among prominent residents such as tribal chiefs and 

local sheikhs. Their distinctive feature was the application of customary 

law so long as it was consistent with Sudan’s laws and public policy. 

These courts normally resolved problems through conciliation and dealt 

with disputes over pasture, water, and farmland. They tended to be 

located in remote areas where there were no district courts. Sudan theoretically abolished special security courts in 2003 only to create three 

special courts in Darfur under the state of emergency to try crimes 

against the state. For example, one of these courts consisted of a threejudge bench composed of two military personnel and a civilian prosecutor appointed by the armed forces. It followed military rather than civilian procedures. Military trials, which sometimes were secret and brief, 

did not provide procedural safeguards. These courts ceased functioning 

in 2009. The Special Courts Act (1989) created three-person security 

courts to deal with violations of constitutional decrees, emergency regulations, and some sections of the penal code. Special courts, composed 

primarily of civilian judges, handled most security-related cases. Sentences usually were severe and implemented immediately. 

In 2010–11 the judiciary in South Sudan was at an early stage of 

development. South Sudan traditionally drew on customary law and 

practice together with common and statutory law. The SPLM recognized traditional courts, known as courts of elders, which usually heard 

personal matters dealing with questions like marriages and dowries. 

Local chiefs usually presided over traditional courts where defendants 

had a right of appeal to a non-customary court, although this did not 

always happen in practice. They based their decisions on customary 

law. GOSS employed courts of elders, traditional chiefs’ courts, payam 

(district) courts, county judges, state judges, and a court of appeals.

 The Interim Constitution of South Sudan authorized a Supreme 

Court of South Sudan with a president, deputy president, and five other 

justices. It was the court of final judicial instance in respect of any litigation or prosecution under South Sudan or state law. Its competences 

were similar to those of the National Supreme Court but applied only 

within South Sudan. There were three courts of appeal, which sat in 

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Malakal, Juba, and Rumbek. High courts, the highest courts at the level 

of a state in South Sudan, existed in all 10 states. Decisions of the high 

courts could be appealed before the courts of appeal. In addition, South 

Sudan had established county courts in all 10 states and several town 

and rural courts. Traditional courts were formalized and integrated into 

the judicial system. The court system did not function in some areas 

because of lack of infrastructure, communications, funding, and an 

ineffective police force. 

Sharia Law 

Sharia is not a fixed set of ideas. There are substantially different 

interpretations of sharia in Sudan and other countries concerning what 

it is or should be. During Sudan’s relatively brief independent history, 

Islamic authorities approached it from varying points of view. Long 

traditions of Sufism (see Glossary) and Mahdism (see Glossary) influenced these debates. In more recent decades, the impetus for sharia 

tended to come from the Muslim Brotherhood and the NIF led by alTurabi. Other key political figures, including Sadiq al-Mahdi and former President al-Numayri, were also instrumental at various points in 

promoting sharia. 

The U.S. Department of State 2009 International Religious Freedom Report on Sudan estimated the country’s Muslim population at 70 

percent. Muslims constituted the overwhelming majority in the North, 

although there were sizable Christian communities in the major cities, 

especially Khartoum. Sudanese who believed in traditional religions 

and Christians predominated in the South. The 1998 constitution provided for freedom of religion but treated Islam as a state religion and 

cited sharia as one of the sources of legislation. Differences over the 

application of sharia for non-Muslims were one of the root causes of 

the civil war between the North and the South. As a result, with an end 

to the conflict, the Interim National Constitution underscored the diversity of religious beliefs in Sudan. 

Sharia remained a source of legislation in the 15 states of the North. 

Sudan’s Code of Criminal Procedure, in accordance with sharia, authorized hudud punishments in the North, although the severest forms 

were not being implemented as of 2011. The consumption of alcohol 

was punishable by 40 lashes for a Muslim and 20 lashes for a Christian. 

Islamic family law applied to Muslims in Sudan. A Muslim woman did 

have the right to hold and dispose of her own property without interference, and women were guaranteed inheritance from their parents; but 

certain Islamic law provisions discriminated against women. A widow 

inherited only one-eighth of her husband’s estate; of the remaining 

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Government and Politics 

ters. It was much easier for men to initiate legal divorce proceedings 

than for women. Although a Muslim man might marry a non-Muslim 

woman, a Muslim woman could not marry a non-Muslim man unless 

he converted to Islam. Women were instructed to dress modestly 

according to Islamic standards, including wearing a head covering; but 

there was minimal enforcement of the dress code. Converting from 

Islam to another religion was considered apostasy under sharia and was 

punishable by death in the North. In practice, the penalty was not carried out; by the end of 2010, the last case of apostasy prosecuted was in 

1985 under the al-Numayri government and involved a Muslim who 

questioned Islamic beliefs but did not attempt to convert to another 

religion. 

The national government did condone some discriminatory practices 

against Christians living in the North. The government required, for 

example, that all students in the North study Islam in school even if they 

were not Muslim. In the twenty-first century, however, there was a general improvement in religious freedom in the North. The Government of 

South Sudan generally respected religious freedom in the 10 states in 

the South. 

Human Rights 

By almost all accounts, Sudan has had a poor record on human rights 

for many years. Criticism of Sudan’s legal framework for failing to protect human rights and concern over the actual situation in the country 

increased after the military coup in 1989. Suppressed civil-society organizations, opposition political parties, and trade unions were quick to underscore human-rights abuses after the coup. The government disbanded the 

independent Sudan Human Rights Organization (SHRO) in 1991 and 

replaced it with a government-controlled body under the same name. Its 

role and that of the Sudan Advisory Council on Human Rights was not to 

monitor rights compliance but rather to consider accusations against the 

government and advise it on human-rights issues. In the meantime, the 

independent SHRO relocated to Cairo, where it remained highly critical 

of the human-rights situation in Sudan. The national government enacted 

legislation in 2009 to create an independent National Human Rights 

Commission; it only appointed the commissioners in January 2011. The 

South Sudan Human Rights Commission was established under article 

149 of the Interim Constitution of South Sudan. Its primary mandate was 

to monitor the bill of rights enshrined in the constitution. Many South 

Sudanese charged, however, that it was devoting too much effort to 

advancing the SPLM’s agenda. 

Several political developments had an important impact on the 

degree to which outsiders focused on human-rights abuses in Sudan. A 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

civil war between the North and the South that resumed in 1983 and 

officially only came to an end in 2005 led to numerous abuses by government forces, by the SPLA, and by other Southern groups. Sudan’s 

support for Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War, and its active involvement with 

international terrorist organizations until the turn of the century, encouraged the United States and some Western countries to be even more critical of Sudan’s human-rights practices than might otherwise have been 

the case. The crisis in Darfur that began in 2003 resulted in some of the 

most horrific human-rights abuse. The United States and most humanrights organizations labeled it genocide. Although the United Nations 

investigation of Darfur did not go that far, it was highly critical and said 

there were crimes against humanity that must be stopped. 

The U.S. Department of State annual reports on human-rights practices in Sudan in recent years acknowledged improvements in some 

areas but noted the continuation of many serious problems. There had 

not been a peaceful change of government since 1986. Security forces 

and militias were responsible for extrajudicial killings and disappearances. They regularly beat, harassed, arbitrarily arrested, and detained 

incommunicado opponents or suspected opponents of the government. 

Sudan’s security forces and pro-government militias beat refugees, 

raped women abducted during raids, and harassed and detained persons. 

Prison conditions were harsh to the point of being life threatening, and 

prolonged detention remained a problem. The authorities did not ensure 

due process in civilian or military courts. There was some success in 

curbing serious abuses in the Nuba Mountains, however, and the situation in Darfur, although still bad, had improved. 

While Sudan had a variety of daily newspapers that reflected different 

political views, restrictions on press freedom were common in 2010–11 (see 

Information Media, this chapter). The government controlled news reporting through the National Press Council (NPC) and security forces. The NPC 

licensed newspapers, set press policy, and responded to complaints from the 

government, which periodically suspended publications and closed newspapers. There were occasional arrests of editors and journalists who criticized 

or disagreed with government policy. The government directly controlled 

radio and television in the North. It also restricted freedom of speech, assembly, association, religion, and movement, and arrested and harassed those 

who exercised these rights contrary to government wishes. 

As part of tribal custom, female genital mutilation was widespread 

in Sudan (see Women and the Family, ch. 2). Compared with other 

Muslim societies, however, women were relatively well represented in 

public life and accorded special attention in the primary health care system. In 2007, the State Department included Sudan as among the countries of greatest concern in the trafficking of men, women, and children 

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for purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. Many of these 

problems resulted from the effects of the North–South civil war and the 

conflict in Darfur. The State Department described Sudan’s antitrafficking law-enforcement efforts as negligible. 

Antigovernment insurgent groups and associated militia forces committed numerous, serious human-rights abuses. The SPLM/A violated 

citizens’ rights in South Sudan; there were occasional reports of its 

responsibility for killings, beatings, rape, arbitrary detention, and forced 

military conscription of underage young men. The Sudan Liberation 

Army, Justice and Equality Movement, and other rebel groups in Darfur also violated numerous commonly accepted human rights. 

One of the most emotional charges against the government was that 

it engaged in slavery (see Umar al-Bashir and the Islamist Revolution, 

ch. 1). Much has been written on this topic—most of it shedding more 

heat than light—the best account being the May 22, 2002, report of the 

International Eminent Persons Group, Slavery, Abduction, and Forced 

Servitude in Sudan. The report concluded that most of the allegations of 

slavery involved economic exploitation, ranging from debt bondage to 

benign relations of sponsorship or adoption rather than slavery. It found 

evidence, however, of exploitative and abusive relationships that, in 

some cases, did meet the definition of slavery as contained in international conventions. The group concluded that in a significant number of 

cases, abduction was the first stage in a pattern of abuse that fell under 

the definition of slavery in the International Slavery Convention of 

1926 and the Supplementary Convention of 1956. Nevertheless, the 

group was unable to establish the scale of abduction and enslavement. 

Allegations of slavery encouraged by the government had nearly disappeared by 2011. 

Political Groups 

The traditional, and historically most important, political groups in 

Sudan were the Umma Party, Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), and 

much smaller Sudan Communist Party. The National Islamic Front (NIF) 

led by al-Turabi came later and subsequently changed its name; many 

other parties have come and gone over the years. 

Following the military coup in 1989, the Revolutionary Command 

Council (RCC) banned all political parties and arrested several political 

leaders, including the deposed prime minister and Umma Party leader, 

Sadiq al-Mahdi. The NIF, an outgrowth of the Sudanese branch of the 

Muslim Brotherhood, was the one political group that strongly influenced the al-Bashir government. The NIF changed its name to the 

National Congress Party (NCP), the current ruling party, in 1991. (Commentators often refer to the NCP inaccurately as the NIF.) Al-Bashir 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

eventually forced al-Turabi out of the NCP; in 2000 al-Turabi created 

the Popular National Congress, subsequently renamed the Popular Congress Party (PCP). Within a year of the NCP’s founding, however, the 

two most important Northern opposition parties, Umma and DUP, joined 

in alliance with the SPLM and a dissident Northern group known as the 

Sudanese National Alliance (SNA) and formed the National Democratic 

Alliance (NDA). Most Northern NDA leaders were initially in exile in 

Cairo. In 1995 the NDA moved its headquarters to Asmara, Eritrea, 

where the government allowed it to occupy the former embassy of 

Sudan until Eritrea normalized relations with Sudan. 

The al-Bashir government continued to restrict the activities of opposition political groups but did permit the official registration of political 

parties beginning on January 6, 1999. A number of their leaders began 

to return from exile. Former President al-Numayri returned from Egypt 

in 1999, formed the Alliance of the People’s Working Forces, but captured less than 10 percent of the vote in his run for president in 2000. 

Sadiq al-Mahdi returned in 2000, just before the presidential elections, 

but chose to boycott them. DUP leader Al-Sayyid Muhammad Uthman 

al-Mirghani remained in exile in Cairo, although some of his Khatmiyyah (see Glossary) sect leaders became politically active in Sudan. The 

Sudanese National Alliance engaged the Sudan government in talks in 

Cairo in 2004 and subsequently returned to Sudan. The SPLM signed 

the CPA with Khartoum in 2005 and became part of the national government. Most Southern opposition groups joined the SPLM and, consequently, are also part of the national government. Some Southern 

parties remained in opposition and new ones formed. Following the 

Darfur Peace Agreement in 2006, one faction of the Sudan Liberation 

Movement joined the national government while other groups refused, 

and many new factions subsequently evolved. 

The end of Sudan’s civil war led to passage by the national government of the Political Parties Act of 2007, which regulated the registration, operations, and dissolution of political parties. The National 

Constitutional Review Commission held consultations on this act with 

opposition political parties and civil society in 2007. The SNA remained 

troubled about the section that allowed for the dissolution of political 

parties. Other opposition parties continued to voice concerns about the 

commitment of both Khartoum and the SPLM to a free and fair environment for elections. The handling of the April 2010 national elections in 

both the North and South justified these concerns. The following discussion of political parties reflects the situation at the start of 2011. 

252 
Sadiq al-Mahdi, head of the Umma Party, 

at the Ansar Mosque in Omdurman, 2003 

Copyright Michael Freeman 

National Congress Party 

The National Congress Party (NCP) was one of two successor parties 

to the NIF and effectively served as Sudan’s ruling party under the control of al-Bashir. The NIF dissolved itself after the 1989 coup and 

emerged in 1991 as the NCP, the only legal political party at the time. 

Al-Turabi was highly influential in the NCP until May 2000, when alBashir suspended him from the position of secretary-general and 

removed most of his supporters from senior posts in the party. Al-Bashir 

subsequently banned al-Turabi and his Islamist followers from participating in any political activity. Al-Bashir’s assistant for political affairs, 

Professor Ibrahim Ahmad Umar, replaced al-Turabi as NCP secretarygeneral. The NCP considers consultation between the leadership and its 

political base at the grassroots level as its main political principle and 

Islam as the source of Sudanese culture. The NCP preferred to have a 

unified Sudan but was willing to go forward in January 2011 with a referendum on Southern secession. 

The NCP’s base of support was small, and the party suffered from 

factionalism. It experienced continuing competition for political control 

and the future of the Islamist agenda. Disagreements over policy in 

Darfur exacerbated the situation within the NCP. Key persons in the 

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party included Sudan’s second vice president, Ali Uthman Muhammad 

Taha, and assistant to the president and former minister of federal relations, Nafie Ali Nafie. Faced with internal party problems, the government increasingly relied for its survival on a policy of dividing its 

domestic opponents and using offers of money and positions in the 

government. This practice contributed to splits in the Umma Party, 

DUP, and SPLM. Opposition groups collectively had more popular 

support than the NCP. As long as the NCP retained significant support 

in the security services and successfully implemented its divide-andrule tactics, however, it was well positioned to retain power in the 

North. 

Popular Congress Party 

The Popular Congress Party (PCP) was the other successor to the 

NIF. The power struggle between al-Bashir and al-Turabi resulted in alTurabi’s expulsion from the NCP. As a consequence, al-Turabi established the PCP (initially called the Popular National Congress) in 

August 2000 in opposition to the NCP. Al-Turabi has been a towering 

figure, sometimes operating as an éminence grise, in Sudanese politics 

since he helped found the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood in 1954. The 

Islamist movement started in universities and high schools as early as 

the 1940s under the influence of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The 

Islamic Liberation Movement, a precursor of the Sudanese Muslim 

Brotherhood, began in 1949. Al-Turabi then took control of it under the 

name of the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood. In 1964 he became secretary-general of the Islamic Charter Front (ICF), an activist movement 

that served as the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, and was 

elected to parliament in the mid-1960s. He headed the Front of the 

Islamic Pact and the Party of the Islamic Bloc from 1964–69. Following 

the military coup in 1969, al-Numayri jailed al-Turabi for seven years. 

Released in 1977, he became attorney general in 1979 and then alNumayri’s foreign affairs adviser in 1983. Al-Numayri put him back in 

prison in 1985; the new military government released him later the same 

year. Al-Turabi established the NIF in 1985 as a replacement for the 

ICF. Al-Turabi held several ministerial positions in the democratically 

elected Sadiq al-Mahdi government, which the NIF joined in 1988 as a 

coalition partner, but he was never comfortable with this arrangement. 

Following the military coup in 1989, the RCC briefly arrested al-Turabi 

even though it was widely believed the NIF actively collaborated with 

the RCC. Al-Turabi and his NIF supporters soon provided essential support to the military government as part of the new NCP, which replaced 

the NIF. Al-Turabi played a major role in the government, including his 

election as speaker of the National Assembly in 1996, until his falling 

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Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha 

Courtesy Embassy of the 

Republic of the Sudan, 

Press and Information Section 

out with al-Bashir in 1999, when al-Turabi again began to spend time in 

jail or under house arrest. 

After al-Turabi created the PCP, al-Bashir’s security forces regularly 

harassed its meetings and arrested participants. In February 2001, the 

PCP signed a “memorandum of understanding” in Geneva with the 

SPLM. Among other things, the memorandum noted that self-determination is a legitimate right of the people of South Sudan. Al-Turabi saw 

the memorandum as a way to undermine al-Bashir and improve his own 

position; it resulted in al-Turabi’s arrest. After three months in prison, 

the government released al-Turabi from prison and put him under house 

arrest. PCP activity virtually came to a halt; al-Bashir dropped charges 

against PCP supporters near the end of 2001. Released from detention, 

al-Turabi was rearrested in March 2003 on charges of masterminding a 

coup attempt. The government dismissed these charges against alTurabi and the PCP in December 2004 but continued to keep him in 

detention and banned party activity. Al-Turabi managed, however, to 

have a significant impact on political developments in Sudan from jail 

or house arrest and eventually was released. There is strong evidence 

that the PCP established an alliance with the rebel Justice and Equality 

Movement in Darfur in order to put additional pressure on the government. In the flawed April 2010 elections, the PCP candidate for president, Abdullah Deng Nhial, a Muslim from the Dinka tribe, received 

only 4 percent of the vote. 

Al-Turabi by 2011 had been the leader of Islamists in Sudan for the 

last half century. Consequently, his philosophy deserves special attention. 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

He drew selectively from Sudanese, Islamic, and Western political 

thought to fashion an ideology for the pursuit of power. Al-Turabi supported sharia and the concept of an Islamic state, but his vision was not 

Wahhabi (see Glossary) or Salafi (see Glossary). He appreciated that the 

majority of Sudanese followed Sufi Islam, which he set out to change 

with new ideas. He did not extend legitimacy to Sufis, Mahdists, and clerics, whom he saw as incapable of addressing the challenges of modern 

life. One of the strengths of his vision was to consider different trends in 

Islam. Although the political base for his ideas was probably relatively 

small, he had an important influence on Sudanese politics and religion. 

Young Sudanese, who provided much of his following, saw his 

ideas as modern and not a return to the past. In fact, his views on the 

role of women in society were relatively progressive. Al-Turabi had 

his greatest success in recruiting supporters from the educated and professional classes in urban areas. He attached fundamental importance 

to the concept of shura (consultation) and ibtila, his view of modernity, 

which he believed should lead to a more profound worship of God. 

Religion was regularly tested by the reality of ibtila. Al-Turabi also 

saw his religious theory as extending beyond Sudan. He created in 

1991 the Popular Arab and Islamic Conference (PAIC) with himself as 

secretary-general. Its goal was to mobilize progressive Islamic movements against the West and to promote Islamic revolution within reactionary Muslim states. With al-Turabi’s fall from power in Sudan, the 

PAIC no longer functioned. Al-Turabi failed to achieve his goals in 

Sudan because it was ethnically, culturally, and religiously diverse and 

probably not subject to unification by any form of Islamism. His 

model also relied heavily on authoritarian measures. 

Umma 

Established in 1945 with the goal of achieving independence from 

Britain and Egypt, the Umma Party obtained most of its support from 

the Ansar (see Glossary) Sufi order. Its supporters followed the religious 

teachings of the Mahdi (see Glossary), who ruled Sudan in the 1880s 

(see The Mahdiyyah, 1885–98, ch. 1). Although the Ansar were found 

throughout Sudan, most lived in rural areas of western Darfur and Kordofan. Sadiq al-Mahdi, a direct descendent of the Mahdi, became head of 

Umma and spiritual leader of the Ansar in 1970. Constantly in conflict 

with the military government, he was imprisoned by al-Numayri in 

1983 because of his opposition to government policies, including the 

September Laws that institutionalized sharia. Umma was, however, an 

Islamic party dedicated to achieving its own political agenda for Sudan. 

Sadiq al-Mahdi did not object to sharia becoming the law of the land but 

rather to the “un-Islamic” method al-Numayri used to implement it. 

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Government and Politics 

After becoming prime minister in 1986, Sadiq al-Mahdi, working with 

NIF leader al-Turabi, began drafting new Islamic legal codes. Al-Bashir 

had al-Mahdi arrested after the 1989 military coup. Released early in 

1991, he eventually went into exile and actively supported the Northern 

opposition coalition, the National Democratic Alliance. 

The government, believing that it had successfully split the political 

opposition, invited the Umma Party leadership back to Sudan. Some 

Umma leaders returned to Khartoum in April 2000. Sadiq al-Mahdi 

went back late in the year, hoping to find al-Bashir more willing to 

permit truly democratic elections. On his return, Sadiq al-Mahdi reaffirmed Umma’s pledge of self-determination for South Sudan and disavowed an Islamic state in religiously and culturally divided Sudan. 

The government temporarily banned Umma from all political activity 

in the spring of 2005, claiming it had not been properly registered. 

Sadiq al-Mahdi experienced severe frustration after his return to 

Sudan. Al-Bashir’s offer to Umma to join his government resulted in a 

split in the party. In 2002 a group led by Mubarak al-Fadil al-Mahdi, 

Sadiq al-Mahdi’s nephew, broke from the party and created the Umma 

Reform and Renewal Party (URRP). This faction joined the al-Bashir 

government and occupied a number of senior positions. The URRP 

ended the two-year alliance with the government in late 2004, charging 

that al-Bashir had violated their original agreement. Most of the URRP 

ministers resigned, and al-Fadil opened discussions with Sadiq al-Mahdi 

in 2007 on rejoining the main branch of the Umma Party. This effort 

failed, and the al-Bashir government jailed al-Fadil for four months in 

2007, allegedly for participating in a coup plot.

 Upon his return to Khartoum, Sadiq al-Mahdi called for an all-party 

constitutional conference that would have given wider legitimacy to the 

Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD—see Glossary) 

peace process and brought all of Sudan’s political forces into the discussions. For this reason, Sadiq al-Mahdi opposed the CPA because deliberations leading to its signing effectively eliminated Umma from the 

political process. In addition, the CPA offered little opportunity for 

Umma to participate in Sudanese politics. Sadiq al-Mahdi said he would 

join the al-Bashir government only if it began the process of holding 

genuinely democratic elections. He also pressed for a government based 

on a religiously neutral constitution and not a theocracy. Sadiq al-Mahdi 

argued that Umma believed there could be no Islamic state under Islam, 

only the pursuit of Islamic principles. 

Both Sadiq al-Mahdi and Mubarak al-Fadil announced their intention 

to run for president as representatives of their respective wings of the 

party in the April 2010 election. At the last minute, al-Mahdi withdrew 

his candidacy, although the names of both Umma leaders appeared on the 

ballots. Al-Mahdi received 1 percent of the vote and al-Fadil 0.5 percent. 

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Democratic Unionist Party 

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) drew its support from the 

Khatmiyyah (see Glossary) religious order and for a long time competed with the Ansar order and Umma Party. The former National 

Unionist Party and People’s Defense Party combined to form the DUP 

in 1967. Historically, the DUP and its predecessors were plagued by 

factionalism, stemming largely from the differing perspectives of secular-minded professionals in the party and the more traditional religious 

values of their Khatmiyyah supporters. Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani, the DUP leader and hereditary Khatmiyyah spiritual guide since 

1968, tried to keep these tensions in check by avoiding firm positions 

on controversial political issues. He refrained from public criticism of 

al-Numayri’s September Laws so as not to alienate Khatmiyyah followers who approved of sharia. In the 1986 parliamentary elections, 

the DUP won the second largest number of seats and agreed to participate in Sadiq al-Mahdi’s coalition government. By 1988 DUP leaders 

had persuaded al-Mirghani that the Islamic law issue was the main 

obstacle to peaceful resolution of the North–South civil war. This conviction prompted al-Mirghani to meet with SPLM leader John Garang 

in Ethiopia, where they negotiated a cease-fire agreement based on a 

commitment to abolish the September Laws. Al-Mirghani argued that 

if Khartoum had accepted this agreement, it would have resulted in 

peace in Sudan. 

Following the 1989 military coup, al-Mirghani took up exile in Cairo. 

The al-Bashir government then had some success in exploiting factionalism within the DUP by co-opting several of its leaders while al-Mirghani 

remained in Egypt. One of those leaders was Zayn al-Abdin al-Hindi, 

who applied to reestablish the DUP under Sudan’s 1998 Political Association Act. The DUP leadership in exile rejected his initiative. Al-Mirghani joined other Northern opposition leaders and the SPLM in a 

declaration in 1995 that led to the creation of the NDA, which then 

elected al-Mirghani as its head. Al-Mirghani subsequently played a key 

role in encouraging the failed joint Libyan-Egyptian peace proposal for 

ending the civil war. Al-Mirghani finally met with al-Bashir in September 

2000. The DUP and Khartoum signed a bilateral agreement in February 

2003, although the DUP sought a broader agreement between the NDA 

and the al-Bashir government on a complete solution to the “Sudanese 

problem.” Al-Mirghani continued contact with senior government officials, speaking for both the DUP and NDA. He met then-First Vice President Taha in Cairo in June 2004. Relations between al-Mirghani and the 

government remained delicate throughout these negotiations until the 

NDA and Khartoum signed an agreement in June 2005. 

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Al-Mirghani remained in Cairo, but the DUP resumed engagement 

in Sudanese politics. Its goal was to realign old and new opposition parties in a comprehensive way to confront broader issues such as national 

unity and the transition to democracy. It continued to see the NDA as a 

mechanism for achieving this goal. Hatim al-Sir ran for president as the 

DUP candidate in April 2010; he received 2 percent of the vote. 

National Democratic Alliance 

Established in 1995 by the SNA, DUP, Umma, and SPLM, the 

National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was intended to lead a “popular 

struggle against the new dictatorship in Sudan and the fundamentalist 

regime.” The government of Eritrea turned over Sudan’s vacant embassy 

(Eritrea broke diplomatic relations with Sudan in late 1991) for use by 

the NDA as its headquarters until Asmara reestablished diplomatic relations with Khartoum in 2000; the NDA then relocated its headquarters to 

another office in Asmara. DUP leader al-Mirghani was the chairman of 

the NDA from its creation through early 2011. Less important member 

organizations included the Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party, Beja Congress, 

Sudan Communist Party, Federal Democratic Alliance, Free Lions, 

Sudan Liberation Movement, Sudanese National Party, and Union of 

Sudan African Parties (USAP). Umma suspended its membership in 

2000. Once it became part of the national government, the SPLM also 

left the NDA. 

At its leadership council meeting in 2003, the NDA decided to pursue 

a strategy that emphasized peace and affirmed its willingness to meet 

directly with the government. On behalf of the NDA, al-Mirghani in 

December 2004 praised al-Bashir’s promise to end the state of emergency following the signing of an agreement with the SPLM. In February 2005, the NDA executive bureau approved the Beja Congress and 

Free Lions as the official representatives of Eastern Sudan and the Sudan 

Liberation Movement of Western Sudan. It emphasized the need to 

establish a special forum to discuss issues related to the East and asserted 

that agreements reached with the SPLM and the Cairo talks with the 

NDA were complementary and historic. Khartoum and the NDA finally 

signed an agreement in Cairo in June 2005 that set the stage for resolving 

their differences. The parties agreed that the political system in Sudan 

should be pluralist, democratic, and peaceful, with a democratic transition of power, and with guaranteed freedom and respect for human 

rights. The NDA renounced violence and its members subsequently 

returned to Sudan as part of the political opposition. 

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Sudanese National Alliance 

Formed in 1994 as a democratic, secular, non-regional party, the 

Sudanese National Alliance (SNA) was one of the four original members of the NDA, the coalition of Northern groups and the SPLM in 

opposition to the al-Bashir government in Khartoum. From the beginning, former general Abdel Aziz Khalid was the visible leader of the 

SNA, although Amir Babakr was the SNA chairman. During the 1990s, 

the Sudan Alliance Forces, the armed wing of the SNA, conducted a 

number of low-level military attacks against Sudanese forces inside the 

country. The Sudan Alliance Forces merged with the SPLA in 2002. 

Subsequently, the SNA joined the political process in Khartoum. Khalid ran as the SNA candidate for president in the April 2010 election 

and received 0.34 percent of the vote. 

Sudan Communist Party 

The Sudan Communist Party (SCP) once played a disproportionately 

important role in Sudanese politics. Founded in 1946, it was known 

originally as the Sudanese Movement for National Liberation. It 

founded the Sudan Workers’ Trade Union Federation in 1950 and had 

strong early ties with the organizations of railway workers and cotton 

growers. It changed its name in 1956 to the Sudan Communist Party. In 

1967 the Muslim Brotherhood succeeded in having the SCP outlawed 

as an atheist organization. Continuing its activities underground, the 

SCP did not regain its legal status until 1985. The al-Bashir government 

banned the SCP in 1989; it eventually joined the NDA. Mohamed Ibrahim Nugud was the secretary-general of the SCP from 1972 through 

2010. Arrested in 1989 and then held under house arrest until 1994, he 

went into hiding until 2006. Nugud reemerged politically, but the SCP 

suffered from a dwindling membership after 1989. It still retained some 

support among workers, farmers, students, women’s groups, and minorities in the Nuba Mountains and in Darfur. It remained committed to a 

Marxist orientation. Nugud commented during an interview in 2007 

that Marx’s analysis of capitalism in the nineteenth century was useful 

and the SCP used his methods as a tool. The SCP advocated socialism 

in a multiparty system, supported the right of the South to self-determination, and doubted that the NCP would allow free and fair elections. 

During his campaign for president in 2010, Nugud seemed to stress the 

unity of Sudan, called for a “correction of economic mistakes,” and 

urged a multi-party democracy. He won only 0.25 percent of the vote. 

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Other Northern Political Groups 

The April 2010 elections generated a long list of additional Northern political parties, all of which fared poorly. Most of them will never 

be heard from again. Two of the parties merit mention, although their 

candidates for president each received less than 0.5 percent of the vote. 

Munir Sheikh el-Din Jallab ran as the candidate for the New 

National Democratic Party (NNDP). He called for the unity of Sudan 

and rejected a possible secession of South Sudan. He vowed to design a 

solution for Darfur, give special attention to the concerns of youth, 

women, and children, and he emphasized the role of the free market. 

The Sudan Socialist Union (SSU) was the only legal political party 

in Sudan from 1971 until 1985, when the government of al-Numayri 

was overthrown. Professor Fatima Abdel-Mahmood, who served as 

Sudan’s first female minister during the presidency of al-Numayri and 

a former member of the NCP, headed the SSU in 2010. She was the 

first woman to run for president in Sudan. 

Western Political Groups 

In February 2003, two groups developed in Western Sudan that highlighted the grievances of the people in Darfur. One was the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), which began agitating for greater 

political and economic rights for Darfur within a united Sudan. Minni 

Arkoi Minnawi was the secretary-general of the SLM, and Abd alWahid Muhammad Ahmad al-Nor was head of the army. The SLA 

evolved from the Darfur Liberation Front, a secessionist group, and it 

drew support from the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa peoples. Its vision for 

Sudan initially was close to that of the SPLM/A, and it had links with 

the NDA. Minnawi, a Zaghawa, signed the Darfur Peace Agreement 

(DPA) with Khartoum in May 2006; al-Nor, a Fur, refused to sign. Their 

difference widened a preexisting split of the SLM/A and was followed 

by numerous other splits in the organization. Some SLA commanders 

who refused to sign the DPA joined with others to form the National 

Redemption Front. After signing the DPA, Minnawi became a senior 

assistant in the presidency of the national government but had minimal 

support in Darfur. Al-Nor, who claimed to lead the SLM rebel group, 

continued to call for unity of the SLM and a return to its original objectives. In spite of attempts to reunite the various SLM factions, the movement remained in disarray in early 2011. 

The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the second important 

group that began fighting against government forces in Darfur in 2003, 

drew support primarily from the Zaghawa people. JEM was believed 

to have close ties with al-Turabi’s PCP and to have received support 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

from Eritrea and Chad. Its initial goal was regime change in Khartoum. 

Its chairman was Khalil Ibrahim Muhammad, formerly a mid-ranking 

official in the government who had good channels of communication 

with the Islamists. The JEM team was the most professional and disciplined during the talks in Abuja, Nigeria, that led to the signing of the 

DPA. JEM also faced splits and defections within its ranks. In 2008 

JEM carried out a military raid that reached the outskirts of Khartoum 

before being defeated. 

A third group, the National Movement for Reform and Development (NMRD), split from JEM in March 2004 and signed a cease-fire 

agreement with the government of Sudan in December 2004. It had 

support from persons living along a stretch of the Sudan–Chad border. 

Although its force was small, it resumed military operations against 

the government in 2005. The NMRD, the SLM, and JEM were among 

about 20 different rebel factions in Darfur. Some of them joined 

together as the Liberation and Justice Movement and were engaged in 

peace talks in Doha with the Sudan government in late 2010. 

Eastern Political Groups 

One of the oldest political parties in Sudan, the Beja Congress represents the Beja people, who inhabit the semidesert area along eastern 

Sudan’s Red Sea coast and the hill country behind it. The Beja Congress 

held its first provisional meeting in 1956 and formally established itself in 

1958 to express unhappiness over the marginalization of its region. Khartoum banned political parties the same year, and the Beja Congress did 

not reemerge until 1964. As the Beja peoples became increasingly marginalized, they turned to military tactics. The Beja Congress launched an 

armed struggle in the 1990s with the support of several hundred fighters. 

It controlled a section of territory near Karora and Hameshkoreb. Its 

chairman in early 2011 was Umar Muhammad Tahir. Amna Dirar, from 

the Bani Amer branch and a lecturer at the Ahfad University for Women 

in Omdurman, headed the political wing. The Beja Congress sought selfdetermination in a federal system. Although it became an original member of the NDA, it wanted to be a partner at the negotiating table with 

Khartoum rather than be represented by the NDA or SPLM. It established links with the SLM/A in Darfur. 

The Free Lions represented the political grievances of the Arab 

Rashaida nomads in eastern Sudan. Mabrouk Mubarak Salim, a graduate of Damascus University, became the chairman of its armed wing, the 

Free Lions Movement, after its formation in 1999. The group had several hundred fighters at its peak. The Free Lions had a strong relationship 

with JEM in Darfur. The Beja Congress and the Free Lions joined 

together as the Eastern Front (EF) and signed a peace agreement with the 

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Government and Politics 

national government in October 2006. The EF then served as the major 

Eastern opposition movement. 

Sudan People’s Liberation Movement 

The SPLM is the political arm and the SPLA the military wing of the 

organization. In 1983 the Sudanese army sent then-Lieutenant Colonel 

John Garang de Mabior to Bor in the South to quell a rebellion of Southern soldiers there. Instead, he sided with the mutineers. Fighting ensued 

between Southern and Northern troops; Garang went to neighboring 

Ethiopia and created the SPLM/A. By July 1983, there were about 2,500 

SPLA soldiers in Ethiopia and another 500 in the field inside Sudan. The 

SPLM/A received strong support from, and was influenced by, the Marxist regime in neighboring Ethiopia until it collapsed in 1991. Garang, 

who received a B.A. from Grinnell College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in 

agriculture from Iowa State University, was the only leader the SPLM/A 

had until his death in July 2005. 

From the beginning, the organization operated in a hierarchical fashion with a tendency toward authoritarianism. The SPLA was first and 

foremost an army and handled itself accordingly. It was not always 

clear what the SPLA was fighting for. Nearly all of the military commanders and most Southerners favored independence for South Sudan. 

Garang wanted a unified Sudan with significant autonomy for the 

South. He called for a “New Sudan” that would be democratic, pluralistic, and united. This lack of consensus within the organization contributed over the years to numerous splits and instability. For a long 

time, there was also concern that Garang’s Dinka tribe exercised disproportionate control over the SPLM/A. A major split occurred in 

1991, when Riek Machar created another SPLM faction consisting primarily of supporters from the Nuer and Shilluk tribes. At one point, 

Machar even joined the government in Khartoum before breaking his 

ties and returning to the bush. Machar resolved his differences with 

Garang in 2002 and rejoined the SPLM/A. In early 2011, he was vice 

president of South Sudan. 

In spite of major challenges, the SPLA began to have increasing success on the battlefield during the 1990s. It received significant support 

from neighboring Uganda, Ethiopia, and Eritrea, although this support 

dissipated following the outbreak of war in 1998 between Ethiopia and 

Eritrea, when both countries sought better relations with Khartoum. 

Garang developed good relations with governments as diverse as the 

United States and Libya. By the late 1990s, however, Khartoum began 

benefiting from its oil wealth, which permitted larger expenditures for 

military equipment. After almost 20 years of fighting between the government and the SPLA, it became apparent to both sides that neither 

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one could win a military victory. This conclusion and the growing cost 

of the war led to serious peace talks under the aegis of IGAD, which 

resulted in the 2002 Machakos Protocol, named for the Kenyan town in 

which it was negotiated. In January 2005, the SPLM signed the CPA 

with the government of Sudan. 

Until his untimely death in 2005, Garang supported a unified New 

Sudan and he attached much importance to the new combined army, 

which he saw as a symbol of unity and sovereignty during the six-year 

interim government called for by the CPA. Salva Kiir Mayardit, 

Garang’s former deputy and replacement, publicly supported Garang’s 

vision of Sudanese unity and a New Sudan as recently as mid-2009, but 

it became clear that this was not the prevailing view among the SPLM 

rank and file. Salva Kiir stated publicly that unity was no longer an 

option. The SPLM faced major challenges in the South because of limited infrastructure and lack of skilled personnel to run the administration. The issue of political factionalism also returned to haunt the 

SPLM. Even the crisis in Darfur led to different positions among the 

SPLM leadership. The SPLM secretary-general, Pag’an Amum, stated 

in mid-2007 that genocide was taking place in Darfur while Salva Kiir 

avoided using the term genocide. 

In June 2009, Lam Akol Ajawin, a Shilluk who was previously the 

SPLM representative holding the position of minister of foreign affairs 

in the Government of National Unity, created a new party known as the 

SPLM–Democratic Change. He criticized the SPLM for not implementing John Garang’s vision of the New Sudan and condemned his former 

party for a wide range of failings. Early in 2010, Lam Akol announced 

his candidacy for president of South Sudan as part of an alliance with 

seven other opposition parties: Sudan African National Union (SANU), 

United Democratic Salvation Front (UDSF), United Democratic Party, 

Sudan National Labor Party, Union of Sudan African Parties (USAP), 

South Sudan Democratic Forum, and South Sudan Democratic Front. 

During the presidential campaign, Lam Akol argued that secession of 

the South in the present circumstances would be “suicide” and result in 

“Somalization” of South Sudan. Lam Akol won only 7 percent of the 

vote in South Sudan; he immediately cried foul. 

Other Southern Groups 

South Sudan has had a long history of political and military groups 

independent from and even opposed to the SPLM. Many disappeared, 

and some joined the SPLM. Even those that still existed seemed to be 

constantly in flux. The government in Khartoum had a long history of 

supporting some of these groups for its own political purposes. The 

SPLM charged, for example, that the Southern States Coordination 

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John Garang de Mabior 

Courtesy Embassy of the 

Republic of the Sudan, 

Press and Information Section 

Council, which seemed to be inactive, was simply a front for Khartoum. A number of small political parties had organized in the South in 

support of the CPA but were opposed to the SPLM. Andrea Ageny 

Ajak, president of the Sudan National Labor Party, opposed secession 

of the South. USAP operated under the NDA umbrella and participated 

in the national government. USAP chairman Joseph Ukel Abango said 

the party preferred independence for the South and that it never supported John Garang’s concept of a New Sudan. 

The most significant military organization outside SPLA control in the 

late 1990s was a faction of the South Sudan United Democratic Alliance 

(SSUDA) and dissident elements of the South Sudan Defense Force 

(SSDF). The SSDF was the military wing of the SSUDA. Created in 

1997, the organization became an umbrella group that once brought 

together a variety of Southern militias and political groups, all of which 

were subject to regular defections and factional battles. The SSDF relied 

on logistical support from the Sudan army. The SSDF once fielded several thousand fighters, especially among the Nuer, and controlled much 

of Upper Nile, parts of North and West Bahr al-Ghazal, and much of East 

Equatoria. In addition to Nuer support, it drew from the Murle, Shilluk, 

Fertit, and Equatorian peoples. Paulino Matip, a Nuer and former major 

general in the Sudanese army, was SSDF chief of staff from 2001 until he 

joined the SPLM upon signing the Juba Declaration on Unity and Integration on January 8, 2006. Matip also headed the Bentiu-based South 

Sudan Unity Movement (SSUM), once the most important organization 

in the SSDF coalition. The SSUM and another SSDF-affiliated rebel 

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movement, the Rubkona-based South Sudan Independence Movement, 

joined the SPLM as a result of the Juba Declaration. 

When Matip joined the SPLM in 2006, the military wing of the 

SSDF lost most of its support. It became more active on the Internet 

than on the ground. Its main grievance was that it had been excluded 

from playing a role in the Government of South Sudan. Gabriel Tanginya became the new leader of the SSDF. A breakaway faction of the 

SSDF announced late in 2007 that the SSDF had disbanded and become 

a political party called the South Sudan Democratic Front, which was 

then led by Bona Malwal. This faction promised to support the CPA. 

The leader of the United Democratic Salvation Front was Joseph Lagu, 

vice president of Sudan during the al-Numayri government in the mid1980s. 

The Equatoria Defense Force (EDF), which operated in the area 

around Juba and Torit, was perhaps the most politically effective group 

in the SSDF. Most of its fighters were Latuku and Lokoya. It was generally believed that Khartoum supported the EDF. The EDF signed a 

merger agreement with the SPLM/A in March 2004, although it was 

not clear how many EDF fighters accepted it. The Bor Group consisted 

primarily of SPLA defectors from South Bor. The governor of East 

Equatoria charged in 2006 that remnants of the EDF continued to carry 

out attacks and be a threat to security because they received arms from 

Khartoum. 

Regional Dynamics and Conflict 

Geographically, Sudan is the largest country in Africa. It is also 

located on an ethnic and religious fault line. The Northern population is 

largely Arab and Muslim. The people living in South Sudan are predominantly African and animist or Christian. Arabic is the principal 

language in the North; various indigenous languages, and English for 

the educated elite, prevail in the South. Consequently, Sudan has experienced a significant amount of conflict since independence. In fact, the 

only period of peace in the country occurred after the Addis Ababa 

Agreement of 1972, which ended a civil war. Peace lasted until 1983 

when war broke out again between Northerners and Southerners. Other 

parts of Sudan also have experienced periodic conflict: Darfur in the 

West; the Nuba Mountains, Abyei and South Blue Nile in the North– 

South border area; and occasional flare-ups in the East. 

Sudan has not yet found the answer to accommodating these diverse 

ethnic groups, languages, cultures, and religions. The government of 

Sudan has never effectively controlled and administered the periphery 

of the country. The situation is exacerbated by a weak transportation 

infrastructure that fails to bind the country together (see Transportation 

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and Telecommunications, ch. 3). Had it been possible for the country to 

remain united, meaningful federalism might have been the best solution. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement tested the willingness of 

the North and South to make a success of federalism in a unified Sudan, 

but as the referendum of January 2011 showed, the effort failed, preparing the way for Southern secession. 

South Sudan 

The colonial experience exacerbated tension between Northerners 

and Southerners, the latter lagging far behind in education, economic 

development, and involvement in the government. The British administered the South as a separate African region and encouraged the development of Christianity. As independence became increasingly likely, 

Britain and Egypt competed for close ties with Sudanese in the North. 

They saw no need to reach a genuine accommodation with Southerners, 

arrange a separate status for the South, or even insist on guarantees for 

the South in an independence agreement. At independence, Britain simply transferred the colonial structure to Northern Sudanese nationalists. 

In 1955, a year before independence, a mutiny of Southern soldiers 

attached to the Equatoria Corps started a process that led to the rise of 

South Sudanese nationalism. The dissidents, who eventually became 

known as Anya Nya, which means “snake poison” in several local languages, conducted a guerrilla campaign that forced the al-Numayri 

government to the negotiating table in 1971. The result was the Addis 

Ababa Agreement of 1972, which permitted considerable autonomy for 

Southerners and promised much more development assistance. AlNumayri soon began to renege on several key provisions in the agreement and effectively abrogated it by 1983. His actions led to the creation of the SPLM/A and a resumption of the civil war that only came 

to an end with the signing of the CPA by Khartoum and the SPLM in 

January 2005. 

The conflict involving South Sudan was not strictly speaking one 

between the North and South or even between Muslims and non-Muslims. It was a conflict among peoples that had important implications 

for the rest of the country. The South encompassed an extensive diversity of people—at least 200 different ethnic groups. But there were also 

different views by Muslims in the North who have never reached a consensus on the future of Sudan. The situation in the North was further 

complicated by the fact that some 4 million internally displaced Southerners lived in the Khartoum region, and many of them remained there 

well into the implementation phase of the CPA. Some of the Southerners held significant positions as judges or served in the police force and 

army. It was this very diversity, in the North and particularly in the 

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South, which led to conflict in the first place and made it difficult to 

fully restore peace to Sudan. Divisions persisted in the South just as 

they had plagued the SPLM/A since 1983. The loyalty of younger 

Southerners to the SPLM/A, and the agreement it reached with Khartoum, was particularly suspect. The conflict was a combination of political, cultural, racial, economic, religious, linguistic, and developmental 

differences. A surge of ethnic violence resulted in the deaths of more 

than 2,500 people and forced 350,000 to flee their homes in 2009. 

Sudan’s civil war had important implications for the wider region. 

Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Libya at various times gave strong support to the SPLM/A, whose military forces often took refuge in Ethiopia 

and Uganda. Eritrea offered its capital as the headquarters for the NDA, 

an organization in which the SPLM/A figured prominently. Egypt, 

Libya, Eritrea and Ethiopia preferred a unified Sudan, although they 

were prepared to deal with an independent South Sudan. Uganda and 

Kenya, although they had not commented publicly before the referendum, probably preferred an independent South Sudan. In the 1990s, 

Sudanese government forces were also engaged in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire). Because of support by 

neighboring countries for the SPLM/A, Khartoum periodically assisted a 

variety of foreign opposition groups such as Eritrean Islamic Jihad, 

against Eritrea; an extremist Christian group, the Lord’s Resistance 

Army (LRA), against Uganda; and the Oromo Liberation Front and Benishangul Liberation Front, against Ethiopia. Khartoum’s support for all 

of these groups appeared to have ended by early 2011. Ethiopia, Libya, 

Uganda, and Eritrea normalized ties with Khartoum. The end to the conflict promised a major peace dividend for the entire region. Up to early 

2011, however, the Government of South Sudan had squandered much 

of its oil revenue. Little of it had been devoted to development; more 

went into corruption and building military capacity. 

The score card for implementing the CPA was decidedly mixed by 

January 2011. The cease-fire was holding, and Southerners still held their 

positions in the national government, although they demonstrated more 

interest in the future of South Sudan than in the national government. The 

basic constitutional framework envisaged in the CPA was in place. Khartoum was sharing oil revenue with the South. While the Abyei Boundary 

Commission had decided Abyei should be part of South Sudan, Khartoum argued that the commission had exceeded its authority, and the 

issue remained in stalemate. The border between the North and South 

had not been agreed upon, but some 80 percent of the demarcation had 

been completed. True power sharing never took place in South Kordofan 

as mandated by the CPA; the Nuba Mountains remained an orphan, with 

its future to be decided through consultations in the state legislature. The 

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Government and Politics 

civil service never became the joint effort that had been envisaged in the 

CPA. Perhaps most importantly, neither side worked hard on the goal of 

“making unity attractive.” 

Most outside observers doubted that South Sudan could successfully 

implement independence. When asked early in 2010 if South Sudan 

were sufficiently prepared to go it alone, former U.S. President Jimmy 

Carter, who knew the situation in Sudan well, replied “no.” Some 

experts believed there would be a balkanization of South Sudan. Nevertheless, al-Bashir, whose NCP still preferred unity, was on the record as 

saying that Khartoum would be the first to recognize an independent 

South Sudan. 

Western Sudan 

Western Sudan, especially Darfur, is located far from Khartoum, has a 

shortage of water and arable land, and is subject to periodic drought. 

Nearly all of the residents of Darfur, which is the size of France, are Muslim. There is a history of ethnic tension between those who are predominantly farmers and “African” and others who are mainly nomadic 

herdsmen and “Arab.” It would be inaccurate, however, to attach too 

much importance to this distinction. Although described as a conflict 

between Muslim Africans and Muslim Arabs, experts on the region 

insist this characterization is too facile. Local issues are involved, as well 

as severe competition over scarce resources and long-standing marginalization of the region by Khartoum. 

The conflict began in February 2003, when the Sudan Liberation 

Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement 

(JEM) began attacks against the government (see The War in Darfur, 

2003–11, ch. 5). The attacks may have been precipitated by an understanding that the SPLM/A might be on the verge of achieving success in 

its demands following a long military struggle against the North. Taken 

by surprise and lacking adequate military force in Darfur, the government mobilized local militias known as the janjaweed (see Glossary) to 

oppose the SLM/A and JEM. Joined by Sudanese security forces, the 

situation soon spiraled out of control and became a policy of ethnic 

cleansing or worse. Some Arabic-speaking groups participated in the 

attacks, but others did not. The attacks by the janjaweed, supported by 

government helicopter gunships and Antonov bombers, resulted in the 

eventual internal displacement of more than 2.7 million Fur, Masalit, 

and Zaghawa and another 250,000 refugees in neighboring Chad (see 

Ethnic Groups, ch. 2). Between 200,000 and 400,000 people died as a 

result of killing, disease, and hunger. Two-thirds of Darfur’s population 

required humanitarian assistance. The United States asserted in 2004 

that genocide had occurred, but it was the only country to make that 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

assertion. A United Nations investigation of the killings acknowledged 

in its January 2005 report “that the Government of the Sudan and the 

Janjaweed are responsible for serious violations of international human 

rights and humanitarian law amounting to crimes under international 

law.” It did not use the term genocide. 

The conflict in Darfur had significant regional ramifications. Darfur 

borders Libya, Chad, and the Central African Republic. Historically, 

Chadian rebels crossed the border into Darfur in order to mobilize for 

attacks against the Chadian government. The same ethnic groups live 

on both sides of the border. Chadian president Idris Deby was one of 

the first leaders to try, unsuccessfully, to mediate an end to the conflict. 

Libya was accused over the years of trying to stir up trouble in Darfur, 

although there was no indication it had done so in the current conflict. 

The African Union and United Nations had a joint peacekeeping force, 

the United Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), with 

about 22,000 personnel in Darfur. There was a significant reduction in 

violence, but both refugees and internally displaced persons were 

unwilling to return to their homeland, which was largely destroyed. 

Darfur settled into a confused, low-level conflict where everyone was 

against everyone else. Khartoum continued to charge that Hassan alTurabi’s PCP was fueling the conflict in Darfur by supporting one of 

the most powerful factions, the Justice and Equality Movement. 

There was substantial agreement by international experts on Darfur 

that only a negotiated political settlement could bring the conflict to an 

end. The highly flawed 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement remained at the 

heart of any settlement, but the peace process had to be made more 

inclusive. There also needed to be greater emphasis on dialogue among 

the conflicting parties within Darfur, which had become far more numerous. A number of them began negotiations with the Sudanese government in a process hosted in Doha. Implicitly, the experts acknowledged 

that a much larger peacekeeping operation alone would solve nothing. 

Eastern Sudan 

The grievances of groups in the East are similar to those in Darfur 

and the South. The Beja Congress, which represented many of the 2.2 

million Beja people, and the Free Lions, which spoke for the Rashaida 

tribe, were marginalized by successive Sudanese governments. They 

wanted more medical services, better education, increased economic 

development, and more influence in the central government. They 

envied the success of Southerners and sympathized with the concerns 

of people living in Darfur. The Beja Congress had long been the voice 

of these grievances. It aligned with the NDA in 1995 and conducted 

military operations against the government. The Beja and the Rashaida 

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Government and Politics 

never sought secession, however; they only wanted to be part of a federal system and have access to an equitable share of the country’s 

wealth and development. 

Following the killing of some 20 ethnic Beja at Port Sudan early in 

2005, Sudan announced that it would hold direct talks with the Beja 

Congress. Both the Free Lions and the Beja Congress had close ties 

with Eritrea. The Free Lions also had links with Egypt, Libya, Kuwait, 

and Saudi Arabia. In fact, Libya offered to mediate differences between 

disaffected Eastern groups and Khartoum. The Beja Congress and Free 

Lions announced in February 2005 a merger into one military movement called the Eastern Front. As Khartoum faced increasing resistance 

in Darfur, the pressures of implementing the CPA with South Sudan, 

and the potential for new conflict in the East, it concluded the time had 

come to reach an agreement in the East. Eritrea played a crucial and 

helpful role in the process. 

In October 2006, Khartoum and the Eastern Front signed the Eastern 

Sudan Peace Agreement. It stagnated largely because of internal power 

struggles within the leadership of the Eastern Front. A split among Beja 

factions of the Eastern Front prevented it from presenting a list of nominees for the posts allocated to it under the agreement. The Eastern 

Front leadership requested mediation by Eritrea to help resolve the conflict among the Beja factions. Nevertheless, peace continued to prevail 

in the region and Khartoum remained optimistic about the implementation of the agreement and began preparations for the disarmament and 

integration of former Eastern Front combatants. This agreement had 

more to do, however, with normalizing relations between Sudan and 

Eritrea than it did in resolving the concerns of the Beja and Rashaida. 

Information Media 

Sudan had one of the most restrictive media environments in Africa in 

the early 2000s. The Interim National Constitution provided an unrestricted right to freedom of expression, dissemination of information, and 

access to the press without prejudice to order, safety, or public morals “as 

determined by the law.” It added that the state guaranteed freedom of the 

press and other media “as shall be regulated by law in a democratic society.” Finally, the constitution stated that all media must abide by professional ethics, refrain from inciting religious, ethnic, racial, or cultural 

hatred, and must not agitate for violence or war. The constitution clearly 

left most of the implementation of press freedom to the passage of laws. 

The Interim Constitution of South Sudan had similar provisions except 

that it omitted the necessity of refraining from inciting religious, ethnic, 

racial, or cultural hatred and inciting violence or war. 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

Sudan’s print media since independence generally have served one 

of the political parties or the government in power, although there 

occasionally were outspoken independent newspapers. There was 

more press freedom under civilian governments than during military 

regimes. Radio and television were always under much firmer government control, irrespective of the type of government. 

In 2003 al-Bashir proclaimed the lifting of censorship and the transfer of responsibility for monitoring the media from the National Security Organization to the 21-member National Press Council (NPC). The 

president of the republic selected seven members and the National 

Assembly chose five members. The Journalists’ Union elected seven 

members and leaders of the union selected the final two members. 

Transfer of responsibility for monitoring the media resulted in only 

marginal improvement because state security officials circumvented 

the NPC by relying on the government prosecutor in charge of subversive crimes. Khartoum continued to censor print and broadcast media, 

and journalists also practiced self-censorship. There were occasional 

reports of harassment of journalists in South Sudan. Internet service 

was developing, with a combination of government and private-sector 

involvement. The official Sudan News Agency, established in 1971, 

distributed information in Arabic, English, and French. The Middle 

East News Agency and Xinhua (New China News Agency) had offices 

in Khartoum. 

Print Media 

Before the 1989 coup, Sudan had a lively press. There were 22 daily 

papers, 19 in Arabic and three in English, published in Khartoum. 

Including those in Khartoum, Sudan had a total of 55 daily or weekly 

newspapers and magazines. The Revolutionary Command Council 

banned all of them and dismissed more than 1,000 journalists. Slowly, 

the al-Bashir government allowed private dailies to return to publication, although they were all subject to censorship. Some of them periodically experienced harassment, including the jailing of journalists, 

seizure of newspapers, and suspension of publication. After the 

announced end of censorship on all Sudanese newspapers in July 2003 

and a brief improvement in press freedom, a number of independent 

publications again experienced intimidation, interruption, and arrest of 

their editors. Reporters Without Borders stated that the government 

ordered seven Arabic-language newspapers not to print certain articles 

“out of protection for journalists.” The government used as a pretext 

for this order the September 2006 murder of Mohamed Taha, the editor 

of the privately owned daily al-Wifaq. An Islamist extremist group 

claimed responsibility for the murder. 

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Estimated total newspaper circulation in 2005 was 23 papers for each 

1,000 persons. In 2007 the leading English-language daily was the Khartoum Monitor, with a distribution of 3,000 to 3,500 copies per day. It 

experienced periodic harassment. This independent paper tended to 

reflect the views of Southerners. Sudan Vision was a progovernment 

paper with a daily circulation of about 3,200 copies. The Citizen supported the views of the SPLM and distributed about 2,000 copies per 

day. The Sudan Tribune was an Internet paper from Paris that tended to 

be critical of the NPC. In 2008 the NPC suspended the publishing 

license of both the Citizen and Sudan Tribune. In 2003 publication began 

in Kampala, Uganda, of the Sudan Mirror, which focused on South 

Sudan and relied on reporters in Southern towns. The print media were 

at a very early stage of development in South Sudan. The English-language weekly, Juba Post, remained the most widely circulated Southern 

paper with about 1,500 copies per week in Juba and another 500 in 

Khartoum. 

The Arabic-language press was much more important than the English-language media. Authorities briefly suspended publication of a 

leading Arabic-language paper, Al-Sahafa, in 2003 for carrying an Ethiopian Airlines advertisement that mentioned the drinking of alcohol. 

Often critical of the government, Al-Sahafa distributed 25,000 to 27,000 

copies daily. The government shut down the independent Al-Ayam in 

2004, primarily for its reporting on the crisis in Darfur. Al-Ayam had a 

daily circulation of 18,000 to 20,000 copies per day. The Sudanese minister of justice ordered prosecutors in March 2004 to end indefinite closure of newspapers without trial. Nevertheless, Al-Sahafa, Al-Ayam, and 

other papers reported instances of harassment by security forces in 

2006. The largest Arabic-language daily was Akhbar Al-Youn. It had 

strong links to the government and distributed 30,000 to 35,000 copies 

per day. Al-Rai Al-Aam, with a daily circulation of about 18,000, was an 

Islamist paper with strong links to the government but had columnists 

who were antigovernment. Alwan had a daily circulation of about 

16,000 and generally supported al-Turabi’s PCP. The government 

funded Al-Hayat, which had close ties to Vice President Taha. Other 

Arabic-language dailies included Al-Wifaq (pro-government and antiWest), Al-Khartoum (linked to the DUP), Al-Sharia Al-Siyasi (pro-government), Al-Watan (independent), Al-Sudani (independent with a large 

readership in the diaspora), Al-Intibaha (anti-SPLM but supported 

secession of the South), Rai Al-Shaab (mouthpiece of al-Turabi’s PCP), 

and Akhir Lahza (usually pro-government). In 2010 security personnel 

shut down the offices of Rai Al-Shaab. 

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Radio, Television, and Internet 

The government directly controlled radio broadcasting in the early 

2000s. In a country as large as Sudan, radio was especially important 

in disseminating information. The Sudan National Radio Corporation, 

which dated back to 1940, broadcast a mixture of news, music, and 

cultural programs through national and regional networks in Arabic, 

English, French, and Swahili. There was only one private radio station 

in Northern Sudan; it was an FM station that broadcast music in Khartoum. Several opposition and clandestine radio networks operated until 

the early 2000s, although there were occasional reports of clandestine 

broadcasts from Darfur. The Voice of Sudan, operated by the opposition NDA, broadcast shortwave intermittently from neighboring Eritrea beginning in 1995 until the parties that made up the NDA returned 

to Sudan. The New Sudan Council of Churches had a weekly broadcast called the Voice of Hope produced in studios in Uganda and the 

Netherlands and transmitted via the Radio Netherlands relay station in 

Madagascar. In 2010, Sudan suspended the BBC’s license to broadcast 

in Arabic on local FM frequencies in four Northern cities, including 

Khartoum. 

The SPLM/A, when it was fighting the government, periodically 

broadcast from clandestine transmitters in the region. Juba in early 

2011 had several transmitting stations: BBC World, Capital FM, and 

Bakhita Radio. The state government in Central Equatoria where Juba, 

the capital, is located shut down the radio station Liberty FM, after a 

caller made a remark critical of the government during a call-in show. 

The Sudan Radio Service, developed by the Education Development 

Center, a U.S. nongovernmental organization financially supported by 

the U.S. Agency for International Development, began broadcasting 

from Nairobi, Kenya, in July 2003. Sudanese producers broadcast programs in 10 Sudanese languages, focusing on civic education, health, 

agriculture, and education, as well as on music and entertainment, with 

the overall purpose of informing Sudanese about peacemaking, reconciliation, and economic development. The UN Mission in Sudan 

(UNMIS) operated Radio Miraya FM out of Juba in an effort to transmit reliable and accessible information about the peace process to a 

wider audience. UNMIS opened a repeater station in Rumbek early in 

2007 and began work on four additional stations so that Radio Miraya 

could broadcast to remote areas of West Equatoria and East Equatoria 

States. In addition to news and CPA-related programming, Radio 

Miraya had some primary educational programs. In 2010 the minister 

of information and broadcasting accused Radio Miraya of inciting ethnic violence in South Sudan. 

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Sudan officially began television transmission in 1963. In the early 

years, it only reached a short distance from Khartoum. The Sudan 

National Broadcasting Corporation in 2011 operated two television 

channels; both reflected government policies. Sudan had a military 

censor to ensure that the news did not contradict official views. Satellite dishes were common in affluent areas and pan-Arab television stations were popular. In addition to domestic and satellite TV services, 

there was a subscription cable network, which directly rebroadcast 

uncensored foreign news and other programs. The government shut 

down the Al-Jazeera bureau late in 2003 and arrested the bureau chief 

for alleged false programming and poor analysis of atrocities in Darfur. 

The bureau chief went to prison, but Al-Jazeera subsequently reopened 

the office. 

As of 2010–11, the government monitored Internet communications 

and the National Intelligence and Security Service read e-mail between 

private citizens. Some Web sites deemed offensive to public morality 

were blocked by the National Telecommunications Corporation, as 

were many proxy servers. There generally were no restrictions on 

access to news and information Web sites, although authorities regularly blocked access to youtube.com. Internet access was widely available in urban areas, but limited by lack of infrastructure in rural areas. 

Foreign Relations 

Sudan has had a testy relationship with many Western countries, 

especially the United States, since the 1989 coup put in power a government significantly influenced by Islamist militancy. More recent cooperation with the United States and other countries on countering 

terrorism temporarily improved ties, but they were subsequently set 

back by continuing violence in Darfur. The degree to which Sudan 

pushed an Islamist agenda beyond its borders and supported opposition 

groups in nearby countries tended to determine the quality of relations 

with its nine neighbors. When Sudan was respectful of its neighbors, 

relations were usually friendly; when it interfered with governments in 

neighboring states, they were poor. Sometimes, Sudan’s neighbors precipitated the hostility. On other occasions, developments between 

neighboring states led to improved relations with Sudan. The 1998– 

2000 war between Eritrea and Ethiopia was a major windfall for Sudan. 

It resulted in better Sudanese relations with both countries as they 

sought to neutralize Sudan as an enemy in order to focus their enmity on 

each other. 

The decision by the al-Bashir government in 1999 to remove alTurabi, the Islamist leader, as the speaker of the National Assembly, 

and subsequently to arrest him, signaled a change in Sudan’s approach 

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to its relations with Western countries. The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States and Washington’s strong reaction 

to them further encouraged Sudan to improve relations with the West. 

Growing cooperation on counterterrorism and the opening of serious 

discussions in 2003 between Sudan and the SPLM/A to end the civil 

war speeded up this process. But the international goodwill obtained 

early in 2005 by the signing of the CPA with the SPLM that ended conflict was significantly offset by Khartoum’s handling of the crisis in 

Darfur. Since the 1989 coup, Sudan has maintained generally cordial 

relations with other Muslim countries and with China, Russia, India, 

and Iran. It also has worked hard and largely successfully to retain support within the United Nations and African, Arab, and Muslim regional 

organizations. 

Sudan considers itself as part of both the Arab and African worlds, 

although its foreign-policy leadership has always tended to look north, 

particularly to Egypt, and to some extent west and east, rather than 

south into tropical Africa. In order to ensure its own security, it accords 

special attention to relations with its nine neighbors. Although it has 

tried to develop cordial relations with all of these countries, it has sporadically supported opposition groups trying to overthrow governments in neighboring countries if it perceived those governments as a 

threat to Sudan. It has striven with considerable success to have a significant voice in regional and international bodies and establishes linkages with any state that would help deflect criticism of its internal and 

external policies. The neighbor of overriding importance to Sudan has 

always been Egypt. Occasionally described as a love–hate relationship, 

Sudan cannot ignore Egypt. A significant part of this tie is based on the 

fact that nearly all of the water reaching Egypt comes via the Nile and 

passes through Sudan, although little of it originates there. The Nile 

water question also affects Sudan’s relations with other riparian states, 

especially Uganda and Ethiopia. It will also be one of several major 

factors in relations with its newest, and tenth, neighbor, South Sudan, 

once it becomes independent in mid-2011. 

Some Sudanese governments, especially those in which al-Turabi 

played a prominent role, emphasized support for Islamism. Al-Turabi 

created the now-dormant Popular Arab and Islamic Conference as a 

radical alternative to the Arab League, an association of 22 mainly Arabic-speaking countries dedicated to promoting common interests, and to 

the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a group of 57 states that 

acts to safeguard Muslim values. As Sudan’s oil production increased, it 

also became of greater interest to countries such as China, India, and 

Malaysia. This situation gave Sudan added foreign-policy leverage and 

hindered the ability of the United States and the West generally to put 

greater pressure on Sudan concerning the crisis in Darfur. 

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Egypt 

The triangular relationship among Britain, Egypt, and Sudan evolved 

during the period of Britain’s rule in the Nile valley between 1882 and 

1955. Two imperial powers, Britain and Egypt, sought to control Sudan. 

This rivalry led to the rise of Sudanese elites who tended to split into 

anti-Egyptian and anti-British factions. The British, after relinquishing 

control at Sudanese independence, found it relatively easy to leave the 

Sudanese to their own devices. Egypt still shared a long border and continued to view Sudan as part of its backyard, a feature of the bilateral 

relationship that Khartoum found especially irksome. 

The Nile, Egypt’s lifeline, flows through Sudan before reaching 

Egypt. An estimated 95 percent of all Egyptians depend on the Nile for 

fresh water. In 1959 the two countries agreed on a formula for sharing 

the water, whereby Sudan was authorized to use approximately onequarter of the flow and Egypt about three-quarters. The division was 

predicated on a set annual flow, which varies enormously from year to 

year. There is usually a surplus above this amount. As a result, use of 

Nile water by other riparians had not, by 2011, resulted in a crisis with 

Egypt and Sudan. Nevertheless, none of the other eight riparian states 

was signature to, nor received any water allocation in, this 1959 bilateral agreement. Since 2000 Sudan had begun expressing an interest in 

changing the terms of the agreement so that it would be able to use a 

larger percentage of the flow. Seven of the eight other riparian states— 

Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, 

Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda—also pressed for a revised waterallocation formula. In 1999 the nine countries formed the Nile Basin 

Initiative as a forum for discussion about cooperating in the development of the Nile Basin. Since then, no agreement had been reached by 

2011, mainly because Egypt and Sudan refused any reduction in their 

share of water. Egypt was also concerned that the 2005 CPA between 

Khartoum and the SPLM would result in another riparian state in 

South Sudan. Egypt had hoped for a united Sudan because South 

Sudan will be another state with which it might have to negotiate water 

rights. In 2010 there was a sharp division between seven of the riparian 

states, which reached their own agreement, and opposition to that 

agreement by Egypt and Sudan. 

While Egypt and Sudan generally agreed on the Nile water question, they had failed to resolve a longstanding dispute over the location 

of their border near the Red Sea, an area called the Hala’ib Triangle. 

Egypt occupied the disputed territory, but the matter remained ripe for 

future conflict. Al-Bashir revived the controversy as recently as 2010 

when he stated that Hala’ib was Sudanese and would stay Sudanese. 

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Relations between the two countries since the 1989 Sudanese coup 

have had their ups and downs. They reached a nadir in 1995, when elements of the Sudanese government were complicit in a plot by an Egyptian terrorist group, Gama’a Islamiyya, to assassinate Egypt’s president, 

Husni Mubarak, while he was en route from the Addis Ababa airport to 

an Organization of African Unity (now African Union) summit in Ethiopia’s capital. By the end of 1999, Egyptian anger toward Sudan had 

subsided, and President al-Bashir visited Egypt, where the two leaders 

agreed to normalize diplomatic relations. Al-Bashir returned to Cairo in 

2002, at which time they expanded cooperation on a variety of practical 

issues. Mubarak repaid the visit by going to Khartoum the following 

year. In 2004 al-Bashir again went to Cairo, where the two leaders 

signed the Four Freedoms Agreement dealing with freedom of ownership, movement, residence, and work between the two countries. There 

has been cooperation on counterterrorism and development projects 

drawing water from the Nile, and the two governments agreed to establish a free-trade zone along the Sudan–Egypt border, where they would 

exchange commodities free of duty. Sudan has particularly appreciated 

Egyptian verbal and moral support for its policy in Darfur. Egypt also 

sent troops to the United Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur. 

Egyptian investments in Sudan reached US$2.5 billion by 2008 while 

Sudanese investments in Egypt totaled almost US$200 million. By 

2010 Egyptian–Sudanese relations were better than they had been in 

many years, although several long-term contentious issues, such as the 

future status of South Sudan, ownership of the Hala’ib Triangle, and use 

of Nile water, remained unresolved. 

Egypt nevertheless began preparing for the possible independence 

of South Sudan. In an effort to keep track of developments there, 

Egypt had about 1,500 military personnel assigned to UNMIS and had 

begun supporting a number of development projects in the South. It 

had a consulate in Juba, and Mubarak traveled there in 2008. Salva 

Kiir visited Cairo in 2009, when Egypt made clear it would accept the 

results of the January 2011 referendum on secession. In 2010, Egypt 

also offered a US$300 million grant for Southern water and electricity 

projects along the Nile. 

Libya 

Libya and Sudan share an isolated border along a corner of northwestern Sudan that neither government has ever fully controlled. This 

state of affairs left open the possibility for a variety of real and perceived activities in the region that caused Khartoum to suspect that 

Libya periodically acted against its interests. In addition, Libyan leader 

Muammar al-Qadhafi had a long history of providing financial support 

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Salva Kiir Mayardit 

Courtesy Embassy of the 

Republic of the Sudan, 

Press and Information Section 

to the SPLA. He had a lengthy, personal relationship with John 

Garang. During the civil war between Khartoum and the SPLA, this 

relationship raised serious questions among Sudanese leaders concerning Libya’s intentions. Libya also remained in contact with Northern 

Sudanese opposition figures and for many years had ties to dissidents 

in Darfur, causing concern in Khartoum that Libya might support the 

rebel movements that initiated the conflict. 

In the early 2000s, Sudan and Libya made concerted efforts to 

improve relations. The last half of 2002 witnessed a series of high-level 

meetings between Libya and Sudan. The Sudanese foreign minister at 

the time, Mustafa Uthman Isma’il, and his Libyan counterpart agreed 

to work for peace in Sudan within the framework of Sudanese unity, 

establish a committee for political coordination, and take measures to 

implement agreements on customs, the Nile international fund, trade, 

taxation, and investment. Also in 2002, the Higher Ministerial Committee for Libyan–Sudanese Integration agreed on a number of political and practical issues, including condemnation of American threats to 

launch “unjustified aggression” against Iraq. In 2004, as the crisis in 

Darfur worsened, Libya hosted informal consultations between representatives of the Sudanese government and the rebel movements. The 

rebels rejected the Libyan initiative and insisted that the Joint Commission of the African Union serve as the principal interlocutor. This 

development did not deter First Vice President Taha in 2005 from urging al-Qadhafi to help find a solution to the Darfur crisis. Relations 

between Libya and Sudan were generally good but remained unpredictable, primarily as a result of the mercurial leadership in Tripoli. 

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Sudan saw al-Qadhafi as a periodic problem that needed to be contained. It was better to bring him into the tent than to try to exclude 

him. As a result, Sudan did not object to al-Qadhafi’s efforts to mediate 

both the Darfur conflict and the earlier conflict in Eastern Sudan. The 

two countries settled on a policy of coexistence. 

Ethiopia and Eritrea 

Sudan’s relations with Ethiopia date back to antiquity. One of Ethiopia’s principal trade routes ran west to Sudan and then to Egypt and the 

Mediterranean. Muslim merchants from Sudan have been an important 

part of Ethiopia’s trade for many centuries. Relations were not, however, always cordial. Military conflict broke out between Ethiopians 

and Sudanese in the 1850s. Sudanese Mahdists, or dervishes as they 

also were called, then advanced into Ethiopia in 1885, resulting in a 

series of battles between Sudanese Muslims and Ethiopian Christians 

over the next four years. Relations improved during the twentieth century. Emperor Haile Selassie, who had been in exile during the 1936–41 

Italian occupation of Ethiopia, returned with the help of Ethiopian, British, and Sudanese forces from Sudan. Relations became tense again in 

the late 1950s as Ethiopia supported the South Sudanese Anya Nya rebels in their battle against Khartoum. Haile Selassie, however, helped 

broker the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement that ended the first civil war 

between North and South. 

Ethiopia’s military government under Mengistu Haile Mariam 

(1974–91) strongly supported the SPLM/A against the government in 

Khartoum. The successor Tigray-dominated government, when it operated as a rebel movement, often took refuge in Sudan during its struggle to overthrow Mengistu. After taking power in 1991, it established 

cordial relations with Khartoum. This era of cooperation faded quickly 

as Islamic militants in Sudan tried to export their ideas to neighboring 

countries, including Ethiopia. Eritrea gained de facto independence 

from Ethiopia in 1991 and formal independence two years later. By the 

end of 1993, Eritrea had charged Sudan with supporting the activities 

of Eritrean Islamic Jihad, which carried out attacks against the Asmara 

regime. Eritrea broke relations with Sudan at the end of 1994, became a 

strong supporter of the SPLM/A, and permitted the opposition National 

Democratic Alliance to locate its headquarters in the former Sudan 

embassy in Asmara. Sudan’s relations with Ethiopia reached a low in 

1995 following Sudanese complicity in the attempted assassination of 

Egyptian president Mubarak as he was visiting Addis Ababa. At the 

urging of the United States, Ethiopia and Eritrea joined Uganda in the 

so-called Front Line States strategy, which was designed to put military 

pressure on Khartoum. In 1997 Ethiopian forces joined the SPLA in a 

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cross-border attack that resulted in the capture of the border town of 

Kurmuk and a second small town in Sudan’s Blue Nile State. 

Eritrea’s surprise May 1998 invasion of the Ethiopian-administered 

border village of Badme dramatically changed the political situation in 

the region. Operating on the axiom that the “enemy of my enemy is my 

friend,” Ethiopia normalized relations with Sudan by the end of 1998, 

and Eritrea reestablished ties with Khartoum in 2000. Although Sudan 

and Eritrea continued to maintain diplomatic relations, real improvement in ties was short lived. Sudan closed its border with Eritrea in 

2002, and the Sudanese foreign minister charged in February 2003 that 

Eritrea had amassed forces along the border with Sudan. Khartoum also 

accused Eritrea of supporting rebel groups in Darfur. The presidents of 

Sudan and Eritrea met for the first time in five years in mid-2006 in 

Khartoum. Eritrea played a prominent role in brokering a peace agreement between Khartoum and Sudan’s Eastern Front. This put Sudan– 

Eritrea relations on a new, positive track, although Sudan remained 

worried about Eritrea’s activities in Darfur. The nations’ leaders met 

again in Khartoum near the end of 2006 and frequently in subsequent 

years. In 2007 President Isaias Afwerki also met with Salva Kiir in 

Juba. Isaias described relations with Sudan as resting on solid ground 

and having “bright prospects.” Eritrea seemed to have ended its contacts 

with Darfur rebel groups and become supportive of the NPC in Sudan. 

It also established a consulate-general in South Sudan’s capital of Juba, 

and its consul-general in May 2010 expressed support for the principle 

of self-determination. The same month, Yemane Ghebremeskel, a 

senior adviser to Isaias, commented that Eritrea hoped the January 2011 

referendum would lead to the unity of Sudan. 

Good relations between Sudan and Ethiopia continued in spite of 

Sudan’s improved ties with Eritrea. President al-Bashir visited Addis 

Ababa twice in 2001. During a visit to Khartoum in 2002, Ethiopia’s 

prime minister, Meles Zenawi, hailed Ethiopian–Sudanese ties. The two 

countries agreed to cancel entry visas and fees on traded commodities, and 

they stepped up plans to increase trade. Ethiopia began early in 2003 to 

import oil from Sudan. By 2009 Sudan supplied 80 percent of Ethiopia’s 

demand for oil. The two nations signed an agreement ending a dispute 

involving their 1,600-kilometer border, and landlocked Ethiopia made 

plans to make greater use of Port Sudan as a transshipment point. Ethiopia, Sudan, and Yemen formed a regional group early in 2003 that they 

said was designed to “combat terrorism” in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea 

insisted that it was an alliance aimed against the government in Asmara. It 

subsequently became inactive following Sudan’s improved ties with Eritrea. In May 2010, both Meles and Isaias attended the swearing-in ceremony in Khartoum for al-Bashir following his election. 

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Bilateral relations among countries in the Horn of Africa tended to 

be fickle. However, Ethiopia and Sudan continued to make progress on 

settling border issues. The Ethiopian prime minister and Sudanese president inaugurated a major new road link between Ethiopia and Sudan at 

the end of 2007. South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir also led a delegation to Ethiopia at the end of 2007 when the two sides signed technicalassistance and transport-sector agreements. There were frequent subsequent exchange visits by Ethiopian and Sudanese leaders. Ethiopia 

remained wary, however, of any effort by Sudan to return to a policy 

supporting Islamist militancy in the region. Although Ethiopia preferred a united Sudan, it shored up its relations with South Sudan on the 

assumption that it would opt for secession. Ethiopia began resupplying 

the SPLA with military equipment as early as 2008. Sudan, Ethiopia, 

and Eritrea were periodic recipients of refugees from the other countries, another potential cause of friction. Agreement on usage of Nile 

water reemerged as an important issue between Addis Ababa and Khartoum, while Asmara supported the Sudanese position as another way to 

irritate Ethiopia. Ethiopia desired a revision of the 1959 water-sharing 

agreement that involved only Egypt and Sudan. Although not entirely 

happy with the 1959 agreement, Sudan wanted to leave the water-sharing provision in place. 

Chad and the Central African Republic 

Sudan’s border with both Chad and the Central African Republic 

had a certain “Wild West” quality to it in the early 2000s. The governments of both countries to the west of the border and that of Sudan did 

not have firm control over territory under their jurisdiction. Both sides 

of the Chad border have served as a launching pad for Chadian rebels 

trying to overthrow the government in N’Djamena. There was always 

considerable movement across this border; the ethnic groups on each 

side being related. As recently as 2003, there were only about 13,000 

Sudanese refugees in Chad and virtually no Chadian refugees in Sudan. 

As a result of the crisis in Darfur, the number of Sudanese refugees in 

Chad jumped to more than 250,000, and large numbers of Chadians 

took refuge in Sudan. The two governments signed a series of agreements on political cooperation and security along their border. Chadian 

president Idriss Déby, a Zaghawa who came from the Sudan border 

area, worked hard but without success to mediate an end to the dispute 

between the government in Khartoum and the Darfur rebel groups. 

Sudanese–Chadian relations significantly deteriorated in 2005 as 

both countries allowed their territory to be used for subversive activities against the other. Darfur and the situation along the border became 

part of a Zaghawa power struggle in Chad. Libya mediated the dispute 

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Government and Politics 

and convinced Chad and Sudan to sign the Tripoli Declaration and 

Agreement of February 8, 2006. But an April 2006 attack by Chadian 

rebels against the Déby government in N’Djamena nearly toppled it. 

Déby accused Sudan of supporting the effort and broke diplomatic 

relations with Khartoum. By November 2006, Déby declared that Chad 

was in a state of war with Sudan. Following deadly clashes along the 

Sudan–Chad border in April 2007, Chad’s foreign minister said it was 

time to turn the page and improve relations with Sudan. The two countries set up a joint military committee to monitor the border and in May 

the two presidents signed a reconciliation accord in Saudi Arabia. By 

the beginning of 2008, however, relations had again deteriorated, with 

the leader of each country accusing the other of conducting cross-border attacks. In March 2008, launching from Chad, a number of JEM 

troops reached Omdurman on the outskirts of Khartoum. Further 

efforts by both Libya and Qatar to improve relations between the two 

produced a security agreement in late 2009 to control rebel movements 

from Chad into Sudan. In February 2010, Déby visited Khartoum 

where he and al-Bashir agreed to normalize relations. The first fruit of 

these developments was a framework agreement between Khartoum 

and the main JEM rebel group, signed in N’djamena on February 20, 

providing for a cease-fire and for further negotiations in Doha, Qatar. 

Al-Bashir then released more than half of the prisoners held since the 

JEM attack on Omdurman. In 2010 Chad refused permission for the 

leader of the JEM to land in N’Djamena. By late 2010, Sudan and 

Chad had normalized their relations, and Déby publicly stated his 

opposition to a North–South division of Sudan. 

From Bangui’s perspective, the major long-term problem in relations 

with Sudan was penetration of its wide open eastern frontier by cattle 

raiders and poachers. Some of Sudan’s border with the Central African 

Republic (CAR) is contiguous to territory that was under the control of 

South Sudan in 2010. Even when the SPLM/A was at war with Khartoum, the conflict did not discourage al-Bashir’s government from 

engaging actively with the CAR. Sudan had cordial relations with former 

CAR president Ange-Félix Patassé, who was overthrown in a military 

coup by General François Bozizé in March 2003. Sudan initially established good relations with the new leader. The two presidents met on a 

number of occasions. The CAR, Chad, and Sudan signed joint security 

agreements in December 2004 to monitor the situation along their borders, prevent infiltration, and combat illegal hunting. The conflict in Darfur contributed to internal problems in the CAR, which accused Sudan in 

2006 of trying to destabilize the country. A summit meeting in France 

early in 2007 involving the presidents of Sudan, the CAR, and Chad 

resulted in an agreement not to back insurgencies in their respective 

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countries. The UN Security Council established in September 2007 the 

Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) to 

protect civilians, promote human rights and the rule of law, and promote 

regional peace. The UN Security Council shut down the mission, as 

agreed, by the end of 2010. In the early 1990s, there were as many as 

36,000 South Sudanese refugees in the CAR. Nearly all of them returned 

to South Sudan. 

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and 

Kenya 

Khartoum did not control most of the territory bordering the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) when South Sudan was in rebellion. The SPLA and the Khartoum-supported Equatoria Defense Force 

traditionally dominated this area. Nevertheless, the al-Bashir government conducted active diplomacy with the DRC. After Joseph Kabila 

succeeded his father as president, he visited Khartoum in 2002. The 

two countries agreed to consolidate bilateral relations, and there were a 

number of subsequent high-level meetings between the two governments. The end of war between the SPLM/A and the government in 

Khartoum offered the opportunity for stronger DRC–Sudanese ties, but 

increasingly Kinshasa’s contact will be with South Sudan authorities in 

Juba. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) 

repatriated nearly all of the South Sudanese from the DRC to South 

Sudan. In December 2008, the DRC allowed armed forces from South 

Sudan and Uganda to enter its territory for a joint operation aimed at 

ridding the area of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Kinshasa is far 

from the Sudan border and the DRC remained preoccupied with internal conflicts. 

During most of the time since the early 1990s, Uganda’s relationship 

with Sudan was determined by Kampala’s support for the SPLM/A and 

Khartoum’s assistance to various Ugandan rebel groups, especially the 

LRA led by Joseph Kony, whose goal was to overthrow the Ugandan 

government. Uganda severed ties with Sudan in 1995. Several parties, 

including Libyan president al-Qadhafi and the Atlanta-based Carter 

Center, worked hard to end the conflict between Sudan and Uganda. 

Early in 2002, Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, visited Khartoum and agreed to reestablish full diplomatic relations. Sudan said it 

was prepared to sell oil to Uganda, which subsequently discovered its 

own oil, and to cooperate in suppressing the LRA. As part of Uganda’s 

Operation Iron Fist, Sudan permitted Ugandan forces to enter South 

Sudan to track down LRA insurgents. President al-Bashir subsequently 

visited Kampala on several occasions in efforts to improve relations 

with Uganda. The two countries renewed a military protocol for this 

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Government and Politics 

purpose in 2006. Early in 2007, Uganda signed an agreement with the 

GOSS to provide military training and to upgrade infrastructure 

between the two countries. There were once about 250,000 South 

Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda; by 2010, most of then had 

returned to South Sudan. Uganda and South Sudan were improving 

their communication links and expanding commerce. Increasingly, it 

appeared that Uganda favored the independence of South Sudan. 

Kenya and Sudan have had cordial relations since Kenya’s independence in 1963. Kenya also maintained close contact with the SPLM/A. 

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) mandated 

Kenya to lead the effort to end the civil war in Sudan. After years of 

false starts and tepid interest by Nairobi, Kenya’s General Lazaro 

Sumbeiywo took charge of the process in 2002 and saw it through to 

completion in January 2005. Kenya benefited during the civil war 

because Nairobi served as the principal base for relief operations in 

South Sudan, resulting in millions of dollars of aid flowing through the 

country. The end to the conflict promised even greater benefits for 

Kenya. The SPLM/A opened talks with Kenya in 2004 on construction 

of a rail link between Juba and Kenya’s port of Mombasa. They also 

began discussion about construction of a pipeline from South Sudan to 

the Kenyan coast that would allow the export of oil to both Kenya and 

the international market. Al-Bashir visited Kenya early in 2005 to sign 

the CPA. There was a long-standing border issue that became more of 

a concern for Kenya’s relations with South Sudan. There had never 

been a resolution over the sovereignty of the Elemi Triangle, a small 

piece of land near the Kenya–South Sudan–Ethiopia tripoint claimed 

by both Kenya and Sudan. The Kenya–South Sudan border also had a 

long history of cattle raids and weapons trafficking.

 Kenya, Uganda, and Sudan were all members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, a grouping of 20 African states created in 1994 to develop a free-trade area for the purpose of removing all 

tariffs and barriers. Kenya and Sudan would likely be the major beneficiaries of increased trade under this arrangement. Since the signing of 

the CPA, Kenyan businessmen and aid specialists have flocked to South 

Sudan. Kenya pledged US$3.5 million for the development and reconstruction of South Sudan and began to train the police. It expected to 

provide training in the areas of public administration, government operations, health, education, telecommunications, and aviation. South 

Sudan imported significant quantities of military equipment, including 

tanks, through Kenya’s port of Mombasa. In 2010 Kenya had more than 

700 troops, police, and observers in South Sudan with UNMIS. Discussions were underway concerning unresolved border issues and refugee 

repatriation. 

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African Regional Organizations 

Sudan was an active member of all pertinent African organizations 

and was a charter member of the Organization of African Unity 

(OAU), established in 1963 and headquartered in Addis Ababa. During most of its time as a member of the OAU, it used its membership 

to keep the OAU out of the civil war. Even so, in 1994, the OAU mandated that negotiations toward ending the civil war be undertaken. 

Sudan consistently made its presence known in the OAU and continued to do so in its successor forum, the African Union (AU), created in 

2002. In contrast to its policy of keeping the OAU out of the war in the 

South, Sudan accepted 8,000 AU troops in troubled Darfur, concluding that it was preferable to have an AU peacekeeping mission than 

one from the UN. However, Sudan both limited the number of AU 

troops and confined their role to monitoring the situation rather than 

engaging in more proactive peacekeeping. In mid-2007, al-Bashir 

finally agreed to allow UN forces to join AU peacekeeping operations 

in Darfur (see AU and UN Forces in Darfur, ch. 5). The crisis in Darfur prevented Sudan from taking its turn in 2006 to assume the chairmanship of the AU; most AU members wanted Sudan to make more 

progress in ending the Darfur conflict. Subsequent indictment by the 

ICC further complicated al-Bashir’s situation, and the AU has continued to pass over his name in selecting a chairman. 

Sudan was a charter member of IGAD, established in 1996 as the 

successor to an earlier regional grouping. The focus of IGAD in the 

early 2000s was regional cooperation among its seven member states. 

IGAD played a critical role in ending the war between Khartoum and 

the SPLM/A but otherwise was not effective in mediating regional conflicts because of serious differences among its members, especially 

Ethiopia and Eritrea. Sudan was a member of the Common Market for 

Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and was one of 11 COMESA 

nations that had joined in a free-trade area and agreed to eliminate tariffs on goods originating in member countries. Sudan joined the 28­

member economic union led by Libya known as the Community of 

Sahel-Saharan States. Sudan also belonged to the African Development 

Bank (ADB) and received significant assistance from that organization. 

It had been in arrears to the ADB since 1995 but had begun making 

payments in order to pay down the debt. Sudan was an active member 

of the Nile Basin Initiative, which brought the riparian states together 

to discuss technical and political cooperation related to Nile water 

issues. 

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Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen 

During the war between Iraq and Iran in the 1980s, Sudan maintained a careful balancing act, calling for a cessation of hostilities but 

sympathizing with Iraq. Sudan on several occasions offered to mediate 

the conflict. By 1988, Sudan called for an end to the war on the basis of 

UN Security Council Resolution 598. Sudan supported Iraq’s invasion 

of Kuwait in 1990, leading to a period of close relations with Baghdad. 

Iraq was believed to have supplied weapons to Sudan and in the mid1990s agreed to help Sudan exploit its oil wealth. Although Sudan was 

trying to improve relations with the United States after the September 

11, 2001, terrorist attacks, it remained critical of the subsequent American-led invasion of Iraq. Following the overthrow of the Ba’athist 

regime, however, Sudan’s position on Iraq became more nuanced. On 

the one hand, it was quick to criticize the United States, which harshly 

condemned Sudan’s record on human rights, for its double standard in 

dealing with prisoners in Iraq. It also advised Sudanese not to work 

with U.S. contractors in the country. By late 2004, however, Sudan’s 

relations with the new Iraqi government had improved to the point that 

Iraq’s foreign minister visited Khartoum and met with al-Bashir. Subsequently, Sudan generally avoided commenting on Iraq. 

Sudan had a long, if inconsistent, relationship with Iran, which 

deteriorated when Sudan supported Iraq during the 1990–91 Gulf War 

but began to improve by the mid-1990s. Sudanese–Iranian interaction 

increased significantly in 2004. The two countries signed a memorandum on security cooperation, and Sudan stressed Iran’s right to use 

nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. During the eighth session of the 

Iran–Sudan joint economic commission, the two sides agreed to 

increase technical, educational, and research cooperation in the agricultural sector. Iranian president Muhammad Khatami, during a visit 

to Sudan in October 2004, supported Khartoum’s controversial handling of the Darfur crisis and signed bilateral cooperation agreements 

on economic, agricultural, and banking issues. As Iran became an 

increasingly important actor in the Middle East, Sudan increased its 

interaction with Tehran. Al-Bashir visited Iran in April 2006. Sudan’s 

defense minister discussed Iranian weapons sales and training for 

Khartoum’s security forces during a visit to Tehran in January 2007. 

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Khartoum in February 2007, when he voiced strong support for Sudan and signed seven 

agreements. There continued to be high-level contact between Sudan 

and Iran. Sunni Sudan did not find forging close relations with Shia 

Iran an insuperable difficulty, and Sudan was arguably Iran’s closest 

friend in Africa. 

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Saudi Arabia had been an important source of financial support for 

Sudan prior to the 1990–91 Gulf War. Sudan’s support for Iraq adversely 

affected its relations with Saudi Arabia, and al-Turabi’s brand of Islamism was not in tune with Saudi Wahhabi philosophy. Riyadh suspended grants, project loans, and concessionary oil sales. This action had 

a devastating impact on Sudan’s budget and economy. The relationship 

normalized by 1995 and continued to improve. The two countries signed 

an agreement in 2004 to set up a political coordination committee. AlBashir visited Saudi Arabia in May 2004, and Saudi leaders subsequently 

supported Sudan’s handling of the crisis in Darfur. In 2005 the two countries signed two security agreements on combating crime, drug trafficking, and terrorism. Saudi Arabia also began providing assistance for 

development projects in South Sudan. Significant numbers of Sudanese 

had for many years worked in Saudi Arabia, a factor that increased the 

importance of the relationship. 

Relations between Yemen and Sudan were not particularly strong, 

but they took on added importance after Yemen, Sudan, and Ethiopia 

developed an alliance late in 2003. The leaders of the three countries 

subsequently met frequently; the focus of their concern was often Eritrea. This alliance took an interesting twist at the end of 2004, when 

Yemeni president Ali Abdallah Salih offered to mediate differences 

between Sudan and Eritrea. As Sudan–Eritrea relations improved, the 

tripartite alliance with Ethiopia became dormant. The heads of government of Sudan, Yemen, Ethiopia, and Somalia did meet in Addis 

Ababa early in 2007, where they focused on the situation in Somalia. 

Sudan and Yemen also signed 14 cooperative agreements in mid2007. Sudan–Yemen relations were cordial in early 2011 but less significant than they had been several years before. 

Arab and Islamic Organizations 

Sudan joined the Arab League at independence in 1956 and used the 

organization over the years at every possible opportunity to support its 

policies. Following the outbreak of conflict in Darfur in 2003 and sharp 

criticism of its policies by Western countries, Sudan relied on strong 

support from the Arab League. The Arab League opposed sanctions 

against Sudan, and several members provided humanitarian aid to refugees fleeing the fighting. By the end of 2004, the Arab League joined 

the cease-fire monitoring committee for Darfur. Al-Bashir served as the 

Arab League chairman in 2006. Sudan joined the Organization of the 

Islamic Conference (OIC) in 1969. It sought support in the organization 

for activities such as the reconstruction of war-ravaged South Sudan. 

Like the Arab League, the OIC supported Khartoum’s actions in Darfur. Sudan was also a member of a number of other Arab or Islamic 

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regional organizations, including the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, the Arab Monetary Fund, and the Islamic Development Bank. 

China, Russia, India, and Malaysia 

Sudan established diplomatic relations with China in 1959 and was 

one of the first countries to back China’s admission to the United 

Nations. Sudan and China subsequently signed a series of commercial 

and assistance agreements. During a visit to China in 1995, al-Bashir 

underscored Sudan’s position that Taiwan is an integral part of China. 

Sudan’s foreign minister visited China in 1999, when the Chinese foreign minister thanked Sudan for its support of Chinese reunification 

and opposition to criticism of its human-rights record. China turned to 

Sudan as a source of oil in the late 1990s and became its most important petroleum partner. The number of agreements signed by the two 

countries increased exponentially. China obtained about 5 percent of 

its oil imports from Sudan and had invested about US$6 billion there 

by 2010. Sudanese exports of oil to China were more than half of its 

total oil exports. China developed several oil fields and built a refinery, 

a port, and a 1,610-kilometer pipeline from the oil fields to Port Sudan. 

China’s national oil company had a 40 percent stake in Sudan’s 

national oil company, the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company. 

China won a US$650 million contract to build a significant part of the 

hydroelectric dam at Merowe, on the Nile north of Khartoum; most of 

the managers, technicians, and engineers were Chinese. China thus 

became Sudan’s most important commercial and economic partner 

and its most important political partner outside Africa and the Arab 

world. 

China was a major provider of military equipment, including 

fighter aircraft and artillery, and invested in Sudan’s arms manufacturing industry. The threat of a Chinese veto in the United Nations 

Security Council provided cover for Sudan during that body’s debate 

on Darfur. China threatened in 2004 to use its veto if the United 

States and others pushed for sanctions against Sudan because of its 

actions in Darfur. China subsequently urged Sudan to be more flexible in its policy in Darfur but still opposed the use of sanctions. On 

the other hand, China convinced Sudan to accept the UN–AU hybrid 

peacekeeping mission. China worked hard to establish cordial relations with South Sudan, where most of the oil is located. Chinese 

president Hu Jintao visited Sudan in February 2007. SPLM president 

Salva Kiir visited China in July 2007 to discuss China’s contribution 

to the development of South Sudan. China had about 450 military 

personnel with UNMIS in South Sudan and more than 300, mostly 

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engineers, assigned to UNAMID in Darfur. China opened a consulate in Juba and was financing development projects in South Sudan. 

Following Sudanese independence, the Soviet Union established 

close relations with Sudan. The situation became more complicated 

when the Sudan Communist Party was implicated in coup attempts 

and Islamists began to assert authority in Sudan. The two countries 

ended military cooperation in 1971; it resumed in 1995, when a visiting Russian deputy foreign minister described relations between Sudan 

and Russia “as being below the required level.” Russia supported UN 

Security Council Resolution 1044 in 1996, which called on Sudan to 

extradite three persons believed to have been involved in the assassination attempt against President Mubarak during a visit to Addis Ababa 

the previous year. Two years later, however, Russia expressed “serious 

worries” about the American cruise missile attack on a pharmaceutical 

factory in Khartoum. Russia tended to be supportive of Sudan on 

issues that came before the UN Security Council. In 2010 President 

Dmitry Medvedev informed al-Bashir that Russia had agreed to write 

off Sudan’s debt. 

Russia became Sudan’s biggest arms supplier. Sudan purchased 

tanks and artillery from Russia in 2000 and signed a deal for 12 MiG– 

29 Fulcrum fighters a year later. Russia delivered all of the aircraft 

before the end of 2004. Russia also gave Sudan the right to produce 

Russian battle tanks and sold it Mi–24 Hind attack helicopters. A Russian company in 2004 won the contract to build a 368-kilometer pipeline in the Melut basin in southeast Sudan. The two countries also 

agreed on a number of joint projects in Sudan in the fields of mining, 

petroleum, electricity, and irrigation. Russia continued to oppose UN 

sanctions on Sudan in connection with the Darfur crisis, arguing that it 

should be resolved exclusively by political means while maintaining 

Sudan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Russia had about 150 military personnel assigned to UNMIS. Russia agreed in 2010 to sell Mi– 

17 transport helicopters to South Sudan. 

Except for the 150-year-old presence of about 2,000 Gujarati traders, 

India was not a particularly important partner until 2003, when its 

national oil company, Oil and National Gas Corporation (ONGC), 

acquired a 25 percent share in Sudan’s Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company at a cost of US$650 million. The overseas investment arm 

of ONGC bought out Canada’s Talisman Energy, which left Sudan as a 

result of criticism from human-rights groups and pressure from the government of Canada. Indian investment in the oil sector was about US$1 

billion and expected to rise. This engagement also led to economic 

cooperation in other fields. The Export–Import Bank of India extended 

a US$50 million line of credit to Sudan in 2004. ONGC signed a con290 
 

Government and Politics 

tract in 2004 to build a 745-kilometer pipeline to carry petroleum derivatives from the Khartoum refinery to a new port on the Red Sea. India 

was scheduled to build part of a new railroad to Port Sudan. It was also 

in discussion with Sudan on training for the army, navy, and air force 

and on collaboration in the media and entertainment sector. India provided about 2,700 military personnel to UNMIS as of early 2011. 

Malaysia was the second-largest shareholder in Sudan’s oil industry 

after China in the early 2000s. Its state-owned oil company, PETRONAS, had a 30-percent share of Sudan’s Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company. Oil remained Malaysia’s primary interest in Sudan, 

although during an April 2007 visit to Sudan, Malaysia’s prime minister expressed a willingness to expand bilateral relations beyond oil and 

gas. He also supported Sudan’s policy in Darfur. Malaysia assisted 

with the resettlement of Darfur refugees and provided scholarships for 

Sudanese students to study oil and gas at Universiti Teknologi Petronas. Malaysia had fewer than 10 personnel assigned to UNMIS and 

more than 60 with UNAMID. 

European Union, Britain, and France 

The European Union (EU) served as an important barometer of 

Western political views toward Sudan’s policies and sometimes offset 

more critical American positions. The EU, for example, tended to be 

more understanding of the problems facing Sudan in resolving the crisis in Darfur. It also declined, unlike the United States, to call the killings in Darfur genocide. It engaged in constructive engagement with 

Sudan and was reluctant to impose sanctions, but it was willing to 

decrease or stop development aid in response to Khartoum’s crackdowns and had imposed an arms embargo. The EU’s principal concern 

in Sudan was humanitarian assistance, help with conflict resolution, 

and implementation of the CPA. Formerly, the EU collectively was the 

largest destination for Sudanese exports, mainly gold and gum arabic, 

but since at least 2000 Chinese and Japanese imports of petroleum 

from Sudan had surpassed the value of imports by the EU. Many EU 

countries had small numbers of military personnel assigned to UNMIS. 

Although New Year’s Day 1956 marked Sudan’s independence, the 

British actually transferred power in 1954. Sudan set out almost immediately to broaden its relations with Arab and African states and then 

the Soviet Union, China, Eastern Europe, and Yugoslavia. Britain continued to provide considerable assistance, including military aid. As the 

civil war in the South grew in intensity, Sudan routinely blamed “evil 

colonial policies” as one of the causes. Relations with Britain decreased 

in importance as those with the Middle East and Africa increased. 

Sudan broke relations with Britain in 1965 over Britain’s handling of 

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the unilateral declaration of independence by Southern Rhodesia (now 

Zimbabwe). Khartoum restored ties a year later but then severed them 

again in 1967 because of the Six-Day War between Israel and neighboring states. Relations resumed again a year later. Sudan alleged that 

Britain was linked to a failed coup attempt in 1976. By the late 1970s, 

the United States had replaced Britain as the predominant Western 

influence in Khartoum, a situation that continued until the overthrow of 

the Sadiq al-Mahdi government in 1989. Britain remained important 

for historical reasons and retained strong trade links. Together with the 

United States and Norway, Britain strongly supported the IGAD peace 

process that resulted in an end to conflict between Khartoum and the 

SPLM/A. British prime minister Tony Blair visited Khartoum in October 2004 but took a more critical position on Sudan’s policy in Darfur 

as the crisis dragged on. Of all EU members, the British position on 

Darfur was the closest to that of the United States. 

France has had a long history as one of Sudan’s principal commercial 

partners. A French company was one of the prime contractors on the illfated Jonglei Canal (see Glossary). In the early 1980s, Sudan awarded a 

concession to the French oil company, TotalFinaElf, for development of 

the oil reserves in Block Five in South Sudan. Although the company 

stopped work there following the resumption of civil war, it retained the 

concession and initiated steps in 2004 to return. France also sided with 

Khartoum in 2004 when it asserted that the situation in Darfur should 

not be described as genocide. Chad, a former French colony and in 

recent years a country with which it had close relations, tended to influence France’s view of the situation in Darfur. French policy on Darfur 

became more critical following the election in 2007 of President Nicolas 

Sarkozy. France hosted in June 2007 the United States, China, and some 

15 other countries at a major conference intended to launch a new international effort to end the atrocities in Darfur. Khartoum, angry that it 

was not consulted, boycotted the conference. In recent years, France has 

shown less interest in Sudan while its policy seemed to depend on which 

official was speaking. French oil companies have a continuing interest 

in the development of oil in South Sudan. 

United States 

The United States went from an unusually important and close relationship with Sudan in the early 1980s to one that began to deteriorate 

near the end of the al-Numayri government and then declined quickly 

following the 1989 military coup and the rise of Islamist leaders in 

Sudan’s government. Sudanese support for Iraq during the 1990–91 

Gulf War helped ensure the downturn. The United States, pushed by 

domestic interest groups such as evangelical Christians and the Con292 
Government and Politics 

gressional Black Caucus, expressed outspoken unhappiness over Khartoum’s handling of the war with the SPLM/A, the human-rights 

situation, including alleged government support for slavery, and its welcoming environment toward international terrorist groups. Washington 

put Sudan on its list of state supporters of terrorism in 1993, an action 

that resulted in additional U.S. sanctions against Sudan. 

The administration of President William J. Clinton subsequently 

worked to isolate Sudan. During the mid-1990s, it instituted a Front 

Line States policy of pressure against Khartoum with the assistance of 

Uganda, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Growing unhappiness over Sudan’s policies and terrorist threat information aimed at Americans in Sudan, 

much of which turned out to be false, caused the United States in the 

spring of 1996 to relocate all Americans from the embassy in Khartoum 

to the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. The embassy in Khartoum remained 

open but staffed by Sudanese and occasional Americans visiting from 

Kenya. At the urging of the United States, Sudan forced Osama bin 

Laden to leave the country in May of 1996, but Washington did not follow this development by trying to improve ties with Sudan. The low 

point in relations occurred in August 1998, just days after the bombing 

of the American embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, 

when a U.S. naval vessel launched cruise missiles against a pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum on the questionable grounds that it was linked 

to the production of chemical weapons. 

At the end of the Clinton administration, the United States opened a 

dialogue with Sudan on counterterrorism, and Sudan was receptive. 

The George W. Bush administration generally continued a tough policy 

toward Sudan, but the events of September 11, 2001, had a dramatic 

impact on the relationship. The United States moved counterterrorism 

to the highest foreign-policy priority, and Sudan, taking advantage of 

this new situation, stepped up its counterterrorism cooperation with the 

United States. President Bush nominated former Senator John Danforth as his special envoy for Sudan in 2001. Danforth focused on ending the Sudanese civil war, but the U.S. Congress and the evangelical 

community remained highly critical of Sudan. The United States pursued a policy of carrots and sticks. In October 2002, President Bush 

signed the congressionally initiated Sudan Peace Act, which provided 

for punitive financial and diplomatic steps against Sudan if Washington concluded that Khartoum was acting in bad faith at the peace talks. 

At the same time, Sudan offered significant cooperation on counterterrorism, a response appreciated in Washington. 

The United States, working with IGAD, Britain, and Norway, played 

a key role in bringing the civil war in Sudan to an end. While this development had the potential to significantly improve Sudanese–American 

relations, Sudan’s botched handling of the crisis in Darfur that began in 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

2003 set back relations with Washington. In 2006, under pressure from 

Congress and domestic interest groups, the Bush administration named 

another special envoy for Sudan, Andrew Natsios, who resigned at the 

end of 2007 and was replaced by former diplomat Richard Williamson. 

The United States took the lead in requesting the UN Security Council 

to impose additional international sanctions against Sudan. Failing to 

convince the UN to institute broader sanctions, President Bush signed a 

bill at the end of 2007 that allowed state and local governments to cut 

investment ties with companies doing business with Sudan. At the same 

time, the United States committed US$2.7 billion in fiscal years 2005–6 

for humanitarian assistance, peacekeeping in Darfur, implementation of 

the CPA, and reconstruction and development in South Sudan. Khartoum continued to cooperate with the United States on counterterrorism. The United States also was the single largest holder—in the 

amount of US$1.5 billion—of Sudanese debt. The United States supported full implementation of the CPA and the Darfur Peace Agreement 

and rapid deployment of more than 20,000 additional peacekeepers to 

Darfur. 

The situation in Darfur dominated the United States–Sudan relationship until early in the administration of President Barack H. Obama. 

Obama named Scott Gration as the new special envoy for Sudan. He 

changed the tone of the dialogue with the government in Khartoum and 

began contact with Darfur’s highly fragmented rebel movements. He 

also concluded that the United States must give at least as much attention 

to successful implementation of the CPA as to resolution of the crisis in 

Darfur. He favored engagement with Khartoum over confrontation and 

proposed a policy of engagement that included rewards and penalties. 

Gration’s policy had support in the White House but detractors elsewhere in the U.S. government and some harsh critics on Capitol Hill and 

in the “Save Darfur Coalition” community. Late in 2010, the United 

States spelled out the conditions for the normalization of ties with Sudan. 

They included full implementation of the CPA and the holding of a referendum on the future of South Sudan in January 2011. The United States 

significantly increased the number of personnel devoted to an effort to 

assure this outcome. Washington also noted that there must be peace and 

accountability in Darfur. 

United Nations 

Sudan joined the United Nations in 1956, and its various institutions 

began almost immediately to assist Sudan. UN refugee assistance during 

Sudan’s first civil war began in the early 1960s. In 1965 one of the South 

Sudanese exile organizations unsuccessfully demanded the intervention of 

the United Nations to end atrocities. Sudan experienced frequent criticism 

294 
President al-Bashir receives U.S. Ambassador Timothy Carney and 

Congressman Bill Richardson in the Presidential Palace, Khartoum, 1996. 

Courtesy Timothy Carney 

in UN bodies throughout the first civil war that ended in 1972. Khartoum 

showed great skill in using the United Nations in pursuit of its own interests. One example occurred in 1976, when Sudan accused Libya at the 

United Nations of supporting a failed coup attempt. 

Because the country was engaged continuously in a civil war in the 

South until 2005 except for the period 1972–83, Sudan was the subject of 

many UN resolutions. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) 

and the World Food Programme created Operation Lifeline Sudan in 

1989 to deal with the problems created in the South by drought and the 

civil war. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 

issued a series of reports critical of the human-rights situation in Sudan. 

The Security Council imposed sanctions on Sudan in May 1996 after 

Khartoum refused to extradite three Egyptians to Ethiopia for their 

alleged involvement in the attempted assassination of President Mubarak 

in Addis Ababa in 1995. The mild sanctions reduced the number and 

level of Sudanese diplomats stationed abroad. The Security Council, with 

the United States abstaining, removed these sanctions in August 2001. In 

2005, the UN Security Council agreed to a travel ban and asset freeze on 

persons suspected of committing human-rights abuses in Darfur and in 

2006 imposed sanctions against four Sudanese involved in Darfur atrocities. Much to the consternation of the United States, Sudan in 2004 filled 

an African regional seat on the United Nations Human Rights Commission. A UN commission investigating atrocities in Darfur concluded in 

2005 that genocide had not occurred. It did find, however, that Khartoum 

and government-sponsored militias engaged in “widespread and systematic” abuse that might constitute crimes against humanity. By late 2010, 

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the UN had two of its largest peacekeeping operations—UNMIS and 

UNAMID—in Sudan. 

Outlook 

In early 2011, Sudan confronted two major domestic issues: full 

implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and an end to 

the violence in Darfur. Full implementation of the CPA would determine 

the future of Sudan’s North–South relationship, with the South having 

opted for independence. Because South Sudan, which had most of the 

country’s oil, chose independence, as was anticipated, Khartoum had to 

try to work out a revenue-sharing arrangement that would give it access 

to oil and the associated profits for years to come. If it failed to achieve 

this goal, a return to North–South violence was highly likely. Khartoum 

controlled the only pipeline capable of exporting oil to the international 

market. Although 22 years of conflict in South Sudan came to an end in 

2005, treacherous days clearly lay ahead, as there would be considerable 

pressure from Northerners and Southerners alike to undermine the 

remaining provisions of the CPA. 

In addition to the secession of the South, another urgent issue was 

the proposed referendum by the citizens of Abyei, an enclave administered since 2005 by the Northern state of South Kordofan but historically linked to South Sudan, whereby they would decide whether or 

not to return to South Sudanese administration. This was an important 

issue because considerable oil is located in this region. Popular consultations to determine the future of South Kordofan and Blue Nile were 

also needed. 

Only a complete commitment to the CPA process by both the 

SPLM and the NCP and the goodwill of an overwhelming majority of 

Sudanese of all political persuasions would enable the country to 

escape renewed civil war. The referendum vote for the independence 

of South Sudan could only have been avoided if the national government had recognized and accepted the diversity of the Sudanese people 

and shared both power and wealth with all parts of the country on an 

equitable basis. It also depended on the willingness of Southerners to 

at least consider the possibility of unity. Neither of these developments 

occurred, with the consequence that the South was about to become a 

separate, independent entity. 

In the meantime, the situation in Darfur cried out for compromise by 

both Khartoum and the numerous rebel groups, so that there could be a 

political settlement. Residents of Darfur had also to decide if they 

wanted to unify the three Darfur states and reconstitute the Darfur 

region that existed in the 1980s. The Darfur Peace Agreement promised 

a referendum on this issue by July 2010, a deadline that was missed. It 

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Government and Politics 

was also important not to lose sight of successful implementation of the 

peace agreement in Eastern Sudan. If handled equitably and transparently, Sudan’s new oil wealth could help resolve all of these problems. 

The challenges for Sudan’s external relations were considerable as 

well, although there have been improvements in recent years in spite of 

the fact that the International Criminal Court indictment of al-Bashir 

significantly complicated Sudan’s situation. Clearly, the Sudanese government and people confronted huge challenges in early 2011 and 

would continue to do so in the foreseeable future. 

* * * 

There are a number of solid studies that include some analysis of the 

political situation after the 1989 military coup. They include Sudan, by 

Abdel Salam Sidahmed and Alsir Sidahmed; Politics and Islam in 

Contemporary Sudan by Abdel Salam Sidahmed; War of Visions: 

Conflict of Identities in the Sudan, by Francis Mading Deng; Conflict 

and Politics of Identity in Sudan, by Amir H. Idris; Sudan: The Elusive 

Quest for Peace, by Ruth Iyob and Gilbert M. Khadiagala; and Sudan, 

by Richard A. Lobban, Jr. Three somewhat specialized accounts are 

The Root Causes of Sudan’s Civil Wars, by Douglas H. Johnson; The 

Phoenix State: Civil Society and the Future of Sudan, edited by A. H. 

Abdel Salam and Alex de Waal; and Islam, Sectarianism, and Politics 

in Sudan since the Mahdiyya, by Gabriel Warburg. Two former American ambassadors to Sudan have contributed useful volumes that focus 

on the time they served there. They are Sudan in Crisis: The Failure of 

Democracy, by G. Norman Anderson and Inside Sudan: Political 

Islam, Conflict, and Catastrophe, by Donald Petterson. 

Four timely books dealing with Darfur include Darfur: A New History of a Long War, by Julie Flint and Alex de Waal; Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror, by Mahmood Mamdani; 

Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide, by Gérard Prunier; and Sudan: 

Darfur and the Failure of an African State, by Richard Cockett. 

There are some excellent book chapters, recent journal articles, monographs, and special studies that deal with politics, government, human 

rights, and foreign relations. Book chapters include the one by Alex de 

Waal and A. H. Abdel Salam, “Islamism, State Power, and Jihad in 

Sudan”; Leenco Lata’s “Nation Building in Sudan”; and Peter Woodward’s “Sudan.” Good journal articles include the one by Ilias Bantekas 

and Hassan Abu-Sabieb, “Reconciliation of Islamic Law with Constitutionalism: The Protection of Human Rights in Sudan’s New Constitution”; 

Abdelwahab El-Affendi’s, “Islam and Human Rights: The Lessons from 

Sudan”; John Young’s, “Sudan: Liberation Movements, Regional Armies, 

Ethnic Militias & Peace”; Christina Murray and Catherine Maywald’s, 

“Constitution-Making in South Sudan”; Adam Azzain Mohamed’s, “The 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

Problem of Uneven Regional Development in the Northern Sudan”; Alex 

de Waal’s, “Who Are the Darfurians? Arab and African Identities, Violence and External Engagement”; and R. S. O’Fahey’s, “Does Darfur Have 

a Future in the Sudan?” Insightful monographs include Raymond Brown’s 

American Foreign Policy toward the Sudan: From Isolation to Engagement; Scott Lewis’s Rejuvenating or Restraining Civil War: The Role of 

External Actors in the War of Economies of Sudan; and Claes-Johan Lampi 

Sorensen’s The Islamic Movement in Sudan. Readers will find the following documents helpful: Slavery, Abduction and Forced Servitude in Sudan, 

by the International Eminent Persons Group; Protocol between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement on PowerSharing; the Interim National Constitution of the Republic of Sudan; and 

the Interim Constitution of South Sudan. The International Crisis Group has 

produced a variety of excellent monographs that tend to focus on Darfur, 

the CPA, and the Eastern conflict. The regular reports on Sudan by the UN 

Secretary-General to the UN Security Council are also valuable. There is an 

excellent collection of essays in Sudan—No Easy Ways Ahead edited by 

the Heinrich Böll Foundation. 

Particularly good Web sites include those of the governments of Sudan 

and South Sudan: www.sudan.net/government and www.goss-online.org/ 

(official Web site of the government of South Sudan). Others include: 

www.sudantribune.com (journalistic material); www.southsudan.net (South 

Sudan opposition opinion); www.state.gov (for annual human rights and 

religious freedom reports on Sudan and Background Note on Sudan); www. 

crisisgroup.org (for recent monographs that focus on conflicts in Sudan); 

www.usip.org/countries-continents/africa/sudan (for background documents 

and general information on Sudan); http://unmis.unmissions.org/ (reporting 

on Sudan by the UN Mission in Sudan); and http://unamid.unmissions.org/ 

(reporting on Darfur by the UN Mission). (For further information and complete citations, see Bibliography.) 

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Chapter 5. National Security 
Sudan’s national emblem, a prominent symbol in military insignia 
 

 

SUDAN OCCUPIES A STRATEGICALLY SENSITIVE AREA in the 

Horn of Africa. The nation's military, developed during the British colonial era, has remained influential in independent Sudan. Domestic security problems have been the main sources of national defense concern. 

As of early 2008, Sudan was involved in ethnic strife on the Chad border, 

but the situation and relations with Chad had greatly improved by 2011.

 Divisions based on culture and history between the Arab-dominated 

Muslim North and the African, non-Muslim South caused a 17-year 

civil war that ended in 1972. The war resumed in 1983 after President 

Ja’far al-Numayri abrogated the peace accord by redividing the South 

into three regions and imposing sharia law on the country. Major Southern ethnic groups such as the Dinka, Nuer, and Shilluk formed the backbone of the revolt. Many of these Southern groups also fought among 

themselves. For more than two decades, the Sudan People's Liberation 

Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and several other Southern rebel groups 

battled government forces, until the two sides signed the Comprehensive 

Peace Agreement (CPA) in January 2005 after several years of torturous 

negotiations. 

 Conflict also plagued Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile, and northeast Sudan in the 1990s and early 2000s. Aside from its regular forces, the 

government frequently used militias against its opponents. These militias 

often committed human-rights violations and exacerbated local intercommunal wars. As a result, millions fled their homes to escape the fighting 

and avert starvation. 

 Sudan’s growing instability notwithstanding, the Sudan Armed Forces 

(SAF) remained the most stable institution in a country beset by an array 

of political, economic, and social problems. However, throughout the 

period since 1989, the SAF itself has experienced varying degrees of ethnic and religious dissension. 

 Many Sudanese accept the SAF as the state’s guardian nevertheless, 

especially when confidence in politicians falters. In 1985, for example, a 

group of SAF officers deposed al-Numayri. Then, in 1989, some midlevel officers, led by Colonel Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, seized 

power and dissolved the successor civilian parliamentary government 

(1986–89). The new government aligned itself with the National Islamic 

Front (NIF), an Islamist party. The military clique purged the SAF of 

potential dissenters, arrested suspected opponents, and introduced harsh 

internal security controls. 

 During the 1990s, Hassan Abdallah al-Turabi, an Islamist ideologue, 

helped create a religiously oriented politico-military militia called the 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

Popular Defense Forces (PDF) that eventually was supposed to replace 

the SAF but never did. Poor economic conditions made Sudan dependent on foreign aid to equip and maintain the SAF.

 Many SAF troops fought in Southern Sudan against the SPLM/A and 

other ethnically based Southern rebel groups that sought a voice in the 

affairs of their country. Low morale and shortages of weapons and supplies eroded their capabilities. During the civil war in the South, much of 

the SAF’s equipment was not serviceable because of poor maintenance 

and lack of spare parts. Problems such as these were at least partially 

remedied after the late 1990s when funds from the sale of oil became 

available. 

 The SAF, numbering more than 109,000 in 2011, was responsible for 

maintaining internal and external security until the signing of the CPA, 

which provided for the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) to 

assume security responsibilities in the South. Beginning in 2003 and continually thereafter, the Darfur war posed a politico-military challenge to 

the al-Bashir government as the international community escalated criticism of Khartoum’s harsh military strategy in that region. Despite internal 

problems and international pressure, al-Bashir remained firmly in control 

of the government and Sudan’s armed forces. 

The Military in National Life 

The warrior tradition was an important aspect of Sudan’s history, and 

military involvement in government continued in modern Sudan. 

Although Sudan inherited a parliamentary form of government from 

Britain, the Sudanese had become accustomed to a colonial system that 

was inherently military in nature. British military officers held senior 

administrative positions in both the provincial and central governments. 

At independence, Sudan faced difficult economic, political, and social 

problems that few believed could be solved by untested parliamentary 

rule in a country fragmented by competing ethnic, religious, and regional 

interests. It seemed natural to turn to a national institution like the army 

that could address these problems through a system of centralized 

enforcement and control. Such was the course of Sudanese national life 

after independence. 

Early Development of the Armed Forces

 Muhammad Ali Pasha, the viceroy of Egypt, conquered Sudan in 

1821. He created a Sudanese military to help establish an Egyptian empire 

independent of the Ottoman sultan. Muhammad Ali also authorized the 

army to undertake slave raids in the South and the Nuba Mountains that 

allowed Egypt to import some 10,000 slaves annually. During 1822–23, 

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National Security 

the army impressed some 30,000 males for military service. In 1863–67, 

an under-strength Egyptian-Sudanese conscript battalion (446 officers and 

men) served with the French army in Mexico. 

 Britain occupied Egypt in 1882, disbanded the Egyptian military, and 

created a new Sudan army. In 1896 Britain used about 8,000 Sudanese 

troops against the Khalifa, the military leader who succeeded the famed 

Mahdi (see Glossary; The Maddiyyah, 1885–98, ch. 1). There were seven 

Sudanese battalions by 1898 that the British deployed to maintain internal 

security throughout Sudan. Over the next decade, Sudanese soldiers participated in punitive expeditions against Muhammad al-Amin, a Moroccan mystic, in the Nuba Mountains in 1903, and against the rebel Abd alQādir Wad Habūba in what was then Blue Nile Province in 1908. 

World War I 

During the period of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium (1899– 

1955), British officials developed a policy of administrative separation 

of the Muslim-dominated Northern Sudan from the mostly non-Muslim South. Participation of Southerners in Northern units of the Sudanese armed forces was all but eliminated. Sudanese troops in the North 

were commanded largely by British and Egyptian commissioned officers until an anti-British mutiny in 1924 caused Egyptian troops and 

commanders to be sent home.

 Sudan’s military strength at the outbreak of World War I included 

14,000–15,000 troops organized into four companies of British territorials 

and a British artillery detachment, all of them deployed in and around Khartoum. Egyptian army units, which manned 46 posts throughout Sudan, 

included 12 infantry battalions, four double companies of the Arab Battalion, six Camel Corps companies, a cavalry squadron, three mounted infantry companies, and some artillery. Additionally, Sudanese territorial units 

manned posts throughout Southern Sudan. These forces played no major 

direct role in World War I. 

Despite Sudanese reluctance to become involved in the fighting, 

steps were taken to secure its borders. Two British destroyers patrolled 

the Red Sea. In 1917 Khartoum established a Reserve Corps that all 

British male subjects in Sudan had to join (with exceptions for reasons 

of age, health, and occupation). However, the Reserve Corps never conducted any military operations. 

 Sudanese soldiers played a modest role in World War I by serving 

with the Western Allies in East Africa. Sudanese troops also helped 

defend the Suez Canal from bases in Sinai and participated in the Dardanelles and Palestine campaigns. Some Sudanese mercenaries, by contrast, 

served with German forces commanded by General Paul von LettowVorbeck. 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

 Sudan escaped the ravages of World War I, although British officials 

remained concerned about the prospects of fighting or subversion. There 

were fears that an Ottoman call for jihad would lead to a renewal of Mahdist fervor. The authorities therefore reconciled with Abd al-Rahman alMahdi, son of the Mahdi, in exchange for his declaration of loyalty. In 

September 1914, Governor-General Sir Reginald Wingate offered to 

deploy up to eight Sudanese companies to Nimule for service in Uganda 

to deter a German attack. Although the arrival in Uganda of reinforcements from India obviated the need for Sudanese troops, some Sudanese 

detachments established positions east of Nimule to stop Didinga raids 

into Uganda. 

The Ottomans sought to gain control of Sudan by inflaming Islamist 

passions in Darfur, thereby undermining British authority. In February 

1915, Turkey’s minister of war, Enver Pasha, dispatched a letter to Ali 

Dinar, the sultan of Darfur, imploring him to declare war on Britain. Turkey’s Committee of Union and Progress also launched an anti-British 

propaganda campaign that caused dissension in the Sudanese and Egyptian armies. In October 1915, the leader of the Libyan-based pro-Turkish 

Senussi Islamist movement hatched a scheme to encourage Ali Dinar to 

join a jihad against the British.

 The British responded to these machinations by creating the Western 

Arab Corps in 1916 to facilitate the occupation of Darfur after Ali Dinar 

died in battle. Additionally, they created the Equatoria Corps in December 1917 to provide security in Southern Sudan and reinforced the Camel 

Corps in Kordofan Province. They also established a defense bureau and 

censored the mail of German and Austrian citizens residing in Sudan. 

The Interwar Period

 During the postwar period, nationalism became a factor in the armed 

forces. British officials feared that Egypt, where nationalist sentiment was 

rising, would encourage its soldiers to incite the Sudanese to revolt. In 

1920 Sir Alexander Keown-Boyd, the oriental secretary to the high commissioner in Egypt, suggested that Egyptian units be withdrawn from 

Sudan. At about the same time, an army officer, Abdallah Khalil, founded 

the Sudan Union Society. Three years later, a Dinka army officer, Ali Abd 

al-Latif, established the White Flag League to imitate Egypt’s 1919 revolution. In mid-1924, this organization staged political demonstrations 

throughout Sudan. On August 9, armed cadets from the Military School 

demonstrated in Khartoum, and shortly thereafter, the Egyptian Railway 

Battalion rebelled and carried out various acts of sabotage. The British 

redeployed the Egyptian Railway Battalion back to Egypt in September, 

after its involvement in nationalist demonstrations. However, unrest continued in Shendi, Al-Obeid, Blue Nile Province, Dongola, and Malakal. 

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Governor-General Sir Lee Stack responded to this unrest on August 

19, 1924, by proposing the immediate evacuation of all Egyptian forces. 

However, on November 19, an Egyptian nationalist assassinated Stack. A 

week later, the Egyptian minister of war ordered his forces to return 

home. The following day, six Sudanese officers and two platoons of the 

11th Sudanese Battalion mutinied in Khartoum, but British forces quickly 

restored order. On January 17, 1925, the British established the Sudan 

Defence Force (SDF), which included British and Northern Sudanese 

troops. Southern participation in the SDF was limited to the Equatoria 

Corps, which was commanded by British officers. 

The Italian–Ethiopian War and World War II

 Sudan played a vital role in Ethiopia’s liberation from Italian military occupation and supported the Allied effort during World War II. 

Britain considered the October 3, 1935, Italian invasion of Ethiopia as a 

threat to its interests in Sudan and throughout East Africa, and not without cause. Italian military planners hoped to weaken British control of 

Northern Sudan by attacking Atbarah, Khartoum, and Port Sudan. If the 

Italians could occupy Atbarah, a railway junction between Port Sudan 

and Khartoum, they would disrupt the transport of British troops and 

supplies to the capital. The capture of Port Sudan would give Italy a strategic naval base for its Red Sea operations.

 At the outbreak of the Italian–Ethiopian war, Sudan’s military 

strength included only some 5,000 troops organized into the SDF, including the Western Arab Corps, Eastern Arab Corps, Equatoria Corps, and 

Camel Corps; a few hundred police; and 2,500 British troops organized 

into three battalions that were stationed at Atbarah, Khartoum, and Port 

Sudan. Italy’s considerably larger military presence in the region 

included more than 100,000 troops with artillery, armored vehicles, and 

some 200 airplanes.

 However, British fears of a large-scale Italian invasion of Sudan 

proved to be unfounded, as the occupation of Ethiopia had engaged the 

majority of its forces. As a result, Italian military forces only conducted 

low-level operations along the Sudan–Ethiopia frontier. Further, by 

1936 Britain had reequipped the SDF and had increased its size by creating six armored mobile companies to protect Sudan’s eastern border. 

Police units also deployed to the frontier, while the Royal Air Force 

conducted antisubmarine patrols in the Red Sea; air defense missions 

over Atbarah, Khartoum, and Port Sudan; and close support operations 

for the army and Ethiopian resistance fighters known as the Patriots. 

The SDF’s successes on the eastern frontier led the British to deploy 

SDF units to North Africa to impede German advances toward Egypt 

and Libya. 

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 Well before the defeat of Italian forces in mid-1941, the British had 

begun to develop an indigenous officer class among educated Sudanese, mostly from influential families in the North. Consequently, a 

growing number of Sudanese viewed the SDF as a national organization rather than as an instrument of foreign control. Even so, in the 

decade between the end of World War II and Sudan's independence, the 

SDF did not grow significantly in size, but Sudanese assumed increasingly important posts as British officers were reassigned or retired. 

However, the South’s underdeveloped education system produced few 

qualified candidates, as most lacked fluency in Arabic, the SDF’s lingua franca. The British had hoped to use the recruitment of Southerners 

into the SDF after World War II to spur their integration into Sudanese 

national life, but the paucity of qualified Southern candidates facilitated 

the Arabization of the armed forces. 

In 1955 the SDF's Equatoria Corps—composed primarily of 

Southern enlisted men but increasingly commanded by Northerners as 

the British withdrew—mutinied because of resentment over Northern 

control of national politics and institutions. Northern troops quelled 

the rebellion, and Khartoum disbanded the Equatoria Corps after most 

of its men went into hiding and began a struggle to achieve Southern 

autonomy. 

 At independence on January 1, 1956, Sudan's 5,000-man army was a 

highly trained, competent, and apolitical force. However, its character 

gradually changed as it dealt with the Southern insurgency. The army 

expanded to 12,000 personnel in 1959 and to about 50,000 by the early 

1970s. The military—particularly the educated officer corps—also 

became increasingly politicized as a growing number of personnel associated themselves with political parties and movements across the political spectrum. 

Role in Government

 Since independence, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) have overthrown four civilian governments and imposed military rule. Military 

leaders introduced some stability but frequently restricted political activities. Many Sudanese mistakenly believed that military rule would 

dampen ethnic, religious, and social squabbling and would improve the 

economy, end the Southern civil war, and expand political rights. However, the military regimes were authoritarian and proved incapable of 

dealing effectively with the military and political problems that plagued 

Sudan after independence. The al-Bashir regime also fell into this pattern 

for most of its first decade in power. Thereafter, however, the country 

witnessed significant positive change, because of the discovery and 

export of oil after 1999 and because of a negotiated end to the long-run306
 

National Security 

ning Southern war in January 2005. The regime’s primary shortcomings 

concerned the Darfur war and its human-rights record. 

 The military’s first intervention in politics occurred in 1958, when 

Major General Ibrahim Abbud seized power, ostensibly because the 

civilian leadership had failed to resolve the country’s economic, military, and political problems. It quickly became evident, however, that 

Abbud lacked the ability to resolve these problems. In 1964 public frustration manifested itself in large-scale antigovernment demonstrations 

in Khartoum that forced Abbud to step down. 

 The military initially supported the civilian regime that replaced 

Abbud, and many senior military officers held political appointments in 

the government (see The Abbud Military Government, 1958–64, ch. 1). 

Nonetheless, several field-grade officers, some of whom had been linked 

to Abbud's ouster, remained skeptical about the civilian government’s 

ability to resolve the country’s many problems. In 1969 a group called 

the Free Officers' Movement seized power and Ja’far al-Numayri, then a 

colonel, became Sudan’s new leader.

 The new military government, known as the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) and composed of nine young officers and one civilian, exercised authority from 1969 until 1971 over a largely civilian 

cabinet. The RCC, which represented only a faction within the military, 

initially devised radical policies in cooperation with the Sudanese communists, including nationalization of economic institutions, escalation of 

the Southern civil war, violent repression of the Ansar (see Glossary) 

politico-religious sect, and suppression of democratic institutions. The 

authorities arrested or sacked more than 300 high-ranking SAF officers 

who opposed these policies. After this purge, only one general officer 

remained in the RCC. Squabbling in the RCC between nationalist officers under al-Numayri and leftist-oriented officers aligned with the Sudan 

Communist Party (SCP) resulted in an unsuccessful 1971 coup attempt. 

 The country was technically no longer under armed forces governance 

after the RCC’s dissolution in late 1971. Although al-Numayri’s mounting 

prestige enabled him to broaden his support base, especially among civilians, during the next decade the military establishment remained his major 

constituency and source of power. Many SAF officers served as ministers, 

undertook domestic and international missions, and helped to establish the 

country's sole political party, the Sudan Socialist Union (SSU). Defense 

ministers (who were general officers) also became secretaries-general of 

the SSU. The National Security Council, whose membership was dominated by SAF officers, helped frame political and economic policies. The 

largely powerless People's Assembly had 18 seats reserved for armed services personnel. Al-Numayri justified the predominance of military personnel in senior government positions by claiming that they represented 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

the country’s most disciplined organization and that they were motivated 

by nationalist convictions.

 By the early 1980s, al-Numayri increasingly acted as if the SAF was 

an instrument of his personal political dictates rather than the source of 

his political power. The armed forces remained largely loyal to alNumayri despite numerous coup attempts, some of which were organized by dissatisfied military personnel. Nevertheless, there was a gradual deterioration in the relationship between al-Numayri and the SAF. 

In an extraordinary move in 1982, al-Numayri retired General Abd alMajid Hamad Khalil—vice president, minister of defense, SAF commander in chief, SSU secretary-general, and generally regarded as the 

heir apparent—along with 22 other top-ranking officers.

 Following this purge, al-Numayri assumed command of the SAF 

and briefly held the defense portfolio. In response to al-Numayri’s centrist and Islamist policies, Southern troops mutinied, and civil war 

resumed in 1983. This conflict, coupled with the country’s poor economy, eroded al-Numayri's popularity. The armed forces were of little 

help as resistance to al-Numayri’s policies precipitated demonstrations 

and strikes. 

 On April 6, 1985, Minister of Defense Lieutenant General Abd alRahman Siwar al-Dhahab deposed al-Numayri in a bloodless coup. 

Al-Dahab established a 15-man Transitional Military Council (TMC) 

to govern the country for a one-year period, after which civilian rule 

was to be restored. The TMC honored this commitment; elections 

were held, and a civilian government took office in April 1986. 

 Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi presided over a series of coalition 

governments from 1986 to 1989. His relations with the armed forces 

were often stormy, largely because of the ongoing Southern rebellion. In 

September 1986, he forcibly retired the SAF commander in chief and 

the chief of the general staff along with about 20 other officers. In February 1989, the SAF leadership demanded that Sadiq pursue the Southern war more vigorously or opt for a peace settlement, but he did neither. 

The result was that on June 30, 1989, Colonel Umar Hassan Ahmad alBashir, a paratroop officer who had served in the South, overthrew the 

Sadiq government. A Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation (RCC–NS), consisting of 15 SAF officers led by al-Bashir, justified 

the coup by citing the Sadiq government’s neglect of the armed forces and 

its failure to resolve the country’s economic problems and to reestablish 

security in the South. Al-Bashir, who eventually became Sudan’s longestserving president, was head of state, prime minister, and minister of 

defense in the new government. The RCC–NS vice chairman, a brigadier 

general, became deputy prime minister. Other senior SAF officers served 

as minister of interior, minister of justice, and attorney general. 

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 Most Sudanese welcomed the establishment of al-Bashir’s government in hopes that it would end political turbulence, improve the economy, and end the Southern civil war. The Muslim Brotherhood and the 

NIF supported it. Like past military officers, al-Bashir justified the coup 

and his policies as the only alternative to civilian mismanagement. To 

secure its control, the regime suppressed political activities, treated its 

opponents harshly, and sacked or retired the army commander, 27 other 

generals, and some 500 other officers. In April 1990, the government 

executed 28 officers, including senior officers removed by the junta, 

ostensibly to prevent a coup against the regime. Its ruthless suppression 

of discontent frightened the internal opposition into silence. At the same 

time, military purges left the majority of active-duty officers silent for 

fear of being dismissed, jailed, or shot. Infiltration of informers into the 

SAF made dissident activity risky.

 During the next two decades, al-Bashir successfully marginalized 

individuals or groups suspected of disloyalty to the regime. Nonetheless, 

the armed forces continued to be involved in coup attempts against the 

government. In April 1991, the security forces executed 20 SAF officers 

for their involvement in a coup attempt and sacked Minister of Interior 

Faisal Abu Salih and Brigadier General Uthman Ahmad Hassan. The 

following August, the police arrested 10 SAF officers and several civilians for a coup attempt ascribed to “foreign powers.” A military court 

sentenced the 10 officers to death, but their sentences were commuted to 

life imprisonment.

 Another attempted coup occurred in March 1996, this one during a 

period when the government was trying to convince the population that 

Sudan had entered a period of “stability and reconciliation.” In August 

1996, Egyptian-based Sudanese opponents of the al-Bashir regime 

reported that 11 SAF officers had been executed for participating in a conspiracy to occupy government facilities in Port Sudan, although the government denied that executions had taken place. Beginning in late 1999, 

al-Bashir faced a clear challenge to his authority from Hassan al-Turabi, a 

former ally in the NIF, and his sympathizers, some of them in the armed 

forces and militia groups (see The Al-Bashir Era, ch .4). The following 

February, al-Bashir reassigned several senior army officers as a precaution, 

and al-Turabi was arrested. As late as March 2004, the government 

claimed to have uncovered plans for yet another coup, arresting a small 

number of army and police officers as well as members of al-Turabi’s 

political party. Despite such manifestations of discontent in Sudan’s armed 

forces, there was no indication in early 2011 that a new government, civilian or military, would replace the al-Bashir regime anytime soon. 

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The Armed Forces in Sudanese Society

 The British created an indigenous officer corps that by World War II 

consisted largely of Sudanese who came from upper- and middle-class 

urban families. After that, greater numbers were drawn from the merchant sector and the civil service in urban areas, where formal elementary 

and secondary education was more easily obtainable. Officer cadets, who 

had to possess a fourth-year secondary-school certificate, were selected 

on the basis of competitive written and oral examinations. A requirement 

that cadets possess a good knowledge of Arabic eliminated many Southerners who had been educated in English. As of 1981, only 5–10 percent 

of all Sudanese officer cadets were Southerners.

 The high quality of incoming officers during the period before independence diminished thereafter, largely because of an expansion in the 

size of the army, particularly during the 1968–72 surge in recruitment. The 

SCP, which was entrenched in the universities and trade unions during the 

1960s, contributed to the emergence of a generation of officers who were 

predominantly anti-Western and radical. Many officers received initial 

training from Soviet military advisers. On July 19, 1971, a failed coup 

attempt against al-Numayri allegedly instigated by members of the SCP 

supported by the Iraqi Baath Party led to the dismissal of many officers 

with leftist leanings. As a result, the officer corps became increasingly 

rightist and supported al-Numayri's shift toward strengthened relations 

with the West and Egypt.

 The military faction that deposed al-Numayri in 1985 was not distinguished by any particular political orientation, although some members maintained links with social, religious, and ethnic groups. Despite 

al-Numayri’s Islamization program and, later, al-Bashir’s links to the 

NIF, no more than 5 percent of career officers in the early 1990s were 

thought to be Islamist activists. Most officers were modern in outlook, 

of middle-class and urban backgrounds, and inclined to be nonsectarian. However, by the late 1990s and early 2000s, a growing number of 

officers sought to further their careers by embracing or at least paying 

lip service to the government’s Islamist agenda.

 Historical factors also influenced the SAF’s political and ethnic 

makeup. During the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, many members of 

the Khatmiyyah (see Glossary) politico-religious sect and nomadic peoples of northeastern Sudan served in the military. By the 1980s, however, Sudanese from the northeast and the Nile Valley constituted no 

more than 20 percent of the military establishment, although they continued to be well represented in the officer corps. Many officers had ties 

to the Khatmiyyah group and to the al-Mirghani family and supported 

the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Under al-Bashir, Northerners 

310 
A Sudan Armed Forces soldier 

on crowd-control duty in 

Khartoum, late 1990s 

Copyright Lillian Craig Harris 

continued to dominate the senior leadership, although some Southerners 

held sensitive positions.

 In the early 1980s, members of the Ansar and others from Darfur 

and Kordofan provinces accounted for approximately 60 percent of 

the SAF’s enlisted manpower. The Ansar and other Western Sudanese 

might have been more numerous in the uniformed services had not alNumayri imposed recruitment restrictions on these groups because 

many were perceived to be opposed to his government.

 The presence in the armed forces of non-Muslim black Southerners 

has been a source of contention since the condominium period. Until 

after World War II, Southerners served only in the Equatoria Corps 

and rarely alongside Northern Sudanese. Khartoum suspended recruitment of Southerners after the 1955 Southern mutiny. The following 

year, the SAF resumed recruitment of Southerners, but they were 

required to serve in the North under Northern officers.

 Nonetheless, the civil war in the South discouraged many there from 

joining the SAF until the signing of the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement. As 

part of that agreement, 6,000 former Anya Nya guerrillas were integrated 

into the SAF Southern Command to serve with 6,000 Northerners. By 

including Southern officers in senior positions in the Southern Command, 

the two forces appeared to have meshed successfully. A 1982 estimate 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

indicated that Southerners outnumbered Northerners 7,000 to 5,000 in the 

Southern Command. However, there were relatively few Southerners stationed in the North, and none held important commands. In 1983 alNumayri transferred Southern troops to the North because of doubts about 

their loyalty. Southerners opposed this decision and used it to help justify a 

renewal of conflict in the South.

 Given the state of war between the al-Bashir regime and the 

SPLM/A, there were only limited opportunities for Southerners in the 

SAF during the 1990s. As a consequence of the Comprehensive Peace 

Agreement of January 2005, however, Southerners not only held high 

positions in the SPLM/A, but at least some positions in the SAF. Even 

so, it was clear that Arab officers from the northern Nile region continued to dominate the Sudan Armed Forces. 

External Security Concerns 

None of Sudan’s neighbors (Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, 

the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, 

Chad, and Libya) posed a serious threat to the country in early 2011. 

Since the 1960s, however, some 30 proxy wars have been waged in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Chad, Libya, and in Sudan. Moreover, 

most of Sudan’s neighbors provided cash, sanctuaries, or weapons to 

anti-Khartoum groups. In turn, Sudan gave similar support to insurgent 

groups in Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Uganda. 

Relations with Neighboring States 

Sudan’s relations with its neighbors frequently vacillated between 

periods of tension and cooperation. On June 26, 1995, for example, 

nine Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood terrorists attempted to assassinate 

Egyptian president Husni Mubarak as he arrived in Addis Ababa to 

attend a meeting of the Organization of African Unity, now the African 

Union (see Sudan and International Terrorism, ch. 1). On September 1, 

the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Sudanese security 

personnel of involvement in the attack. Addis Ababa also berated 

Khartoum for sheltering three of the alleged assassins. 

 A day after the failed assassination attempt, Sudanese and Egyptian 

troops clashed over the status of the disputed border region of Hala’ib. 

Two Sudanese died during the encounter while several troops on both 

sides sustained injuries. On June 28, Egypt ordered 70 Sudanese police 

who had been jointly guarding posts in Hala’ib to leave that enclave.

 Sudanese vice president Salah Zubayr visited Cairo in January 1997 

but received a cool reception from President Mubarak, who informed him 

that Egypt would not provide military aid to Sudan and chastised Sudan 

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for “harboring militant Islamists.” Relations between the two countries 

warmed later that year, however, during another visit by Salah Zubayr, 

when Mubarak expressed willingness to “forgive and forget” because he 

feared a United States–backed partition of Sudan that could threaten the 

1959 Nile Waters Treaty between Egypt and Sudan (see Economic Developments since Independence, ch.1). Sudan’s foreign minister, Mustafa 

Uthman Isma’il, also declared that 1998 would be the “year of normalization” because air and trade links between the two countries would be 

restored. More recently, the Egyptians, in dealing with Darfur, confronted 

the need to balance relations with the Sudanese government with those of 

other internal political actors. Among their contributions have been 

humanitarian aid and the deployment of Egyptian troops to the force of the 

United Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). 

In the early 1990s, relations with Ethiopia and newly independent Eritrea were disturbed by such issues as support for insurgents in each 

other’s territories and by the militant Islamism of the National Islamic 

Front (NIF) and the National Congress Party. Eritrean president Issaias 

Afwerki and Ethiopian president (later prime minister) Meles Zenawi 

met with President al-Bashir in Addis Ababa in July 1994. The two leaders told al-Bashir to “stop meddling with our Muslims and keep your 

brand of Islam within the borders of Sudan.” Al-Bashir denied any 

wrongdoing. However, al-Turabi, the influential Islamist who headed the 

NIF, believed that Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, and Ethiopia would become 

an Islamic community much like the European Community (later European Union) and that borders would disappear, a belief that perhaps justified Sudan’s interest in its neighbors’ Muslims. 

 Eritrea sponsored a December 1994 meeting between the SPLM/A 

and several prominent Sudanese opposition groups, including the 

Umma Party, the DUP, and the Sudanese Allied Forces. In January 

1995, President Issaias turned over Sudan’s embassy in Asmara to the 

National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a coalition of groups opposed to 

the regime in Khartoum. A reversal of affairs occurred on January 4, 

2000, when Sudan and Eritrea signed a joint communiqué to restore diplomatic ties. The two countries agreed to reopen border crossing points, 

reopen embassies in both countries, and resume regular air service. By 

then, Eritrea wished to stabilize relations with Sudan because of the possibility of renewed conflict with Ethiopia after the two nations fought a 

war in 1998.

 Eritrea and Sudan have enjoyed a more productive relationship in 

recent years. In May 2005, for example, the Eritrean and Sudanese 

presidents met on the margins of the Tripoli Summit on Darfur to discuss the peace process in Eastern Sudan. In mid-2006, Eritrea, which 

had supported the insurgents, began negotiations to end the conflict 

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between Khartoum and the Eastern Front. After signing a declaration 

of principles in June, the warring parties concluded a peace agreement 

in Asmara on October 14, 2006. Eritrea also deployed some 200 soldiers to help monitor the Sudan–Chad border. Between 2006 and 

2011, the two governments enjoyed good relations.

 Sudanese–Ethiopian relations also improved. In January 2006, Ethiopia and Sudan agreed to strengthen development activities and prevent illegal trade in border areas. On December 6, 2007, President alBashir and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi inaugurated the Al-Gedaref– 

Doka–Gallabat–Matammah highway connecting Sudan and northwest 

Ethiopia, which facilitated trade, including in oil, between the two 

neighbors. In January 2008, the two countries also agreed to construct a 

road connecting Al-Damazin and Kurmuk with Assosa in Ethiopia.

 Kenya and Uganda supported the SPLM/A with cash and weapons 

and welcomed the presence of SPLM/A personnel in their capitals from 

1989 until 2005. Nairobi and Kampala shared harsh attitudes toward the 

Islamist regime in Khartoum. Nevertheless, Kenya played a key role in 

negotiations that eventually led to the signing of the CPA. Since 2005 

Kenya and Uganda generally supported the South’s president, Salva Kiir, 

and his policies, and both benefited from substantial commercial and 

other ties with the Government of South Sudan (GOSS), despite the new 

nation having some serious disagreements with these two neighbors. 

Sudanese–Chadian relations have experienced periods of tension 

because of instability in Darfur. The border between the two countries 

is difficult to control, and several Darfuri groups, namely the Fur, 

Masalit, Daju, and Zaghawa, reside on both sides of it and have long 

engaged in cross-border raids in support of their kinsmen when in conflict with one or the other central government. Repeated attempts at 

reconciliation between Chad and Sudan had borne fruit by 2011. 

During much of the 1980s, Chadian rebels mounted operations 

against N’Djamena from bases in Darfur. Additionally, Libyan troops 

and Libyan-supported units of the Islamic Legion (a pan-Arab paramilitary force sponsored by Libya) frequently deployed to Darfur in search 

of rebels or to participate in fighting between Arab and non-Arab ethnic 

groups. Khartoum lacked the capabilities to prevent the well-equipped 

Libyan-backed units from occupying parts of Darfur during their Chadian campaigns. 

Another Chadian war began in December 2005. The conflict involved 

Chadian troops and several rebel groups, including the United Front for 

Democratic Change, the Alliance of Revolutionary Forces of West 

Sudan, janjaweed (see Glossary), as well as the Sudanese government, 

which supported the rebels. On February 8, 2006, the Tripoli Agreement 

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ended the fighting for approximately two months. The Chadian government 

estimated that 614 Chadian citizens had been killed during the fighting. 

A rift between the Zaghawa and Tama groups developed in 2007, in 

which the Zaghawa, to which Chad’s president, Idriss Déby, belongs, 

accused Sudan of supporting members of the rival Tama group. The 

Chadian government repeatedly accused Sudan of providing cash and 

weapons to the United Front for Democratic Change, and in December 

2007 it accused Sudan of giving rebels airtime on Sudanese state television. After a second attack on the Chadian border town of Adré, Sudanese citizens were among the attackers taken prisoner. Fighting persisted 

thereafter among armed groups supported by each government against 

the other, punctuated by several attempts at renewed peace agreements 

until 2009, when Chad and Sudan began a process of diplomatic and military rapprochement. 

Sudan’s security relationship with the Democratic Republic of the 

Congo (DRC—formerly Zaire) has focused primarily on the smallarms trade between the two countries. Weapons flowed primarily from 

South Sudan to the DRC—a traffic that grew as eastern Zaire experienced civil war in the later 1990s. Serving and former SPLM/A soldiers conducted trade in an array of weapons, including AK–47s, 

recoilless rifles, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns, and 

pistols. Demand for such weapons was and remained greatest in the 

Ituri and North Kivu regions of the DRC; demand was far lower farther 

west among the Azande, many of whom relied on traditional weapons 

or their own, often inherited, arms. 

During the second Sudanese civil war (1983–2005), thousands of 

SPLM/A members went to the Central African Republic (CAR) to find 

food or safe havens during times of drought or military offensives. During the 1990s, the CAR served as a staging area for SAF attacks against 

SPLM/A units in western Bahr al-Ghazal. These clashes caused some 

36,000 Sudanese to flee to CAR as refugees. Some of these individuals 

belonged to the SPLM/A, who brought some 5,000 weapons with them. 

By 2004, the SPLM/A supposedly occupied towns as far as 200 kilometers into the CAR. 

Sudan established transit routes through northern CAR in early 

April 2006. The Darfur-based United Front for Democratic Change 

crossed through northeastern CAR en route to attack N’Djamena. The 

CAR government responded by closing its border with Sudan. However, Sudanese Antonovs flew to a CAR airfield with a cargo of weapons and some 50 uniformed men. Despite such provocations, 

Sudanese–CAR relations have remained relatively good. 

In the late 2000s, relations among Sudan, the CAR, and the DRC 

were troubled by the presence of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). 

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Originally a messianic movement in Uganda that became known for kidnapping, maiming, and killing, the LRA fled Uganda in the mid-2000s 

and relocated to South Sudan and the DRC. Since then, the LRA has 

committed atrocities in northeastern DRC, southeastern CAR, and southeastern Sudan. Its forces have operated in small parties that easily escape 

pursuers. In more recent years, the LRA was responsible for killings in 

Darfur. As of 2010–11, it was most active in West Equatoria, where its 

sporadic raids involving burning, looting, and killing constitute a security problem for GOSS. 

United States–Sudanese Relations

 Apart from Sudan’s neighbors, the United States was the country 

pursuing the most aggressive policy toward Sudan. In December 1994, 

Washington supported elements hostile to al-Bashir—primarily Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Uganda—to help create the Asmara-based National 

Democratic Alliance (NDA). This organization enabled the SPLM/A to 

cooperate with other groups opposed to al-Bashir, such as the Umma 

Party, the DUP, and the Sudanese Allied Forces.

 Washington launched the so-called Front Line States policy in early 

1995 to facilitate the downfall of the al-Bashir regime (see United States, 

ch. 4). To accomplish this goal, the United States provided US$20 million worth of military equipment to Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Uganda. Each 

of these countries deployed a limited number of troops to Sudan, but 

given Sudan’s size, this strategy failed to accomplish anything. 

The campaign to isolate Sudan peaked in January 1996, when the UN 

Security Council, strongly supported by the United States, adopted Resolution 1044, which condemned Sudan as a threat to regional peace. 

Washington also moved most of its diplomats from Khartoum to the U.S. 

Embassy in Nairobi, leaving only a small number of locally hired Foreign Service personnel on duty in the embassy in Khartoum, with occasional support from visiting U.S. diplomats then based in Kenya. In April 

1996, the UN Security Council, with U.S. support, imposed additional 

sanctions on Sudan, including restrictions on foreign travel of Sudanese 

government officials and a ban on holding international conferences in 

Sudan. Such tactics failed to alter Sudan’s policies and regional activities. 

The bombings of the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es 

Salaam and the U.S. retaliatory attack on the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical 

factory in Khartoum North in August 1998 marked the nadir of U.S.– 

Sudanese relations. Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist strikes 

in New York City and Washington, however, the U.S. view of Sudan 

became somewhat more nuanced. Although sanctions remained in 

force and Washington continued to condemn the wars in the South and 

in Darfur, the George W. Bush administration came to view Sudan as a 

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potentially useful source of intelligence on terrorists, especially 

Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. For their part, the Sudanese sought 

removal from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism and the lifting 

of U.S. economic sanctions. Contacts between the two countries about 

terrorist activities in the Middle East advanced to the point that the 

head of Sudanese intelligence, Major General Salah Abdallah Gosh, 

was received in Washington in 2005, according to reports in U.S. 

media. This cooperation in intelligence sharing, confirmed in 2007 by 

high-ranking Sudanese and U.S. officials, demonstrated that despite 

their profound differences over Darfur and human rights, Sudan and 

the U.S. had found common ground in the effort to counter international terrorism. Even so, Sudan remained on the list of state sponsors 

of terrorism and subject to U.S. economic sanctions. 

Civil Warfare in the South and West

 Except for a period of tenuous peace from 1972 to 1983, Sudan 

experienced continual armed rebellion in the South between 1955 and 

the early 2000s. The protracted struggle pitted the mostly Muslim 

North against the partly Christian and animist South. It claimed an estimated 2 million lives—mostly noncombatants—and forced millions of 

others to flee the South in search of food and to escape the violence. 

Both sides committed massive human-rights violations against civilians. In the 1980s and 1990s, rebel forces controlled parts of the South 

and occasionally attacked SAF garrisoned towns. By the late 1990s, it 

had become clear that neither side was capable of scoring a decisive 

military victory. After years of agonizing negotiations, government and 

rebel forces signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) to end 

the conflict in January 2005. 

First Southern Civil War, 1955–72

 In August 1955, troops of the Equatoria Corps, together with police, 

mutinied in Torit and other towns in the South. The SAF suppressed these 

mutinies although some rebels escaped to rural areas and formed guerrilla 

bands. However, they were poorly armed and organized and presented no 

threat to the government. The later emergence of a Southern secessionist 

movement led to the formation of the Anya Nya guerrilla army, composed of remnants of the 1955 mutineers and recruits among Southern 

students. Initially active only in Equatoria (present-day East Equatoria, 

Central Equatoria, and West Equatoria), Anya Nya carried its rebellion 

across all of Southern Sudan between 1963 and 1969 (see fig. 6, ch. 1). In 

1970 a former army lieutenant, Joseph Lagu, united the ethnically fragmented guerrilla bands to support a new political movement called the 

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Southern Sudan Liberation Front (SSLF). The first Southern war ended 

on February 27, 1972, when the warring parties signed the Addis Ababa 

Agreement that established autonomy and religious rights for South 

Sudanese and a single regional government, the Southern Sudan Provisional Government, with defined powers. The document also established 

four subregional governments based on ethnicity as part of a federal system of governance in the South. Ironically, many Sudanese outside the 

country accused Southern leaders of collaborating with Khartoum. 

Second Southern Civil War, 1983–2005

 The SAF absorbed Anya Nya fighters into its ranks under the terms of 

Addis Ababa Agreement, although many Southern units opposed the 

agreement by defecting or taking refuge in Ethiopia. Addis Ababa aided 

Sudan's independent rebel bands because Khartoum had provided support to Eritrean rebels. The Sudanese rebel forces gathered further 

recruits, predominantly among the Nuer people but also among the 

Dinka, the largest groups in the South, and eventually adopted the name 

of Anya Nya II. Those original Anya Nya who had been absorbed into 

the SAF after the 1972 agreement fought the guerrillas on behalf of the 

national government. However, when al-Numayri redivided the South 

and imposed Islamic law, the loyalty of Southern soldiers wavered. 

Uncertain of their dependability, al-Numayri introduced more Northern 

troops into the South and attempted to transfer the former guerrillas to the 

North. In mid-1983, SAF units in Bor, Pibor Post, Pochala, and other 

Southern garrisons mutinied. In July 1983, Anya Nya II and mutinous 

army personnel met in Ethiopia and formed the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). John Garang de Mabior, a Dinka, 

served as its military-political commander. But Southerners failed to 

achieve unity under Garang, whose forces eventually defeated Anya Nya 

II dissident units. Thereafter, the defeated remnants, still calling themselves Anya Nya II, cooperated with the SAF against the SPLM/A.

 The SPLM/A’s tactics initially included ambushes of military vehicles and assaults on police stations and small army posts, mainly in the 

Nuer and Dinka areas of what were then A’ali an-Nil and northern and 

eastern Bahr al-Ghazal. An SPLM/A attempt to invade eastern Al-Istiwai in early 1985 met stiff resistance from the SAF and government 

militias (see fig. 7, ch. 1). In 1986 the SPLM/A occupied Rumbek in 

southern Bahr al-Ghazal for several months and attacked Wau, the 

provincial capital. During 1987, the SPLM/A took Kurmuk, Pibor 

Post, Qaysan, and Tonga in A’ali an-Nil. By early 1988, the SPLM/A 

had captured several towns on the Ethiopian border. 

 Many communities in Al-Istiwai Province, where the Dinka and 

their Nuer allies were unpopular, opposed the SPLM/A. The SAF, 

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SPLA soldiers with a captured tank at Rumbek in southern Sudan, 1997 

Copyright Lillian Craig Harris 

with support from a militia of the Mandari (also seen as Mundari) people, gradually consolidated its position in eastern Al-Istiwai. By 1988, 

the SPLM/A controlled the countryside around Juba, the major Southern city. Some 10,000 SAF troops were cut off from supplies except 

for what could be delivered by air. From May to October 1989, an 

informal truce prevailed. After the conflict resumed, the areas being 

contested were principally in western Al-Istiwai, focusing on the Juba 

and Yei government garrisons. The fighting frequently consisted of 

SPLM/A ambushes of government convoys moving supplies from the 

North. Captured weapons and arms imported from Ethiopia and other 

African countries enabled the SPLM/A to acquire armored vehicles 

and artillery, but the Southern forces avoided conventional engagements against SAF units.

 Anya Nya II began to crumble in the late 1980s, as many units and 

their commanders deserted to the SPLM/A. Government-supported 

militias had become active by then in areas where opposition to the 

Dinka- and Nuer-dominated SPLM/A was strongest. These militias 

played a major role in the fighting and were partly responsible for the 

ravages the civilian population endured. The arming of tribal groups 

inflamed existing intercommunal conflicts and resulted in the deaths 

of tens of thousands of noncombatants.

 Millions of villagers fled their homes as a consequence of the fighting 

and the depredations of militias, the SPLM/A, Anya Nya II, and the SAF. 

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Devastation of northern Bahr al-Ghazal by roving murahalin (Arab militia 

groups) forced many people to evacuate their homes in 1986–87 and seek 

refuge in Northern Sudan to escape the fighting and starvation (see Militias, this ch.). Raiding decreased in 1988–89 as a result of depopulation of 

the land and a stronger SPLM/A presence in northern Bahr al-Ghazal. 

Nevertheless, migrations continued because of severe food shortages. By 

1989, some 1 million Southerners had settled in Khartoum, while hundreds of thousands had moved to other cities and towns. Additionally, 

some 350,000 Sudanese registered as refugees in Ethiopia. At least 

100,000 had sought refuge in Juba and approximately 28,000 in Uganda. 

On August 28, 1991, Riek Machar, a Nuer, and Lam Akol, a Shilluk, sent a radio message, which subsequently became known as the 

Nasir Declaration, announcing that SPLM/A commander John Garang 

had been deposed. Machar claimed that he had taken over as interim 

leader. According to Major General Clement Wani, governor of Central 

Equatoria, the al-Bashir regime provided Machar with more than 

10,000 weapons. These arms allowed cattle herders to protect their livestock from raids by the SPLM/A, but they also fueled conflict between 

the Lou Nuer of present-day central Upper Nile and the Jikaan Nuer of 

eastern Upper Nile. 

 Machar enlisted Nuer youths, who covered themselves with white 

ashes to protect themselves from insects, to form the backbone of the 

“White Army.” His strategy was to attack the SPLM/A heartland, thus 

exposing Garang as a weak leader and a poor military commander. The 

fighting focused largely on the Bor Dinka. Reportedly, the White Army 

killed thousands of Bor Dinka, looted villages, and stole thousands of 

cattle. However, Machar’s offensive failed to defeat Garang. As a result, 

the stature of the Nuer diminished considerably, but the White Army 

continued some operations thanks to additional arms from Khartoum.

 Garang announced a new military strategy on March 18, 1995, 

whereby the SPLM/A, in cooperation with Northern Sudanese opposition groups, would carry the war to the North. This strategy failed 

largely because the Northern groups lacked the military capabilities to 

go on the offensive against Khartoum. Nevertheless, on October 21, 

1995, the SPLM/A and an array of Northern groups that included the 

Army Legitimate Command, DUP, SCP, and Umma Party signed the 

National Democratic Alliance charter. This coalition called for “opening up new fronts (in the East or West, or both) and preparing for a revolutionary insurrection in the North.” However, the NDA, which was 

headquartered in Asmara, Eritrea, posed no threat to the al-Bashir government, as it failed to launch any significant military operations. 

 The government ordered a unilateral cease-fire throughout Southern Sudan on March 3, 1996, but Garang refused to accept it. Instead, 

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the SPLM/A attacked towns along the Sudanese–Ethiopian border. 

However, on April 10, 1996, Khartoum signed a peace accord with the 

South Sudan Independence Movement (SSIM) and the SPLA–Bahr 

al-Ghazal Group led by Kerubino Bol Kuanyin, a former SPLM/A 

deputy commander. Both groups pledged to preserve Sudan’s national 

unity and to develop war-torn areas of South Sudan, but they failed to 

achieve either goal.

 The SAF started rounding up young men in Khartoum for military 

service in March 1997; in late May, the government announced that all 

male secondary school leavers were subject to compulsory military service. On April 21, 1997, the government signed the Khartoum Peace 

Agreement with the Equatoria Defense Force, South Sudan Independence Group, SSIM, SPLA–Bahr al-Ghazal Group, SPLA–Bor Group, 

and Union of Sudan African Parties. The agreement guaranteed “freedom of movement, assembly, organization, speech and press and...an 

equitable representation of southerners at all levels with Sudan.” 

 Conflict continued in South Sudan over the next six years, despite 

ongoing regional peace talks sponsored by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD—see Glossary). Then, on July 20, 2002, the 

Sudanese government and the SPLM/A signed the Machakos Protocol, 

named for the Kenyan city in which they met, which provided for a referendum on self-determination for the South after a six-year transitional 

period. On October 17, the two sides agreed to a cease-fire throughout all 

Sudan, made permanent in a subsequent protocol of December 2004. A 

second round of talks in Machakos in November 2002 resulted in the 

signing of an agreement that proposed a structure for an interim government, an accord signed into final form in May 2004. On January 9, 2005, 

the warring parties finally signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement 

that ended one of Africa’s most costly and devastating wars. 

Security Provisions of the CPA

 The Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed by the Government 

of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Nairobi, Kenya, on January 9, 2005, consisted of both military and political provisions (see Recent Constitutional Developments, ch. 4). The 

military provisions were contained in the Agreement on Permanent 

Cease-fire and Security Modalities. There also were special political 

and security arrangements for the areas of Abyei, Blue Nile, and the 

Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan. These three regions bore the brunt 

of hostilities during the second civil war. Given their strategic location 

and wealth, including oil, they were deemed critical to long-term stability in Sudan and hence were accorded special status. 

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 The CPA called for an internationally monitored cease-fire in the 

South and East (Darfur was not included in this arrangement). The 

forces of each side were to disengage and redeploy to their home areas 

on either side of the North–South border as defined on January 1, 

1956. Both were to downsize proportionately, and if the South had 

voted for unity in the 2011 referendum on self-determination, they 

would have combined into a new national army. The CPA required 

Joint/Integrated Units (JIUs) to be formed by equal numbers of soldiers from both North and South, to ensure security in strategic areas 

and give practical effect to the principle of unity, and to become the 

nucleus of a national army, were there to be one after mid-2011. A 

Joint Defense Board composed of chiefs of staff and their deputies 

from both North and South was established to coordinate their respective forces and to command the JIUs. 

 The two sides agreed to create an Assessment and Evaluation Commission to ensure that both parties lived up to the CPA’s provisions. 

They also created a Cease-fire Political Commission and a Cease-fire 

Joint Military Committee to oversee implementation of the cease-fire 

agreement. Finally, the two sides called for the United Nations to send a 

peace-support mission to Sudan to monitor and verify the implementation of the security provisions, to oversee the national demobilization, 

disarmament, and reintegration campaign involving soldiers on both 

sides, and to support implementation of the CPA in general.

 The CPA enjoyed some success in ensuing years, but resolving security issues and problems between the al-Bashir government and the 

SPLM/A remained problematic. For example, the cease-fire in the South 

and East was implemented with a corresponding degree of security in 

the former war zones, and the redeployment of troops also occurred, 

albeit on a delayed schedule. In other undertakings, however, the cooperation between North and South foreseen in the CPA was elusive if not 

wholly absent. 

 The experience of the JIUs illustrated the strengths and weaknesses 

of the CPA’s security provisions. The JIUs were intended to enhance 

security in contentious areas during the six-year interim period prior to 

the 2011 Southern referendum on secession and to demonstrate that both 

sides were committed to national unity. The JIUs were also to serve as a 

confidence-building measure that might lead to the establishment of a 

post-referendum national army. They were to be funded by the presidency rather than through the SAF and the SPLM/A, an arrangement 

designed to eliminate pay irregularities and preclude any appearance of 

favoritism. 

The authorized troop level for the JIUs was 39,600 troops, divided 

equally between the SAF and the SPLM/A. JIU deployed forces included 

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Nuba celebrating a cease-fire in 

the Nuba Mountains in 2002 

Copyright Lillian Craig Harris 

24,000 in South Sudan, 600 in Abyei, 6,000 in the Nuba Mountains, and 

3,000 in Khartoum. Another five JIU divisions were deployed in AlDamazin, Juba, Kaduqli, Malakal, and Wau. There was also a JIU headquarters element in Juba, an independent brigade in Khartoum, and an 

Abyei Area Independent Battalion.

 The JIUs enjoyed some minor successes aside from their formation 

and deployment, including the creation of standard operating procedures, some joint patrols, and a commitment to establish a weapons-free 

zone in Wau. Nonetheless, the JIUs faced a daunting array of problems, 

including repeated deployment delays, poor command and control, and 

inadequate integration of the SAF and the SPLM/A forces. 

 The operational limitations of the JIUs became evident in Abyei in 

mid-May 2008. A meeting point between the Dinka and Missiriyya 

peoples that is also a major oil-producing area, Abyei had been a 

potential flash point between North and South since the signing of the 

CPA. A boundary-demarcation proposal that had been accepted by 

GOSS but rejected by the al-Bashir government, together with disputes over the division of oil revenues, set the stage for local clashes in 

mid-May between the SPLM/A and the SAF and their allied militias. 

In days of fighting between SPLM/A and SAF, the soldiers in the JIU 

split into JIU–SAF and JIU–SPLM/A and joined their respective sides 

in fighting that devastated the small market town of Abyei. By July 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

both sides had recommitted themselves to a unified JIU in Abyei, but 

neither the JIUs nor UN peacekeepers were able to prevent renewed 

clashes between the local Ngok Dinka and Missiriyya nomads in 2010 

and early 2011. Problems of a different nature arose within JIUs in the 

southern part of Upper Nile State in early 2011. In this instance, 

Southern militiamen, formerly aligned with Khartoum but after 2005 

drafted as SAF units into the JIUs of Upper Nile State, mutinied when 

Northern commanders ordered them to surrender their heavy weapons 

and relocate to the North. The mutiny was contained, but the basic 

issues remained unresolved. 

The UN secretary-general on January 31, 2005, had recommended 

the deployment of a peace-support operation for South Sudan to be 

known as the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), a recommendation the Security Council adopted on March 25. The force was 

to consist of a maximum of 10,000 military personnel, including 750 

military observers and 715 civilian police. By April, four African and 

22 non-African countries had pledged troops, who were to observe the 

cease-fire in South Sudan, aid and monitor the formation of the JIUs, 

and facilitate disarmament and demobilization. Additionally, they 

were to restructure the national and Southern police forces, promote 

human rights and the rule of law, support efforts to prepare for the 

2011 referendum, ease the return of refugees and displaced persons, 

and carry out demining activities. 

To facilitate the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration 

(DDR) program, the CPA called for establishment of a national DDR 

council that would oversee separate DDR commissions in both North 

and South. Each of these commissions was charged with the design and 

implementation of the demobilization program in its respective region. 

The UN was to provide financial and technical support through several 

of its agencies, principally UNMIS. The multi-year DDR process began 

in Blue Nile State in mid-2005 with a group of more than 5,600 elderly 

and disabled veterans and associated children and women, with a goal of 

demobilizing some 90,000 soldiers, half from each side. This number 

was subsequently raised to 180,000, again evenly split between Northern and Southern excombatants. By September 2010, nearly 28,000 soldiers had been demobilized according to UNMIS, a figure that had risen 

to 38,440 by January 2011—more than 27,000 of them from the North. 

The War in Darfur, 2003–11

 Darfur historically has been one of Sudan’s most marginalized and 

troublesome regions, being a meeting ground between nomadic Arabs 

in the North and African agriculturalists in its center and South. Nevertheless, the outbreak of the February 2003 war surprised Washington, 

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other Western and non-Western countries, and international organizations such as the African Union and the United Nations.

 Darfuris have long felt marginalized by the central government. In 

2000, their grievances were starkly enumerated in The Black Book: 

Imbalance of Power and Wealth in Sudan, allegedly written by Darfuri 

rebels. The book documented what its authors said was the near 

monopolization of positions in the national government by the Arabs of 

the northern Nile—a dominance that, based on the mid-1980s ministerial and population data, for example, amounted to almost 69 percent of 

positions, or “national representation,” on the part of Northerners, who 

at the time constituted only 5.4 percent of the national population. It 

was this dominance that constituted one of the major grievances of the 

Darfuri against the central government and that they used in part to justify armed rebellion.

 Additional grievances included unequal access to the judicial system, poor roads, inadequate schooling, and woefully inferior health care. 

Resource problems, such as shrinking pastureland, chronic drought, and 

poor cultivation and animal-breeding practices, facilitated the outbreak 

of hostilities, as did the conviction that the only way to deal with the 

central government was by force, as the Southerners had done. 

 Khartoum’s perspective was that trouble in Darfur had nothing to do 

with ethnic problems between the region’s African and Arab populations. 

According to the government, disputes in Darfur had always been 

resolved by local reconciliation conferences. The al-Bashir regime maintained that the Darfur war occurred because Darfuri rebels “created relations with categories, organizations, and societies in Europe,” all of whom 

hoped to manipulate the Darfur crisis to stir up trouble for Khartoum. 

 The main combatants included the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), 

but there also were a proliferation of smaller Darfur rebel groups. 

Members of sedentary groups belonged to the non-Arab Muslim 

Sudanese population. Their adversaries included the SAF and progovernment militiamen called janjaweed, local nomadic Arabicspeaking tribesmen (Afro-Arabs), most of whom in the early years of 

the conflict were Abbala (camel herders) or Baqqara (cattle herders).

 The Darfur war began on February 26, 2003, when a 300-man SLM/A 

force attacked the garrison town of Golu in West Darfur and killed some 

200 government troops. The following month, SLM/A rebels captured 

Tini, a town on the Chad–Sudan border, and took possession of the garrison’s supply of weapons and ammunition. On April 25, a joint SLM/A– 

JEM force assaulted Nyala and the Al-Fashir airport, where the rebels 

destroyed helicopters, killed scores of government troops, and seized 

weapons and vehicles. In May, the SLM/A killed about 500 soldiers and 

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seized some 300 others. Two months later, a second SLM/A operation 

resulted in the deaths of about 250 soldiers. On August 1, the SLA/M 

occupied Kutum, a town northwest of Al-Fashir, and killed members of 

the garrison. On September 4, the SLM/A and Khartoum agreed to a 

cease-fire; shortly afterwards each side accused the other of violating the 

accord. On October 7, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that more than $16 million was needed to care 

for the Sudanese who had fled to Chad. In early December, janjaweed 

fighters carried out numerous raids against villages in Darfur, killing 

untold numbers of civilians and raping a great many women.

 The janjaweed intensified their attacks during a one-week period in 

late January 2004, which caused some 18,000 refugees to flee to Chad. 

On March 30, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of 

Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reported that daily janjaweed attacks 

had occurred across Darfur. A few days later, Jan Egeland, the UN 

Security Council undersecretary-general, reported that “a scorched 

earth coordinated campaign of ethnic cleansing” was affecting parts of 

Darfur. Similar reports occurred with increasing frequency over the 

next months. On April 11, Khartoum and the SLM/A–JEM agreed to a 

45-day “humanitarian cease-fire,” which permitted the deployment of 

AU observers and the distribution of food aid to hundreds of thousands 

of internally displaced persons (IDPs). However, on May 24, the ceasefire ended as government forces and rebels blamed each other for 

launching attacks on a village south of Nyala that resulted in the deaths 

of 45 civilians. At about the same time, the UN estimated that more 

than 1 million of Darfur’s population had become internally displaced 

because of SAF–janjaweed attacks. Some 65,000 more Darfuri refugees had fled to Chad.

 UNHCR reported in August 2004 that some 1.2 million internally 

displaced people remained in Western Sudan. The UN World Food 

Programme attempted to provide food aid to some 800,000 conflictaffected persons in Sudan and Chad but lack of security and seasonal 

rains hampered that effort. Chronic instability and fighting continued 

as a mainstay of life in the region. 

U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes Pierre Prosper reported on 

June 24, 2004, that there were “indicators of genocide” in Darfur. On 

July 3, the UN and Sudan signed a joint communiqué that required the 

warring parties to stop fighting. Khartoum also promised to disarm the 

janjaweed, protect IDP camps, punish those responsible for humanrights violations, resume peace talks with the rebels, and facilitate the 

distribution of humanitarian aid. Shortly thereafter, Sudan deployed a 

1,025-man police force to “maintain security, law, and order” and to 

“uphold the sense of nationhood.” However, on July 18, the SLM/A– 

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A young boy rides with rebel 

fighters of the Justice and 

Equality Movement near the 

Chadian border, 2004. 

Copyright Konrad Thọ Fiedler 

JEM withdrew from peace talks in Addis Ababa until SAF forces 

withdrew from Darfur and disarmed the janjaweed. 

The U.S. House of Representatives declared the Darfur conflict to be 

a genocide on July 22, and on September 9, Secretary of State Colin 

Powell claimed that “genocide has been committed in Darfur.” The first 

contingent of the expanded AU cease-fire observation force arrived in 

Darfur on October 28. A few months later, AU observers reported that 

the Sudan Air Force had bombed villages in South Darfur and that the 

security situation had deteriorated over the past four months. In January 

2006, Physicians for Human Rights released a report that underscored 

the genocidal nature of the Darfur conflict. The following June, the 

International Criminal Court reported evidence of large-scale massacres 

and rapes in Darfur to the United Nations Security Council. Meanwhile, 

on May 5, the Sudanese government and one branch of the SLM signed 

what they termed the Darfur Peace Agreement, which brought that 

group’s leader, Minni Arkoi Minnawi, into the central government as a 

senior assistant to President al-Bashir, but other rebel groups refused to 

join the agreement and continued military action. Another attempt to 

make peace took place in late October 2007 in Sirte, Libya, but the rebel 

groups were too disunited to engage in serious negotiations, and nothing 

was accomplished. 

Beginning in the second half of 2005, concern over the peace talks 

grew among local militias and paramilitaries allied with the government. Their concerns were borne out when the peace agreement, once 

signed, committed Khartoum to “neutralize and disarm the janjaweed– 

armed militias” as a first step to peace. Additionally, the government 

agreed to accept 5,000 rebels into the regular army, including officers, 

with training for another 3,000 men. In response, some militias explored 

the possibility of signing their own agreements with rebel groups. Such 

agreements, first signed in 2005, ranged from military alliances with the 

SLA to nonaggression pacts with JEM. Two such agreements involved 

the powerful Mahamid leader of North Darfur, Musa Hilal, and the militia chief of South Darfur, Muhammad Hamdan. In March 2006, Hamdan signed a mutual nonaggression agreement with JEM; two months 

later, Musa Hilal did the same. Another agreement involving segments 

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of the Mahamid and Mahariyya militias resulted in these militiamen 

becoming fully integrated into the SLA in pursuit of demands from the 

government for security and services for nomads, including hospitals 

and schools. 

Violence continued in Darfur after 2007, although at a significantly 

reduced level. In May 2008, in a show of strength, JEM fighters launched 

a daring raid on Khartoum, fighting their way into Omdurman before 

being turned back. Peace negotiations resumed in 2009, hosted by Qatar. 

The talks led to a cease-fire in February 2010 between the government 

and JEM, with a tentative agreement to pursue further peace initiatives, 

although such proposals soon faltered over accusations of government 

raids. A protocol on border security that Chad and Sudan signed in January 2010 reopened the border for the first time since 2003 and established 

a 3,000-man joint border-patrol force, provisions that contributed to stability in Darfur. Even so, renewed fighting between government forces 

and JEM and SLM led the UN’s secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, to 

point out in early 2011 that efforts toward peace remained frustrated by 

the fragmentation of Darfur’s armed groups and by ongoing conflict, 

which continued to uproot civilians and cause further suffering for the 

people of the region. 

The UN estimated that as of January 2011, at least 300,000 people 

had been killed, and more than 2 million had been driven from their 

homes since the war erupted in February 2003. The Sudanese government, however, disputed these figures, particularly the number of those 

killed, maintaining that only 10,000 had died. In either case, some analysts distinguished between those killed as a result of direct military 

action or as a result of intercommunal strife. 

Despite the number of armed groups in Darfur, most of the international community blamed the Sudanese government for the war and the 

atrocities associated with it. This sentiment was formally expressed on 

March 4, 2009, when the International Criminal Court (ICC), seated in 

The Hague in the Netherlands, issued an arrest warrant for President alBashir on five counts of crimes against humanity (murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture, and rape) and two counts of war crimes 

(pillaging, and directing attacks against civilians) as a result of his policies in Darfur between March 2003 and July 2008. The warrants resulted 

in a split of world opinion, with the United States and many Western 

governments supporting the ICC move, while other African and Arab 

countries as well as China denounced the decision. The court had earlier 

issued indictments for violations of human rights against two other 

Sudanese government officials, and in November 2008, it had issued 

indictments for war crimes against three leaders of Darfuri militias for 

attacks on UN peacekeepers. One of the Darfuris voluntarily answered a 

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court summons in May 2009, but none of the government officials did; 

indeed, al-Bashir denounced the tribunal and refused to recognize the 

validity of the arrest warrant issued against him. 

AU and UN Forces in Darfur 

The outbreak of the Darfur war in February 2003 prompted the 

international community to create the African Union Mission in Sudan 

(AMIS) as a way to end the conflict. The African Union approved the 

deployment of 120 unarmed monitors to oversee a cease-fire that was 

never implemented. Subsequently, the AU approved the deployment 

of an additional 300 armed troops from Nigeria and Rwanda to protect 

the monitors. The European Union provided 12 million euros to support the deployment. 

AMIS was charged with several tasks. It was to implement the April 

2004 cease-fire between the JEM, the SLA, and government forces; 

establish safe routes for combatants returning to their homes; assess 

requirements for mine-clearing operations; and adjudicate and then 

report cease-fire violations to AU headquarters in Addis Ababa. Unfortunately, these tasks were beyond the capabilities of the AU and AMIS. 

By October 2004, there were only 80 monitors in Darfur. Attempts to 

facilitate a lasting cease-fire failed; safe routes were problematic; inadequate manpower hampered mine clearance; and adjudication of ceasefires was spotty because AMIS reports sent to AU headquarters were 

months out of date and consequently of no use to those trying to monitor current military developments in Darfur. 

That same month, the AU agreed to establish AMIS II, a new monitoring group that would consist of 450 observers, 641 unarmed troops, 

1,700 protection force troops, 815 civilian police, and a 164-man civilian support staff. Although AMIS II was a significant improvement 

over the prior force, its numbers were still woefully inadequate for the 

task of stabilizing Darfur, a region about the size of France. In late 

October 2004, the United States began airlifting troops from Nigeria 

and Rwanda to Al-Fashir, while Germany agreed to provide logistical 

support to AMIS II. In November, South Africa agreed to deploy an 

infantry company, an ordnance disposal team, and additional observers 

and staff officers. 

 The international community welcomed these advances, but Darfur’s security situation remained perilous. AMIS II functioned poorly 

because of understaffing, poor infrastructure, an unclear mandate, and 

the unwillingness of government and rebel forces to end the fighting. As 

a result, in April 2005, the AU approved the establishment of AMIS III. 

Authorized personnel levels expanded from 3,600 to 7,800, including 

700 military observers; 5,500 troops; and 1,600 civilian police, but even 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

this expanded force proved unable to police Darfur or to defend itself. 

On April 15, 2007, rebel troops attacked and killed some AU peacekeepers. On September 30, 2007, a more serious incident occurred in 

which rebels overran an AMIS base, killing 10 peacekeepers. 

In view of continued raiding and killing, UN secretary-general Kofi 

Annan called for deployment of an 18,000-man peacekeeping force to 

replace the AU contingent. On August 31, 2006, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to deploy 17,300 troops to Darfur. The Sudanese 

government adamantly opposed this action, and it was not until July 31, 

2007, after difficult negotiations with Sudan, that the UN announced that 

a joint UN–African Union force projected at 26,000 soldiers and police 

officers would replace AMIS by December 31. At Sudanese insistence, 

the force was to be composed mostly of African troops, the first units of 

which joined the beleaguered peacekeepers already in Darfur in early 

January 2008. This joint force, the United Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), numbered almost 7,500 by mid-March and 

was expected to reach full strength by the end of 2008, but like the 

AMIS mission, it was so short of communications and logistics equipment as well as personnel that prospects for its success were in doubt. 

Nonetheless, UNAMID’s strength rose until it stood at 22,061 military personnel in October 2010 and at 23,096 uniformed personnel on 

July 31, 2011, a force that included 17,759 troops, 4,526 police officers, 311 military observers, plus UN civilian staff. They were supported by more than 4,000 civilians. With its mandate extended to July 

2012, it was the largest peacekeeping mission in the world. By then, 

the intensity of conflict between nomadic Arab pastoralists on the one 

hand and farmers from the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa communities on 

the other had declined measurably from levels of fighting in the early 

years of the war. 

The Sudan Armed Forces 

The military services of the national government are known as the 

Sudan Armed Forces (SAF). As of 2010, the SAF’s personnel strength 

was more than 109,000, plus associated militias. Men and women 

aged 18–30 years were subject to compulsory military service for two 

years, although some sources suggested the term of service was three 

years. The army numbered 105,000 officers and enlisted men. The 

navy had an estimated 1,300 men, and the air force had a complement 

of about 3,000. Paramilitary units totaled 102,500 security personnel. 

Lieutenant General Umar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir, Sudan’s president since the June 1989 coup, was also commander in chief of the SAF 

and the Popular Defense Forces (PDF), a paramilitary reserve component of the SAF. The National Defense Council, which was responsible 

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for planning, operated through the Ministry of Defense. By early 2008, 

General Abd al-Rahim Muhammad Husayn served as the minister of 

defense and was still in this post in 2011. The SAF chief of staff was in 

immediate command of the armed forces. The general staff also included 

the army chief of staff and his three deputy chiefs of staff, one each for 

operations, administration, and logistics, who held the rank of lieutenant 

general. The commander of the air force, the commander of air defense 

forces, division commanders, and most military governors held the rank 

of major general. The actual responsibilities and influence of senior officers depended greatly on their political status, ethnic affiliation, and 

other factors in addition to their positions in the chain of command. 

In February 2004, Sudan joined 12 regional states to form the East 

African Standby Brigade (EASBRIG) of the African Union’s planned 

African Standby Force. Other members in 2008 were Burundi, Comoros, 

Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda. The brigade was intended for 

rapid military deployment in East Africa and the Horn in situations requiring observer missions and peacekeeping. It had been expected to reach 

interim operational capability by mid-2010 but its formation was behind 

schedule. 

Army 

The Sudan Army, in early 2011 numbering 105,000 personnel, was 

a light infantry force supported by specialized elements. The main 

army units included one armored division, one mechanized infantry 

division and one independent brigade, six infantry divisions and seven 

independent infantry brigades, three artillery brigades, one reconnaissance brigade, one airborne division, one engineers division, one border guard brigade, and five special forces companies.

 The al-Numayri government introduced compulsory military service 

in 1972. The army was conscript-based, and all males aged 18 to 30 

were subject to two years of compulsory national service. In 1989 the 

law was revised. In 1992 the al-Bashir regime introduced the National 

Service Law, which contained a religious and ideological agenda that 

sought to instil recruits with the “spirit of jihad,” disseminate the “models of martyrs,” reject the “spirit of relaxation,” and promote discipline. 

Evasion was commonplace, however, and the army frequently resorted 

to roundups of males in major cities. Normally, there were some 20,000 

conscripts in the army and another 5,000 in training. 

Operational control extended from general staff headquarters in Khartoum to the six regional commands (central, eastern, western, northern, 

southern, and Khartoum), each of which comprised three infantry brigades. Each regional command was organized along divisional lines. 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

Thus, the Fifth Division was at Al-Obeid in Kordofan (Central Command), the Second Division was at Khashm al-Qirbah (Eastern Command), the Sixth Division was assigned to Al-Fashir in Darfur (Western 

Command), the First Division was formerly (before the CPA) at Juba 

(Southern Command), and the Seventh Armored Division was at Ash 

Shajarah near Khartoum (Khartoum Command). The Airborne Division 

was stationed at Khartoum International Airport. The Third Division was 

based in the North, although no major troop units were assigned to it. 

Each division had a liaison officer attached to Khartoum general headquarters to facilitate the division's communication with various command 

elements. The PDF and an assortment of tribal and rebel militias supported SAF operations in Darfur, as they formerly did in South Sudan.

 The army lacked a general headquarters and functioned under the 

deputy chief of staff for operations. Headquarters and training facilities were near Khartoum for most specialized corps. These included 

the armored, artillery, signal, and medical service administrations; the 

transportation and supply corps; and the engineers division. Support 

elements included the military police, the brigade of border guards, 

and the general armories.

 The army’s inventory of armaments reflected its shifting military 

relations with other nations that sold or supplied weapons. At different 

times, Belarus, Britain, China, Egypt, Iran, Libya, Poland, Russia, and 

the United States have provided training and weapons to the army (see 

table 4, Appendix). Prior to the exploitation of Sudan’s oil reserves, 

much military equipment delivered to Sudan had fallen into disrepair or 

had become obsolete. Moreover, Sudan lacked the foreign exchange to 

pay for maintenance and spare parts, a situation that reduced the army’s 

military capabilities. During the 1980s and the early 2000s, some army 

units lacked such basics as food, ammunition, fuel, and health care. 

Sudan continued to rely on foreign loans to purchase military equipment despite its growing oil wealth. In March 2005, China and Russia 

approved UN Resolution 1591, which banned Sudan from making weapons transfers to Darfur without the Security Council’s permission, but 

both nations failed to honor this obligation. In 2005, for example, Sudan 

imported $83 million worth of military hardware from China and $37.4 

million from Russia, both of which denied selling arms to Khartoum. In 

October 2006, Sudan asked Russia for a $1 billion military equipment 

loan to purchase more aircraft. In 2007 China and Russia broke a United 

Nations arms embargo by supplying Sudan with attack helicopters, 

bombers, and other weapons for use against civilians in Darfur. Additionally, Chinese aircraft and Russian helicopter gunships were photographed 

at three Darfur airports. China also sold six K–8 training aircraft to 

Sudan's air force, which could be used for ground attack missions. Subsequently, Sudan purchased another six K–8s. 

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Air Force 

The 3,000-man Sudan Air Force had two main bases, which were 

located at Khartoum International Airport and at Wadi Sayyidna Air 

Base north of Omdurman. Other air bases were at Al-Fashir, Al-Junaynah, Juba, Kassala, Khashm al-Qirbah, Kosti, Nyala, Port Sudan, and 

Al-Obeid. The air force historically suffered from poor maintenance 

and a lack of investment in new aircraft. As a result, the operability of 

most aircraft was low despite the fact that foreign technicians periodically provided maintenance assistance. Iraqi and Iranian technicians 

were employed through the 1990s. More recently, Russian firms were 

expected to provide maintenance, support technicians, and spare parts. 

By the mid-2000s, Sudan’s air arm was assigned to support land forces, 

particularly in fighting rebel forces in the South and West of the country. Before 2005, counterinsurgency operations focused primarily on 

Juba and since then on Darfur.

 Combat aircraft included MiG–29SE Fulcrums; A–5C Fantans; and 

SU–25 Frogfoots. Sudan also had numerous helicopters in its inventory, including Mi–24 Hinds, Mi–171s; and an array of transport aircraft, including C–130H Hercules, An-26 “Curls,” An-30 Clanks, An74TKs, and SAC Y–8s (see table 5, Appendix). 

The inventory did not include “bombers,” but the air force employed 

its few light turboprop transport An-26 Curls to drop oil drums filled 

with explosives, although targeting was very poor and resulted in little 

damage. Nevertheless, anti-Khartoum activists constantly reported that 

“waves of bombers” regularly attacked targets during the wars in Darfur 

and South Sudan; however, most credible observers discounted these 

reports. The air force had some helicopter gunships, which could inflict 

limited damage on small groups of rebels. Aerial attacks, however ineffective, usually caused villagers to flee their homes. In that sense, air 

power was a useful psychological weapon.

 The Air Defense Command maintained its headquarters at Port 

Sudan and a secondary command post in Omdurman. One of its two 

brigades was equipped with antiaircraft guns, and the other was armed 

with surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). The SA–2 SAM battalions were 

introduced to provide high- and medium-altitude air defense for Port 

Sudan, Wadi Sayyidna, and Khartoum. During the 1970s, technicians 

regularly serviced the missiles and associated radar, but the current 

operability of these weapons was doubtful. 

 The other air defense brigade was deployed to the Western Command 

and the Southern Command to provide tactical air defense. Its inventory 

formerly included U.S.-supplied Vulcan 20mm self-propelled guns and 

other weapons. France, Egypt, and the United States formerly provided 

fire control and acquisition radar and other systems. The Air Defense 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

Command performed poorly in the past, as evidenced by a 1984 daylight 

attack by a Libyan Tu-22 bomber that dropped bombs in the vicinity of 

the national radio station at Omdurman at a time of tension between alNumayri and al-Qadhafi. The current status of the Air Defense Command was unknown in 2011, but most observers believed that the unit 

might no longer be operational. 

Navy 

The Sudan Navy, formed in 1962, is the smallest branch of the country’s military establishment. Yugoslavia helped create the navy by transferring four armed coastal patrol boats, river patrol boats, landing craft, 

and auxiliary vessels. Until 1972, there also was a Yugoslav training 

staff in Sudan. In 1975 two 70-ton patrol craft and four 10-ton patrol 

craft, transferred from Iran and armed with machine guns, replaced the 

Yugoslav patrol boats. In April 1993, Sudan and Egypt terminated 

naval-training agreements. Since then, Cairo has reported the presence 

of Iranian naval advisers. There also have been reports that Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel, in addition to regular Iranian officers, were involved in training. By the late 1990s, Iranian personnel had 

returned home.

 The navy’s personnel strength was an estimated 1,300 officers and 

enlisted personnel with 15 inshore vessels in early 2011. The service 

was divided into two commands. The Red Sea Command, headquartered at Port Sudan, was responsible for coastal defense and for deterring smuggling along the Red Sea coast, and the Nile River Command, 

headquartered at Khartoum, was responsible for patrolling the Nile. 

Aside from headquarters, the navy also maintained bases at Flamingo 

Bay on the Red Sea and at Kosti on the White Nile south of Khartoum. 

The naval inventory included the 15 inshore patrol craft (four 

Kurmuk and four Sewart class, all under 100 tonnes each, and seven 

armed patrol boats), plus seven amphibious landing craft, two of them 

Sobat tank-capable craft and five for personnel and vehicles (see table 

6, Appendix). The lack of maintenance and spare parts undermined 

the navy’s capabilities. Auxiliary vessels reportedly were in a state of 

disrepair. 

Personnel 

The SAF’s personnel needs did not strain the nation's manpower 

resources. According to U.S. government estimates, in 2010 there were 

10.3 million males between the ages of 16 and 49, of whom 6 million 

were fit for military service. The number reaching the military age of 

18 annually was about 500,000. Females available for military service 

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totaled 9.9 million, while those fit for duty totaled 6.2 million. Women 

who reached military service age annually totaled about 490,000.

 After independence, recruitment notices attracted 10 applicants for 

each vacancy. Poorer Sudanese, particularly Southerners and Westerners, 

joined the SAF in great numbers. Selection of enlisted troops depended 

on the applicants’ character, education, physical condition, and ability to 

read and write. A good record enabled them to reenlist for further threeyear periods until they had served 20 years, at which time a soldier retired 

at his/her highest rank. Soldiers who received technical training could be 

required to sign up for a nine-year tour. In the late 1980s, SAF morale 

suffered as many soldiers disliked serving in the South because of food 

shortages, lack of supplies, and the seemingly endless fighting. Some 

SAF troops who had homes in the South defected to the SPLM/A.

 Sources have conveyed varied accounts of current conscription 

practices. According to a January 2007 British government report, 

Sudan's recruitment and conscription practices involve “the relevant 

authority putting an advertisement in the local media calling for young 

people to sign up.” A January 2005 Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur to the United Nations Secretary-General noted that 

local tribal leaders and sheikhs helped mobilize and recruit conscripts 

into the PDF forces. A senior PDF commander, cited in the report, 

stated that military training in each state took place locally and that 

basic training, including use of weapons and discipline, took approximately two weeks. According to this report, PDF conscripts were eventually integrated into the SAF.

 The report noted that in 2005, Sudan forcibly conscripted Sudanese 

citizens for national military service. The report also alleged that the 

PDF conscripted teenagers from government-run “reformation camps” 

established for “vagrant” children. These conscripts allegedly experienced "hardship and abuse" during military service. A May 15, 2006, 

article in Sudan’s Al-Watan newspaper reported that there had been protests about conscription and desertions of conscripts at national service 

camps. The article also noted that conscripts had protested against 

“mistreatment by the trainers and harshness of the training routine.” 

According to a 2006 UN report on children and armed conflict in 

Sudan, two recruits died during military training in Darfur.

 The actions of SAF troops and of Southern and Darfuri rebels were 

often excessive. Human-rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Africa Watch have long reported on the heavy-handed tactics 

of combatants on all sides. Execution of prisoners was commonplace in 

the SAF and the SPLM/A. The ongoing Darfur war was a human-rights 

catastrophe. Forced removal of noncombatants, rapes, torture, and indiscriminate killing characterized much of the fighting. All sides in that 

conflict committed widespread human-rights violations. 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

Every annual U.S. Department of State human-rights report states that 

all Sudanese governments since independence have had “poor” humanrights records and have engaged in varying degrees of human-rights violations. However, much of the international community remained silent 

about the SPLM/A’s excesses. In February 1984, for example, the SPLM/ 

A killed some 150 passengers on a Nile steamer, an attack that halted all rail 

and river transport in the South, and, in August 1986, shot down a Sudan 

Airways aircraft near Malakal, killing 60 passengers and crew. In June 

2001, the Roman Catholic Church in Sudan estimated that an SPLM/A 

attack in West Bahr al-Ghazal had displaced some 57,000 people. Ironically, at about the same time, SPLM/A commander John Garang accused 

Khartoum of being a “terrorist state” and of committing “gross humanrights violations.” Meanwhile, Garang described himself as a “freedom 

fighter” and the SPLM/A as a “human-rights movement.” He also dismissed allegations of SPLM/A human-rights violations and characterized 

them as “mistakes that happen.” 

Training 

The SAF trained its personnel in several institutions. The Sudan Military College at Wadi Sayyidna was the premier institution for officers 

since its opening in 1948. After graduating from a two-year political and 

military science program, a cadet received a commission as a second 

lieutenant in the SAF. In the late 1950s, some 60 cadets graduated each 

year. In 1972, after the outbreak of the first civil war in the South, 500 

cadets passed through the Sudan Military College. In the late 1970s and 

early 1980s, some 120–150 officers graduated each year. Students from 

other Arab and African countries also trained there. In 1982, for example, 60 Ugandans graduated from the Sudan Military College as part 

Khartoum’s effort to help rebuild the Ugandan Army after Idi Amin’s 

downfall. In 1990 about 600 NIF members attended the Sudan Military 

College to help fill the ranks of the officer corps depleted by resignations or dismissals. 

The Sudan Military College’s course of study had the reputation of 

being weak in scientific and technical instruction. On a more positive 

note, however, the SAF allowed junior officers to continue their education 

at the University of Khartoum. Many SAF officers also studied abroad in 

Britain, Egypt, Germany, the United States, and numerous Middle Eastern 

countries. After independence, most senior naval officers trained at the 

Yugoslav naval academy, while midlevel officers attended courses in several Persian Gulf countries.

 Since the early 1970s, the Staff College in Omdurman has graduated 

55 to 60 majors and lieutenant colonels annually with a master’s degree 

in military science. Officers from Jordan, Kuwait, and the United Arab 

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National Security 

Emirates as well as some Palestinians also attended the Staff College. 

Since 1981, Sudan’s war college, the High Military Academy in Omdurman, offered a six-month course on national security issues to prepare 

colonels and brigadier generals for more senior positions.

 The SAF also operated several technical schools for junior and 

noncommissioned officers, including artillery, communications, engineering, infantry, ordnance, and armored schools, all of which were 

located in Khartoum. An air force training center at Wadi Sayyinda 

Air Base trained technicians in aircraft maintenance, ground control, 

and other skills.

 No detailed current information about training in the SAF was 

available in the early 2000s. Nonetheless, the institutions mentioned 

above remained active, and most of them upgraded their courses to 

stay abreast of advances in military science and training. Limited 

numbers of foreign officers from the Middle East and Gulf states continued to attend Sudan’s military schools. The High Military Academy 

also continued to produce strategic reports for senior SAF officers. 

Defense Expenditures

 Little information was available about Sudan’s defense expenditures. 

Reliable estimates of the defense budget in Western military sources 

varied from 1.3 percent to 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 

recent years. Oil revenues enabled Khartoum to increase defense spending; for example, the defense budget was estimated to have risen from 

US$405 million in 2003 to US$500 million in 2006, in large part in 

response to rising oil revenues. Actual defense outlays, however, almost 

certainly exceeded these figures. 

Although the specific components of military spending were not 

available, it was generally agreed that the principal category of the 

defense budget was personnel-related costs. Historically, most large arms 

purchases were financed with credits from the supplying countries, principally China, Iran, Russia, Ukraine, and some Arab countries. However, 

in recent years, Sudan’s growing oil wealth has enabled the al-Bashir 

regime to finance an increasing number of weapons purchases. Funding 

for military procurement was available through loans, grants, direct purchases, and barter arrangements. 

The Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement/ 

Army 

John Garang de Mabior, a Dinka born into a Christian family, earned a 

B.A. degree in economics from Grinnell College, Iowa. He then attended 

the University of Dar es Salaam. Garang returned to the United States, 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

where he attended a company commanders’ course at Fort Benning, 

Georgia. Subsequently, he received an M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics 

from Iowa State University. 

The SPLM/A formed in 1983 when Garang, then a lieutenant colonel 

in the SAF, was sent to Bor to quell a mutiny of 500 Southern troops who 

refused to be rotated to the North. Instead of ending the mutiny, Garang 

encouraged mutinies in other garrisons and assumed leadership of the 

Southern rebellion. By 1986, the SPLM/A had an estimated 12,500 

troops organized into 12 battalions and equipped with small arms and a 

few mortars. SPLM/A recruits received training in Ethiopia. By 1989, 

the SPLM/A's strength had reached 20,000 to 30,000; by 1991 it was 

estimated at 50,000 to 60,000. Many SPLM/A members continued their 

civilian occupations, serving in individual campaigns when called upon. 

By then, at least 40 battalions had been formed, bearing such names as 

Tiger, Crocodile, Fire, Nile, Kalashnikov, Bee, Eagle, and Hippo.

 Apart from Garang, other senior officers included a field commander, 

a chief of staff, and a chief of staff for administration and logistics. Most 

officers, as well as zonal commanders, held the rank of lieutenant colonel, while captains or majors served as battalion commanders. Promotion 

was based on seniority and number of battles fought. Most senior leaders 

and field commanders belonged to the Dinka group, a situation that many 

non-Dinka groups resented, particularly those who were Nuer or Shilluk.

 The SPLM/A claimed that, during its early years, its arms came from 

captured government stocks or were brought by troops deserting from the 

SAF. However, Garang admitted to receiving a considerable amount of 

support and matériel from Libya before 1985 because of Libyan hostility 

toward al-Numayri. The SPLM/A, which had bases in Ethiopia, denied 

receiving arms from Addis Ababa, but such denials were highly improbable. Ethiopia wanted to weaken the Sudanese government, and the only 

way to achieve this goal was to supply the SPLM/A with cash and weapons. The SPLM/A’s weapons inventory included U.S., German, and Soviet 

assault rifles. The SPLM/A also reportedly had 60mm mortars, 14.5mm 

antiaircraft guns, and Soviet SA–7 shoulder-fired SAMs. Other sources 

claimed that the SPLM/A had acquired howitzers, heavier mortars, BM–21 

truck-mounted rocket launchers, jeep-mounted 106mm antitank recoilless 

rifles, and some 20 armored vehicles. The SPLM/A also had a supply of 

land mines that were widely used.

 Amnesty International and Africa Watch reported that the SPLM/A 

killed captured SAF and militia prisoners and executed civilians believed 

to be informers or opposed to the insurgency. By mid-1989, the SPLM/A 

held about 300 government troops; after the capture of Bor, there were 

reports that the SPLM/A might have shot hundreds of surrendering soldiers. Indiscriminate SPLM/A rocket and mortar attacks on governmentheld towns resulted in many civilian casualties. 

338 
 

 

An SPLA soldier at rest near Wulu, Bahr al-Ghazal, 1996 

Copyright Lillian Craig Harris 

 In August 1991, the SPLM/A fragmented when Riek Machar, a 

Nuer, and Lam Akol, a Shilluk, demanded Garang’s removal as commander. The two accused Garang of being “autocratic” and “dictatorial” 

and of having turned the Southern struggle into a “reign of terror.” 

Moreover, Garang opposed Southern self-determination and advocated 

a “New Sudan” that was democratic, pluralistic, and united. Machar and 

Akol assumed command of the so-called SPLM/A–Nasir faction and 

established links with the al-Bashir regime to obtain weapons and other 

military supplies, which Khartoum supplied in the belief that such aid 

would weaken the SPLM/A. Garang responded to this challenge by 

renaming what remained of the SPLM/A as SPLM/A–Torit; he subsequently changed the name to SPLM/A–Mainstream. Shortly thereafter, 

Garang’s deputy, William Nyoun, left and formed another faction called 

SPLM/A–Unity. In November 1992, these animosities resulted in 

clashes between the Garang group and its Southern opponents, fighting 

that resulted in the deaths of at least 2,000 fighters.

 In March 1995, Garang announced that he planned, in cooperation 

with Northern opposition parties, to take the war to Khartoum by organizing the “New Sudan Brigade.” This initiative never materialized, but on 

March 27, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter persuaded the Sudanese 

government to declare a two-month cease-fire. The SPLM/A and the 

South Sudan Independence Movement (SSIM) also pledged to honor the 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

cease-fire, soon extended for another two months. However, on June 26, 

Garang’s soldiers attacked two villages in the Ganyiel region, killing 210 

villagers, looting and then destroying more than 1,000 households, and 

seizing 3,500 cattle. The following month, the SPLM/A and the SSIM 

clashed in western Upper Nile Province. In May 1996, the two rebel 

groups merged but, a month later, they resumed hostilities which lasted 

for months. On April 21, 1997, the SSIM, led by Riek Machar, signed a 

separate peace with the central government. The al-Bashir regime 

responded by providing cash and weapons to the SSIM.

 Several thousand SPLM/A rebels attacked areas northeast and south 

of Wau on January 28–29, 1998. In May, the SPLM/A launched an 

offensive against government garrisons in southern Blue Nile Province. 

Similar attacks and political squabbling between the al-Bashir regime 

and various factions in the South and in Khartoum continued for the 

next several years.

 The Southern war ended on January 9, 2005, when Garang and the 

Sudanese government signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that, 

among other things, made Garang vice president of Sudan. Garang had 

hardly settled into office, however, before he died in a helicopter crash 

on August 1, 2005, while returning to Juba from a visit to Uganda. Salva 

Kiir Mayardit, a deputy with the reputation of being a soldier’s soldier, 

then assumed leadership of the SPLM/A. Unlike Garang, who was popular and influential in Washington, Kiir has made few visits to the U.S. 

He has, instead, concentrated on extending his influence in South Sudan 

and on implementing the provisions of the peace agreement. 

South Sudan lacked a realistic political-military strategy in early 

2011. Among its many shortcomings were corruption, budget shortfalls, and inadequate planning by the military as well as by the Southern government. Moreover, GOSS has failed to transform the SPLA 

into a conventional army. Despite these problems, President Kiir authorized the purchase of a large number of tanks, which require constant 

maintenance, activity likely to test the capabilities of the SPLA. 

Paramilitary Groups and Forced Migration 

Militias 

During the Southern civil war, many government-supported militia 

groups served as adjuncts to the SAF forces; indeed, the al-Numayri 

government created the first militias in 1983. During the next 25 years, 

Khartoum armed and financed numerous paramilitary forces, the most 

important of which was the Popular Defense Forces (PDF), established in November 1989 to fight the SPLM/A. 

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National Security 

This umbrella group of militias, which was under SAF control, was 

modeled on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The PDF was 

frequently referred to as the paramilitary wing of the NIF. According 

to the Popular Defense Forces Act (1989), an organization called the 

Council of the Popular Defense Forces advised the commander in 

chief on all matters affecting the PDF. PDF training was compulsory 

for all male and female government employees over the age of 33, but 

there were reports that the PDF recruited children under the age of 18. 

PDF training also has been compulsory since 1992 for all male and 

female students in institutes of higher education. Female prisoners 

could, in theory, secure their release by attending PDF training for 45 

days. The PDF provided arms, training, and uniforms to recruits after 

they came under army command. The size of the PDF was difficult to 

determine, but as of 2010, military analysts estimated PDF strength at 

some 17,500 active-duty personnel and about 85,000 reservists. The 

governor of Khartoum State in a public address in early 2011 cited a 

state figure of 37,000, presumably both active and reserve personnel, a 

lower number than many independent estimates. 

The PDF supposedly relieved the SAF of local defense duties, thus 

allowing the armed forces to concentrate on holding major garrisons and 

undertaking offensive operations against the SPLM/A. The PDF was 

active in Darfur from the outbreak of hostilities in 2003 (see Internal 

Security Agencies, this ch.). In August 2004, there were reports that some 

janjaweed militiamen were being incorporated into the PDF and the 

police force. According to various human-rights organizations, the PDF 

has been responsible for indiscriminate killings of civilians, abduction, 

occasional enslavement of women and children, and looting of cattle and 

other property, offenses also associated with the janjaweed. 

The Anya Nya II group originally formed in the late 1970s among 

army mutineers from the South. Some later split off from the rebel movement, obtained weapons and training from the SAF, and became a major 

factor in the war from 1984 to 1987. Predominantly from the Nuer, the 

second largest ethnic group in the South, Anya Nya II fought on behalf of 

the government in rural areas of what was then A’ali an-Nil Province. 

Anya Nya II emerged as a significant factor in that province, disrupting 

SPLM/A operations and interfering with the movement of its recruits to 

the Ethiopian border area for training. The government established an 

Anya Nya II headquarters in Khartoum to promote the group as an alternative to the SPLM/A. Beginning in late 1987, SPLM/A military successes caused morale problems in Anya Nya II and induced major units 

to defect to the SPLM/A. By mid-1989, only one Anya Nya II faction 

remained loyal to the government and retained its political base in Khartoum after the al-Bashir coup. 

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 Some of the most devastating raids and acts of banditry against the 

civilian population were perpetrated by militias known as murahalin 

formed among the Rizayqat, Rufaa al-Haj, Misiriyyah, and other 

groups, all members of the cattle-raising Baqqara Arab nomad tribes in 

Darfur and Kordofan. These Arab communities traditionally competed 

for pastureland with the Dinka of northern Bahr al-Ghazal and southern 

Kordofan. Raiding by the murahalin during the period from1985 to 

1988 displaced many Dinka civilians in Bahr al-Ghazal. The murahalin 

received ammunition, arms, and some covert training from the SAF 

and carried out some joint counterinsurgency operations in conjunction 

with government forces. According to Amnesty International, raids 

carried out by the murahalin resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands 

of civilians; the abduction of women and children, who were forced 

into slavery; the looting of livestock; and the burning of houses and 

grain supplies. By late 1988, the growing SPLM/A presence had 

reduced the murahalin threat against villages and cattle camps. Even 

so, pro-Khartoum militias continued to attack Dinka refugees moving 

north to escape famine and raids.

 The Rizayqat murahalin committed some of the worst atrocities of 

the war when they retaliated for losses suffered in an engagement with 

the SPLM/A by killing more than 1,000 unarmed Dinka at the AlDu’ayn rail junction, most of them burned to death. Misiriyyah murahalin tactics included ambushes of refugees and attacks on villagers in 

northeastern Bahr al-Ghazal. In 1986 the government armed the Rufaa 

al-Haj militia, after the SPLM/A appeared in southern Al-Awsat Province (present-day Blue Nile State) to recruit followers among non-Arab 

peoples. In early 1987, combined operations by the SAF and Rufaa alHaj militia against non-Arab populations in retaliation for an SPLM/A 

offensive resulted in many atrocities.

 The government also armed as militias a number of Southern nonArab tribes opposed to the SPLM/A. In 1985 Khartoum recruited members of the Mandari in Equatoria to help counter the growing SPLM/A 

threat in that area. Most of the Mandari dissociated themselves from the 

militia, however, as the presence of the SPLM/A strengthened in that 

province. In Bahr al-Ghazal, hostile relations between the Fertit militia, 

which was concentrated around Wau, and the Dinka spawned considerable violence, culminating in August–September 1987 in massacres of 

Dinka who had taken refuge in Wau. 

Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi proposed in February 1989 that the 

murahalin militia be institutionalized as popular defense committees. 

However, other political groups in Khartoum opposed this recommendation because they feared that the murahalin would become allied 

with Sadiq’s Umma Party. In October 1989, the al-Bashir government 

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promulgated the Popular Defense Forces Act, seemingly to give legitimacy to the militias as SAF auxiliaries. The act led to the establishment 

of a new paramilitary body, the Popular Defense Forces. It did not, 

however, result in the disappearance of the existing militias, which 

throughout the 1990s and early 2000s continued to act in concert with 

the SAF, against the SPLM/A and civilians in the South and in Darfur.

 None of the militias active in the early 2000s were more notorious 

than the janjaweed. Reportedly organized and armed by the central government, they were heavily involved in the fighting in Darfur from 2003 

and were widely accused of committing atrocities against the civilian 

population. Janjaweed militia members were normally armed with rifles, 

relied on camels or horses to move about the Darfur region, and in the 

early stages of the war were usually drawn from the Irayqat (also seen as 

Ereigat), Um Jalul, and Mahariyya, all divisions of the Abbala Rizayqat 

Arabs of North Darfur. The janjaweed constituted an arm of the SAF and 

fought against rebel groups such as the Sudan Liberation Army and the 

Justice and Equality Movement. As the Darfur conflict evolved, however, the membership of the janjaweed broadened. As of 2011, the term 

had come to apply to any of the ethnically based armed groups as well as 

to the brigands that continued to raid and plunder in Darfur, not just to the 

Abbala or other government-supported groups. 

Forced Migration

 Sudan has historically been a generator of forced migration and internally displaced populations. For instance, during the first Southern civil 

war (1955–72), perhaps 1 million Southerners were forced to migrate. 

Aside from war, internal migration was further exacerbated with the discovery of oil in the late 1970s, as, for example, in the early 1980s when 

President al-Numayri sought to redraw Southern borders to bring the oilfields into a newly created Unity State under his control. In 1985–86 Prime 

Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi relied on tribal militias to move Southerners away 

from oil-rich areas. 

President al-Bashir pursued a scorched-earth policy against Southern 

populations in the 1990s, using SAF troops, proxy militias, and Nuer 

warlords who had turned against the SPLM/A, to ensure their departure 

from oil-rich areas. The militias attacked, burned, looted, and abducted 

women and children. The central government then moved loyal populations onto the land. Such tactics were applied, for example, in Upper 

Nile Province against both Nuer and Dinka populations as well as 

against an estimated 100,000 Shilluk around Malakal.

 Beginning in 1992 in the plains and mountains of southern Kordofan, 

the government began to seize Nuba farmland as part of a strategy to expel 

populations whose loyalty was suspect. In this area, fertile land in the 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

plains was converted to mechanized agriculture. Many Nuba were gradually forced to retreat into higher, less-productive elevations, whereas others 

became refugees in Khartoum and elsewhere. Of an original population 

estimated at 1.5 million, only about 400,000 remained in their homeland 

by the early 2000s. 

The January 2005 peace agreement notwithstanding, hopes of a “peace 

dividend” and of the eventual return of refugees and displaced people to 

South Sudan remained largely unfulfilled several years later. Moreover, 

GOSS lacked the capabilities to build infrastructure, establish an effective 

administration, and devise a viable strategy to absorb returnees, all of 

which worked to deter returnees. By October 2005, only a small number 

of refugees in neighboring countries had returned voluntarily to South 

Sudan, along with some 250,000 of the internally displaced. The central 

government sought to obstruct the flow of returnees by using force to 

demolish homes and by harassing agencies that sought to help and protect 

them. The increasing availability of small arms, population growth, and 

the central government’s determination to cleanse areas located in and 

around Southern oil fields ensured that recurring disputes about access to 

fertile land and water or over stolen cattle would probably continue for the 

foreseeable future. 

Foreign Military Assistance 

Sudan historically has relied on an array of Western and non-Western suppliers for military equipment and training. The proliferation of 

small arms in Sudan originated during the occupation of the country by 

Ottoman and Egyptian forces and by the colonial powers, especially 

Britain and France, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 

Small arms continued to flow into Sudan after independence, supplemented, however, by much larger military hardware. 

Sudan had only a limited arms industry until the late 1990s, except for 

a production line for small-caliber ammunition. Consequently, foreign 

sources for weapons, equipment, ammunition, and technical training have 

been indispensable. After independence, British advisers helped train the 

Sudan Army and Sudan Air Force, and British equipment predominated 

in the ground forces. Diplomatic and military relations with Britain and 

other Western nations were broken after the June 1967 Arab–Israeli War, 

and the breach was filled by close military cooperation with the Soviet 

Union. Soviet assistance coincided with a dramatic expansion in Sudan 

Armed Forces personnel from 18,000 in 1966 to nearly 50,000 by 1972. 

The bulk of the equipment used by the ground and air forces throughout 

the 1970s until the early 1980s was of Soviet manufacture, including 

tanks, artillery, and MiG combat aircraft. 

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A settlement for displaced persons on the outskirts of Khartoum, late 1990s 

A camp on the outskirts of Khartoum for Sudanese 

displaced by land reallocation, 2004 

Copyright Lillian Craig Harris 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

 Relations with the Soviets cooled in the late 1970s, and Sudan turned 

to China and Britain for training and equipment as well as to Yugoslavia, 

which was instrumental in the founding, training, and supply of vessels 

for the Sudan Navy. In addition, Sudan received financing from Arab 

states, particularly Saudi Arabia, for the purchase of Western military 

equipment. Until 1985, however, Sudan’s closest military ties were with 

Egypt, defined by a 25-year defense agreement signed in 1976. The 

accord provided for shared planning and staffing; the Egyptians also supplied Sudan with ammunition and various types of weaponry, such as 

antitank missiles and armored personnel carriers. Al-Bashir reaffirmed 

the pact after his 1989 coup, but the Egyptians declined to supply additional military aid after Sudan refused to condemn the Iraqi invasion of 

Kuwait in 1990 and in view of al-Bashir’s repressive policies at home. 

U.S. military aid to Sudan initially consisted primarily of training a 

small number of Sudanese officers. Soon after agreeing in November 

1976 to provide Sudan with selected arms, the United States sold Sudan 

transport aircraft, a purchase financed by Saudi Arabia, followed several 

years later by F–5 combat aircraft. Between fiscal year (FY—see Glossary) 1979 and FY 1982, military sales credits rose from US$5 million to 

US$100 million. Apart from aircraft, the United States provided Sudan 

with artillery, armored personnel carriers, Commando armored cars, and 

M–60 tanks. U.S. grant aid reached a peak of US$101 million in FY 1982. 

Sudan granted the United States naval port facilities at Port Sudan and 

gave the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) some airportprepositioning rights for military equipment for contingent use. In 1981 

and 1883, Sudanese and American forces participated in Bright Star joint 

maneuvers.

 The United States reduced military grants and credits when the Southern Sudanese civil war resumed in 1983. After FY 1987, no assistance was 

extended with the exception of less than US$1 million annually for 

advanced training for SAF officers and maintenance for previously supplied equipment. Washington suspended military aid in 1989 under a provision of the United States Foreign Assistance Act that prohibits assistance 

to countries in arrears on interest payments on previous loans. In March 

1990, the United States invoked a provision of the act barring aid to 

regimes that overthrow a democratic government. The United States terminated arms sales to Sudan in late 1992, while the European Union instituted an arms embargo against Sudan in 1994. These actions, however, 

had no impact on Sudan’s ability to replenish its arsenals. 

According to the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, 

Sudan obtained about US$350 million in military arms and equipment 

between 1983 and 1988. The United States was the largest supplier, 

accounting for US$120 million. China and France each provided US$30 

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million and Britain, US$10 million. About US$160 million came from 

unidentified sources, probably largely from Egypt and Libya, and as purchases from other Western suppliers financed by Arab countries. 

Various Middle East and Gulf countries, particularly Iran and Libya 

but also Egypt, provided more than US$2 billion in “economic aid” in 

the 1970s, much of which Khartoum used to buy weapons. Additionally, 

each of Sudan’s neighbors provided weapons and/or sanctuary to various anti-Khartoum rebel groups and militias. Since the early 1990s, at 

least 34 countries have exported ammunition, light arms, and small arms 

to Sudan. In more recent years, reliable sources have suggested that there 

were between 1.9 and 3.2 million small arms in Sudan. About one-fifth 

of these weapons were held by the Sudanese government and/or proKhartoum militias. 

Sudan constituted one of Africa’s major consumers of weapons in the 

early 2000s. As was the case in earlier decades, Sudan continued to rely 

on an array of suppliers, among them Belarus, China, Egypt, Iran, Romania, Russia, Poland, and South Africa, for ammunition, armored vehicles, 

helicopters, howitzers, infantry fighting vehicles, attack and fighter aircraft, multiple rocket launchers, main battle tanks, and transport aircraft. 

Additionally, China supervised arms assembly and assisted in the construction of weapons factories. 

Sudan manufactured at least a small amount of ammunition for light 

weapons in the early 1960s, but the country’s capacity to produce arms 

greatly expanded with the opening of the GIAD industrial city south of 

Khartoum in October 2000 (see Manufacturing, ch. 3). Under the auspices of the Military Industry Corporation within the Ministry of Defense, 

engineering and industrial enterprises produced or imported a range of 

equipment and technology for ground and air forces. Although information was limited, in the early 2000s this equipment included heavy and 

light artillery, antitank and antiaircraft guns, machine guns and small 

arms, tanks, and armored personnel carriers, as well as ammunition for 

these weapons; the country also had acquired the ability to assemble and 

maintain aircraft, including fighter and cargo airplanes and helicopters. 

The SPLM/A, under the late John Garang’s leadership, regularly 

accused the SAF of using chemical weapons in South Sudan, but these 

allegations were never substantiated. The same was true of the U.S. 

charge in 1998 that the Al-Shifa Pharmaceuticals Industries factory in 

Khartoum North was developing chemical weapons or precursor chemicals, a claim that led to the United States bombing of the plant. Similarly, news reports in 2004 that Sudanese and Syrian troops had tested 

chemical weapons against civilians in Darfur were never confirmed. 

Some independent observers maintain that Garang on his part used the 

chemical-weapons issue as a disinformation campaign against Khartoum and Washington. 

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Internal Security Agencies 

Domestic order in Sudan, except in the South, was a shared responsibility of the SAF, the national police force, and security organs of the 

Ministry of Interior. The authorities relied on the police, SAF, and 

martial law to maintain peace in unstable regions. 

The Sudan Police Force 

The British army assigned a captain to the central administration for 

police duties in 1898. He commanded 30 British army officers and helped 

to organize provincial police forces. In 1901 the authorities decentralized 

the police to improve efficiency. The government assumed responsibility 

for administrative control of the police in 1908, but provincial governors 

retained operational control of the forces. In 1928 the British established 

the Sudan Police Force (SPF) under the Ministry of Interior. Throughout 

the colonial period, the police lacked the resources and manpower to 

deploy officers throughout Sudan. Instead, the government gave tribal 

leaders authority to maintain order among their people and to enlist a limited number of “retainers” to help them in law-enforcement duties. This 

communal security system remained in effect until the early 1970s. 

The Sudan Police College opened in Khartoum in 1937 to train all 

policemen and administrators in a one- or two-year course. Graduates 

could transfer between the two services initially, but by 1948 training 

had become too specialized to allow this practice. In 1969 the authorities 

built a police laboratory to enhance criminal-investigation capabilities.

 The SPF faced several challenges during the colonial and early postcolonial periods. On June 4, 1951, a group of police officers met to discuss recent labor unrest in Khartoum, North Khartoum, and Omdurman. 

The British commandant broke up the meeting. The police officers then 

staged a demonstration that resulted in the dismissal of the ringleaders, 

who refused an order to return to barracks. On June 8–9, companies from 

the Camel Corps and the Eastern Arab Corps arrived in Khartoum from 

Al-Obeid and Kassala to prevent further unrest while the SDF disarmed 

the police. A few days later, the authorities allowed 670 police officers to 

return to duty but sacked 222 others. The British released a report in July 

that blamed the unrest on incompetent British officers who commanded 

the police and on wretched housing conditions. In the aftermath of this 

report, workmen built new housing and renovated old barracks. 

The SPF and army worked together from 1965 to 1969 to quell the 

unrest caused by the rebellion in the Southern provinces. By 1970, SPF 

headquarters included administration, immigration, nationality, public 

affairs, training, and security administration. These divisions also existed 

at provincial levels. Each provincial police force had about 2,000 officers. 

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National Security 

Khartoum frequently modified the command and administration of the 

SPF.

 Prior to 1977, women served in the police after learning basic 

administrative duties and working on criminal cases involving women 

as witnesses or defendants. In 1977 four women completed the twoyear course at the Sudan Police College and became the first females 

to join the ranks. A limited number of women served in the SPF and 

generally worked in administrative sections, on juvenile delinquency 

matters, or criminal cases that involved female Sudanese witnesses or 

defendants

 The police reported to the minister of interior until 1979, when that 

post was abolished, and various ministers became responsible for different areas of police work. This arrangement proved unwieldy, however, and the Police Act of 1979 instituted a unified command in which 

the head of the force reported to the president. After al-Numayri's fall, 

the cabinet position of minister of interior was restored, and the director 

general of police was made responsible to the minister. 

Central police headquarters in Khartoum was organized into several 

divisions—such as administration, training, and security affairs—each 

commanded by a police major general. The main operational elements 

included the traffic police and the riot police. The 1979 legislation 

brought specialized police units, such as one for the Sudan Railways, 

under the SPF’s authority. Khartoum headquarters maintained liaison and 

cooperated with the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) 

and agencies involved in combating international drug trafficking. 

The government's new administrative system delegated many powers 

to the regional level, but law enforcement outside major urban areas was 

organized at the state level. Thus, the SPF was subdivided into state commands, which were organized according to the same divisions found in 

the national headquarters. Local police directors reported to state police 

commissioners, who in turn were responsible to the SPF director general 

in Khartoum. Each provincial command had its own budget.

 The SPF expanded from roughly 7,500 officers and men in 1956 to 

about 18,000 in 1970 and 30,000 by 2005. As of 2010, internal security 

was divided up among an array of organizations, including the United 

Police Forces (UPF), Popular Police Forces (PPF), Popular Defense 

Forces, and Border Intelligence Guard. 

The United Police Forces had an estimated 30,000 personnel who 

were responsible for civil defense, criminal investigations, immigration 

and customs, passport control, traffic control, and wildlife protection. 

Police divisions normally operated within state commands. State police 

commissioners reported to the director general of police in Khartoum, 

who answered to the minister of interior. The UPF inventory included 

40 Fahd armored fighting vehicles, 20 Panhard M3 armored fighting 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

vehicles, and 30 armored personnel carriers. The serviceability of these 

vehicles was unknown. Generally, the UPF had not deployed significant 

numbers of officers to South Sudan. After 2004, an unknown number of 

UPF personnel deployed to Darfur. Human-rights advocates accused the 

UPF of committing an array of human-rights atrocities.

 The Popular Police Forces, created in 1989, were estimated to have 

at least 35,000 members who technically were under the supervision of 

the director general of police. In fact, the PPF was little more than an 

Islamist vigilante group that supposedly assisted the UPF. It operated as 

a politicized militia that sought to enforce “moral standards” among the 

country’s Islamic population. The PPF, not surprisingly, had a poor 

human-rights record.

 Sudan lacked a true border guard. The UPF was responsible for passport control, immigration, and customs at border-crossing points, although 

the SAF and the PDF might also undertake border-control duties. However, there was a Border Intelligence Guard that operated outside the SAF 

chain of command; it reported directly to SAF military intelligence officers in the area of operations. The Border Intelligence Guard was active 

during the Southern civil war. In 2002–3, the guard recruited sources in 

Darfur to gather information about political and military conditions. Some 

observers accused the guard of recruiting for the janjaweed. 

No information was available about training in the al-Bashir era, but 

formerly police officer cadets usually received two years of training at 

the Sudan Police College near Khartoum. The institution provided theoretical and practical instruction and served as a training school for military personnel who required police skills in their assignments. In 

addition to recruit training, the college offered courses in criminal law, 

general police duties, fingerprinting, clerical work, photography, and 

the use of small arms. Enlisted recruits usually underwent four months 

of training at state headquarters. 

State police traditionally enjoyed good relations with the local communities, but in Khartoum if not elsewhere, police treatment of arrested 

persons could be harsh. During the 1990s and early 2000s, public-order 

campaigns in Khartoum often resulted in roundups of thousands of people, who were then charged with illegal street vending or loitering. In 

urban areas, police abused refugees, particularly Southerners, by stealing 

from them or beating them for minor infractions. The police also administered floggings for drinking alcohol or for curfew violations. Refugees 

seldom had recourse to the legal system when attacked by the police. 

Partly as a result of such actions, the al-Bashir government earned a reputation for poor treatment of prisoners. 

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Security and Intelligence Apparatus 

The Sudanese internal security and intelligence apparatus evolved into 

a feared and hated institution after al-Numayri came to power in 1969. 

When the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) held sway, from 

1969 to 1971, military intelligence began to investigate domestic opposition groups. After the RCC was abolished, the organization focused on 

evaluating and countering military threats to the regime. It also provided 

a 400-man Presidential Guard.

 The government established the Office of State Security in the Ministry of Interior in 1971. The new agency evaluated information gathered 

by the police and military intelligence and administered prisons and passport control. The president also had the authority to order the police and 

military intelligence to undertake secret missions. In 1978 the government formed the Sudan Security Organization (SSO). Under the minister 

of state’s direction, the SSO became a prominent feature of al-Numayri’s 

regime, employing about 45,000 persons and rivaling the armed forces in 

size. The government disbanded it in 1985.

 Surveillance of antigovernment organizations and individuals intensified after the 1989 coup. Sudanese intelligence personnel frequently 

prevented contact between Sudanese and foreigners, harassed suspected 

dissidents, monitored church services, and supervised the activities of 

journalists. Neighborhood “popular committees” used their control over 

the rationing system to monitor households.

 The al-Bashir government created a new security body, known as 

Islamic Security or Security of the Revolution. A member of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation commanded the organization, which was staffed by NIF supporters. It protected al-Bashir against 

a coup and monitored the activities of other security forces and the SAF. 

Critics accused the organization of indiscriminately arresting suspected 

regime opponents and torturing them in so-called ghost houses before 

turning them over to prison authorities for further detention. According to 

human-rights advocates, political repression was this organization’s primary mission. The status of Islamic Security in the early 2000s was 

unknown, but there were indications that it might have been disbanded or 

incorporated into other agencies. A similar organization, Youth for Reconstruction, mobilized younger Islamist activists.

 Sudan’s security and intelligence apparatus played a significant role in 

keeping the regime in power. Among other things, security and intelligence personnel participated in Sudan’s civil wars, supported pro-government militias in South Sudan and Darfur, managed informer networks, 

and purged the civil service of disloyal elements. External and military 

intelligence services also sought to destabilize Sudan’s internal and external enemies, primarily by providing financial and military aid to countries 

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Sudan: A Country Study 

and rebel groups that were willing to do Khartoum’s bidding. Sudan’s 

two intelligence agencies, for internal security and external security, 

merged in 2002 to form the National Security Organization (NSO).

 Following the signing of the peace agreement in January 2005, the 

NSO changed its name to the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS). The agreement stipulated that there would be one NISS 

with a mandate for giving advice, information gathering, and analysis. 

Skeptics expressed concern that Khartoum would continue to use the 

intelligence apparatus to silence critics and would dominate the NISS, 

while GOSS would play a lesser role in the organization. By mid-2006, 

only 50 Southern Sudanese had joined the NISS. A Southerner also 

became the NISS deputy director general. The objective was to train 

100 Southerners every month and then assign them to NISS positions. 

However, it was certain that whatever happened, key positions would 

be filled by al-Bashir loyalists. In November 2007, the Sudan Organization Against Torture reported that the NISS continued to harass 

human-rights defenders and journalists in Khartoum and to obstruct the 

activities of the organizations for which they worked.

 The NISS was subject to the provisions of the National Security Act 

of 2010. The act did not provide for protection of basic human rights. 

Rather, it maintained earlier grants of extensive powers of arrest and 

detention and gave NISS agents immunity from prosecution and disciplinary action. A 2010 Amnesty International report said of the act, “It 

remains faithful to the government’s vision of the national security 

force as a body whose function is to maintain it [i.e., the government] 

in power . . .” 

No information was available about NISS personnel strength, although 

it was substantial. Security and intelligence agents were normally 

deployed throughout Sudan and were often present in small towns and 

villages, but the agency’s external capabilities were weak. Several businesses and organizations had links to it. Arbitrary arrest and detention, 

intimidation, torture, and media censorship were commonplace. As a 

result, most ordinary Sudanese remained fearful of the NISS and other 

security agencies. Ironically, several nations, including Egypt, Britain, 

and the United States, relied on Sudanese intelligence for information 

about terrorists in the Middle East. In August 2009, General Muhammad 

Atta al-Mula was appointed head of the NISS in place of Salah Abdallah 

Gosh, who became a presidential adviser. 

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The Criminal Justice System 

Criminal Courts and Laws 

The administration of justice traditionally was regarded by Arabized 

Sudanese and a number of Southern ethnic groups as the most important function of government. In precolonial times, supervision of justice 

was solely in the hands of the ruler. In the North, most cases were actually tried by an Islamic judge, or qadi, who was trained in one of the 

Sunni Islamic legal schools. Crimes against the government, however, 

were heard by the ruler and decided by him with advice from the grand 

mufti, an expert in sharia, who served as a legal adviser. 

The Muslim influence on Sudanese law remained important, but 

the long years of British colonial rule meant that by the mid-twentieth 

century the primary legal influence was British, because of the weight 

given to British legal precedents and because most of the lawyers and 

judges were British trained. Much discussion took place at independence on the need to reform or abrogate the system inherited from the 

British. Under al-Numayri in the early 1970s, an attempt was made to 

introduce new civil, commercial, and penal codes based in part on 

Egyptian laws, but the measures were repealed in 1973 in the face of 

resistance from the legal profession and a public wedded to existing 

laws and customs. 

Acting under the strong influence of the Muslim Brotherhood (see 

Glossary) and its secretary-general, Hassan Abdallah al-Turabi, in 1977 

al-Numayri appointed a committee charged with revising the legal code to 

bring it into conformity with the sharia. Only one of the committee’s recommended bills was ever enacted, but following al-Turabi’s appointment 

as attorney general in November 1981, the Islamization of the legal system proceeded in earnest. This process culminated in 1983 with the issuance of several decrees known as the September Laws that were based on 

sharia. Included in the bills was a new penal code based on hudud (see 

Glossary) that prescribed corporal punishment for crimes such as murder, 

theft, drinking alcohol, prostitution, and adultery. Hudud punishments 

ranged from flogging and amputation to stoning and execution and were 

applied to Muslims and non-Muslims alike, a fact that aroused bitter 

resentment among secularized Muslims and non-Muslim Southerners. 

During the final 20 months of al-Numayri's rule, the authorities amputated 

the arms or legs of at least 90 persons convicted of theft.

 The military and civilian governments succeeding al-Numayri 

between 1985 and 1989 retained the September Laws, but only flogging 

sentences were actually carried out. Action on a new Islamic penal code 

to replace the September Laws was suspended by the legislature pending a future constitutional convention that would include the SPLM/A. 

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Although flogging, normally 40 lashes, was limited to offenses involving sex or alcohol, it was often inflicted summarily. In 1989 the new 

military government extended flogging as a punishment for a much 

wider range of offenses but refrained from extreme hudud sentences, 

such as amputations.

 The regular criminal court system featured extensive guarantees of 

due process for accused persons in the mid- to late 1980s. Trials were 

held in public, but the defendant could request a closed trial. The accused 

had to be brought before a court within 48 hours of arrest, informed of 

the charges, and provided with access to an attorney of his or her choice. 

There were legal aid services for the poor, but they were apportioned to 

those facing serious charges and those most in need. Bail was permitted 

except in some capital cases. Defendants had the right to speak, to present evidence on their own behalf, and to appeal judgments.

 After the 1989 coup, the military regime initially retained the official 

freeze on implementation of the September Laws, but in January 1991, 

al-Bashir decreed that Islamic law would be applied in courts throughout the North but not in the South. The regular civilian courts continued 

to handle ordinary criminal offenses, including theft and some capital 

crimes. The court system had a serious backlog, however, and the judiciary was less independent of the executive than previously.

 The regime established special security courts in November 1989. 

Regional military governors and the commissioner of the national capital formed these courts, which had three-member panels of military and 

civilian judges. They tried persons accused of violating constitutional 

decrees, emergency regulations, and some portions of the criminal code, 

notably drug crimes and currency violations. The new security courts 

did not extend normal protections to the accused and gained a reputation 

for harsh sentences. In areas of the South affected by the war, units of 

the armed forces and militias ruled by force of arms. In many cases, the 

accused were summarily tried and punished, especially for offenses 

against public order.

 Sudan’s court system consisted of four types of courts in the early 

2000s: regular, military, special, and tribal. Regular courts encompassed 

both civil and criminal courts, appellate courts, and the National 

Supreme Court. Most proceedings of civil courts and criminal courts 

were governed by their respective legal codes. Both types of court in 

turn were governed by provisions of the Interim National Constitution 

(see The Legal System, ch. 4). Punishments for criminal offenses were 

determined according to sharia, including hudud punishments, in the 

Northern states but not in the 10 states of the South.

 The interim constitution provided for fair and prompt trials, although 

this provision was often not honored in practice, according to the U.S. 

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A trial in Tambura in former western Al-Istiwai State in Southern Sudan 

concerning stolen honey (in cans in mid-ground); the accused is on the right 

(undated photo). 

Courtesy Robert O. Collins 

Department of State. In civil and criminal courts, defendants had the 

right to legal representation, and courts were obligated to provide counsel to the indigent in cases punishable by life imprisonment or death, but 

again, such rights reportedly were not universally respected. Even in 

instances where defendants had legal counsel, their lawyers in some 

instances could only offer advice and were not permitted to address the 

court directly. Testimony given under duress was often admitted as evidence. Defendants appeared only before judges, there being no provision 

for juries. Trials were open or closed to the public at the discretion of the 

judge(s). All decisions were subject to appeal.

 Military personnel were tried in military courts and not entitled to the 

same rights as defendants in civil or criminal courts, such as the right of 

appeal. Three-person special security courts heard cases involving constitutional issues, emergency regulations, some sections of the penal code, 

and offenses involving drugs and currency violations. Other special 

courts handled most security-related cases. Defendants were entitled to 

legal representation, and attorneys could address the court directly. Sentences in special courts could be harsh and were usually carried out 

immediately, although defendants had the right to appeal. All death sentences were automatically referred to the chief justice and the head of 

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state. Three special criminal courts heard cases involving crimes against 

the state in the three states of Darfur. According to Amnesty International, these courts reportedly suffered from the same legal shortcomings 

as the regular criminal courts (see The Courts, ch. 4). 

 The judicial system in the South was still being constructed in early 

2011. It consisted of a hierarchy of courts at the local, district, county, 

and regional level, and it suffered from a severe shortage of communications, funding, infrastructure, and trained personnel. In addition to these 

regular courts, GOSS incorporated traditional courts or courts of elders 

into its judicial system over which local chiefs usually presided. Traditional courts tried domestic matters and criminal cases according to customary law, but defendants had the right of appeal to the regular courts. 

The criminal code of South Sudan provided for the death penalty for the 

most serious crimes. Death sentences could be appealed to, and commuted by, the courts of appeal. In some areas of the South as well as in 

the Nuba Mountains where civil administration did not exist, the judicial 

order consisted solely of customary courts. In some instances, local military units reportedly took judicial matters into their own hands, especially for offenses against the civil order. 

The Prison System 

Only limited information was available on prisons in Sudan at the start 

of 2011, and no information was available on the incidence of crime. General supervision of the Sudan Prison Service was carried out by the director 

general of prisons, who was responsible for the country’s central prisons 

and reformatories. State authorities managed detention centers and jails in 

their administrative jurisdictions. As of the early 2000s, Sudan had four 

federal prisons, Kober in Khartoum North, Shallah in Al-Fashir, Al-Junaynah in West Darfur, and Port Sudan on the Red Sea; 26 government prisons; and three open prisons. The total prison staff was estimated at 7,500, 

all of whom were attached to the police force. Correction officers underwent training at the police college and the police academy; prison wardens 

received little or no training. Additionally, there were four juvenile centers, 

and a female prison in Omdurman. Prisons and other detention facilities 

were dilapidated and in need of expansion and replacement, no new major 

prisons having been built since the 1950s.

 According to government officials, the estimated prison population 

was 14,000, but the country’s prison capacity was only 4,300. Crowding 

resulted from a judiciary that provided for no alternative to incarceration 

except flogging in some cases. Men and women were held in separate 

quarters, and political prisoners were segregated from criminal offenders. 

Prisoners were not registered; nor were they separated by age or according to the severity of offense. Consequently, minor offenders, including 

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juveniles, were often housed with hardened criminals and might be subject to abuse. Access to legal aid was generally unavailable except for 

those individuals able to afford the legal fees; however, some nongovernmental organizations, a Bar Association committee, and the Ministry of 

Justice Legal Aid Department provided some legal assistance to prisoners. The death penalty remained in effect; however, both the chief justice 

and the president had to approve all executions. Muslim women could be 

executed for adultery.

 According to UN and other sources, prison conditions were harsh, 

overcrowded, and lacking in health care, sanitary facilities, or even food 

for inmates apart from that provided by relatives. There were reports that 

abuse, such as beatings and deprivation of food, water, and other necessities, was routine. Some prisoners allegedly died from lack of health 

care or from generally poor prison conditions. Women and vagrant children were detained, often for minor offenses; they were also subject to 

abuse within the penal system. The Child Law of 2004 represented an 

attempt by the state to adhere to international standards with regard to 

treatment of incarcerated children, but the extent of its implementation 

remained unclear. In any case, few if any staff in prisons and correctional 

institutions were qualified to deal with juvenile offenders. 

The Government of South Sudan, after signing the CPA in January 

2005, was faced with establishing and expanding the region’s police service and prison system, part of the Security Sector Reform program in 

the South. At the time, there were about 5,000 police officers in the South 

Sudan Police Force. Most of them had little, if any, training, and the force 

lacked operational equipment and transport. About 4,000 of these officers had been transferred from the SPLM/A. Other recruits were demobilized SPLA combatants, few of whom had police skills, and police of the 

Government of Sudan formerly stationed in South Sudan. Police stations 

were few in number, understaffed, and without qualified officers.

 In 2006 GOSS organized these groups into the South Sudan Police 

Service (SSPS) and placed the service under the jurisdiction of its Ministry of Interior. Since then, demobilized SPLA soldiers continued to be 

enrolled in the police force and prison service without formal training or 

experience in their duties. The SPSS continually suffered from lack of 

funding, a suitable legal framework for its activities, and an effective 

organizational structure. Because of poor recordkeeping and a constant 

influx of personnel, the size of the SSPS was difficult to determine, but 

by 2008–9, GOSS sources estimated it at around 20,000 officers, a figure 

that was expected to grow as more SPLA soldiers swelled its ranks. 

Aside from public-security duty, the police also had the mission of protecting wildlife in the region’s six national parks, six game reserves, and 

fisheries along the Nile. 

357 
Sudan: A Country Study 

 To improve the training of the force, GOSS relied on assistance from 

international agencies. In December 2006, the UN reported that its police 

technical advisers continued to train officers and to improve SSPS capabilities. They also provided support to the Community Policing Committee that had been established in Juba. In October 2007, Uganda agreed to 

begin training police officers as soon as qualified personnel could be 

found. UNMIS, among other UN agencies, was also involved in capacity-building of the SSPS. 

 There were few prisons in the South Sudan Prison Service in 2005. 

Those that existed lacked the most basic facilities, management staff, 

and the capacity to ensure humane treatment of prisoners, including provision of health care and food. These conditions improved somewhat 

during the next four years, by which time separate quarters were provided for male and female offenders, and juveniles were usually housed 

in separate cells. The UN reported acts of abuse and torture in jails 

maintained by the SPLA in some regions. 

 In May 2007, the World Bank and the United Nations Development 

Programme (UNDP) signed a US$5.3 million agreement known as the 

South Sudan Police and Correctional Service Support. Under this 

accord, UNDP agreed to build a network of police stations and training 

centers, provide equipment and training to the SSPS, and improve 

prison facilities and the treatment of male and female inmates. The project was part of a three-year US$45 million effort to improve security in 

South Sudan by restoring a quarter of the police stations and seven central prisons and by providing training to personnel. 

 In June 2007, the UN reported that it had launched the South Sudan 

Police Service Database to help police keep data on discipline, pay, personnel information, promotion, retirement, and training. In September, the 

UNDP inaugurated the Lologo Regional Training Center as a venue for 

instruction in the South Sudan Prison Service; a second center was under 

construction at Rumbek. At the same time, the UNDP initiated a training 

program for 550 SPLM/A soldiers who were being transferred to the 

prison service, the first of approximately 1,500 combatants to be transferred. Some 880 SPLM/A combatants graduated as prison personnel in 

November 2007. In February 2010, South Africa joined Germany and 

GOSS in a partnership to train correctional services officers, judges, and 

legal affairs personnel, part of the continuing effort to build a credible 

security-services sector in South Sudan. 

Future Prospects 

Sudan’s armed forces have played an outsized role in both security 

and governmental affairs since the country gained independence in 

1956. Indeed, for almost the whole of this period, the country has been 

358
 

 

 

National Security 

subject to military governance, the most recent episode of which began 

on June 30, 1989, when Colonel Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir led the 

latest in a series of coups against a civilian government. Although 

many Sudanese might view the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) as a source 

of stability, neither civilian nor military leaders have been able to 

devise policies that would address the major issues of governance and 

of sharing of resources that lie at the root of Sudan’s troubled history as 

an independent state. 

During most of that era, Sudan’s armed forces confronted armed 

insurrection in the South, which pitted the SAF first against the Anya 

Nya and other groups for more than a decade after independence, and 

then against the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/ 

A) from 1983 to 2005. The cost of the second civil war of more than 

two decades of fighting between the SAF and the SPLA was enormous 

in terms of both people and resources: an estimated 2 million deaths, 

mostly civilians, with millions displaced within Sudan or forced to flee 

to neighboring countries. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed 

on January 9, 2005, brought the North−South conflict to an end. While 

the accord succeeded in implementing a cease-fire, mutual troop withdrawals, and establishing an international monitoring force, efforts at 

military and political cooperation between North and South as well as at 

negotiating governance and security arrangements in three border 

enclaves—Abyei, southern Kordofan, and Blue Nile State—proved difficult or failed entirely. At the end of a six-year period during which 

North and South had attempted to work together to build a peaceful and 

united country, Southerners voted in 2011 to secede and form an independent country with their own government and armed forces. 

In the meantime, in 2003, rebellion against the government in Khartoum had arisen in Darfur over the issues of political marginalization and 

economic neglect, the same issues that bedeviled North−South relations. 

The war in Darfur pitted the SAF and allied militias against Darfuri 

forces in a seemingly intractable conflict involving atrocities and humanrights violations on a continual and massive scale. Repeated attempts at 

peacemaking came to naught. Discontent also flared in the East, but it 

was addressed, at least temporarily. 

The military situation in Sudan in early 2011 was cause for serious 

concern. Although the country faced no external threats, within the 

country the SAF confronted active or potential conflict. Most immediately, the looming breakup of the country held the prospect for renewed 

North−South war. Aside from problems concerning oil production and 

border demarcation, there was the very real possibility of confrontation 

involving Abyei, southern Kordofan, and Blue Nile State, whose status 

the CPA left for future negotiation. In the West, the fighting in Darfur 

359 
 

 

Sudan: A Country Study 

had declined in intensity but seemed unlikely to be settled anytime 

soon. In the East and along the northern Nile, Khartoum faced latent 

discontent. In addition, there were divisions among officers in the army 

that had surfaced in the recent past as well as disagreements over policy 

within the al-Bashir regime. Given the number and nature of these 

problems, it was unlikely that peace would come to Sudan anytime 

soon; consequently, the armed forces were certain to remain actively 

engaged in Sudan’s internal affairs in the near future. 

* * *

 Details on military units and equipment are available from The Military Balance, published annually by the International Institute for Strategic 

Studies in London, as well as in Jane’s International Defence Review and 

Jane’s Intelligence Review. Reports by groups such as Africa Watch, 

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group, 

and the Small Arms Survey are essential for understanding current developments in Sudan. The Africa Contemporary Record volumes also contain information about the SAF and the SPLM/A. Mansour Khalid’s War 

and Peace in Sudan: A Tale of Two Countries contains a wealth of information about political and military developments in Sudan. Robert O. Collins has published numerous books and articles about Sudan’s history. 

Some of his recent publications include Civil Wars and Revolution in the 

Sudan, Darfur: The Long Road to Disaster, and A History of Modern 

Sudan. The Root Causes of Sudan’s Civil Wars by Douglas H. Johnson 

and Darfur: The Long Road to Disaster by J. Millard Burr and Robert O. 

Collins are essential to understand recent developments. Alex de Waal has 

also published prolifically on Sudan. His more recent efforts include War 

in Darfur and the Search for Peace, and Darfur: A Short History of a Long 

War, which is co-authored by Julie Flint.

 United States–Sudanese military relations are recounted in Jeffrey A. 

Lefebvre’s “Globalism and Regionalism: U.S. Arms Transfers to Sudan” 

in Armed Forces and Society. Information on the criminal courts system 

and the record of the al-Bashir government with respect to judicial processes and human rights can be found in the annual Country Reports on 

Human Rights Practices published by the United States Department of 

State. (For further information and complete citations, see Bibliography.) 

360 
1

2

3

4

5

6

Appendix 

Table 

Metric Conversion Coefficients and Factors
 

Gross Domestic Product by Sector, 2010
 

Balance of Payments, 2006−10
 

Major Army Equipment, 2010
 

Major Air Force Equipment, 2010
 

Major Navy Equipment, 2010
 

361 

Appendix 

Table 1. Metric Conversion Coefficients and Factors 

When you know Multiply by To find 

Millimeters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.04 inches 

Centimeters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.39 inches 

Meters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 feet 

Kilometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.62 miles 

Hectares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.47 acres 

Square kilometers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.39 square miles 

Cubic meters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.3 cubic feet 

Liters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.26 gallons 

Kilograms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 pounds 

Metric tons (tonnes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.98 long tons

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 short tons

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,204 pounds 

Degrees Celsius (Centigrade) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit 

and add 32 

Table 2. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by Sector, 2010 

Percentage of GDP 

Primary Sector—Agriculture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.3 

Secondary Sector—Industry 

Petroleum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5 

Mining and Quarrying. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.2 

Manufacturing and Handicrafts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.0 

Electricity and Water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5 

Building and Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 

24.5 

Tertiary Sector—Services 

Government Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.0 

Other Services: 

Trade, Hotels, Restaurants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.9 

Transport and Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.8 

Finance, Insurance, Real Estate, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.7 

Financial Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6 

Community and other Social Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 

Import Duties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4 

Other Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.8 

44.2 

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.0 

ource: Based on information from Central Bank of Sudan, 50th Annual Report, 2010, Chapter 

7, Table 7-1, and Appendix, Table 11-A (preliminary figures). The source gives no subS

sectoral analysis for agriculture. 

363 
Sudan: A Country Study 

Table 3. Balance of Payments, 2006–10 

(In millions of U.S. dollars, unless otherwise indicated) 

2006 2007 2008 20091 20102 

Current Account. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -5,542 -5,812 -5,240 -7,043 -5,523 

Trade Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -1,291 1,180 3,382 -694 1,850 

Exports, f.o.b. (free on board) . . . . . . . . 5,813 8,902 12,480 7,834 11,018 

Oil exports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,244 8,443 11,904 7,131 10,065 

Non-oil products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569 460 576 703 953 

Imports, f.o.b . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -7,105 -7,722 -9,907 -8,528 -9,168 

Foodstuffs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -656 -723 -1,177 -1,428 -1,535 

Petroleum products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -364 -256 -626 -423 -455 

Machinery and transport equipment . . -3,785 -4,099 -3,674 -2,173 -2,336 

Manufactured goods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -1,444 -1,709 -1,705 -2,151 -2,312 

Other imports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -855 -935 -1,917 -2,353 -2,529 

Services (net) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -2,689 -2,934 -2,945 -2,465 -2,594 

Receipts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 385 493 391 488 

Payments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -2,890 -3,319 -3,438 -2,856 -3,082 

Of which: oil-transportation costs. . . . -602 -813 -789 -723 -775 

Income (net). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -2,952 -4,640 -5,662 -4,940 -5,957 

Receipts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 184 43 58 73 

Non-oil payments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -749 -857 -937 -1,177 -1,295 

Of which: interest cash payments . . . . -94 -86 -89 -213 -303 

Oil-related expenses3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -2,292 -3,967 -4,769 -3,821 -4,735 

Current transfers (net) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,390 582 -15 1,055 1,178 

Private transfers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,034 209 -686 398 418 

Public transfers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356 373 671 657 760 

Capital Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 0 0 0 

Financial Account (net) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,257 4,092 3,745 4,669 5,117 

Disbursements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431 593 488 737 1,165 

Amortization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -336 -219 -382 -188 -553 

Of which: cash payments (excluding 

IMF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -213 -88 -241 -89 -342 

Short-term capital flows and other assets 

(net)4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622 829 1,270 1,617 1,658 

Net foreign assets of commercial banks 

(increase -) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 -95 -209 -101 -124 

FDI and portfolio investment (net) . . . . . 3,533 3,036 2,628 2,615 2,981 

Errors & Omissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 345 588 492 0 

OVERALL BALANCE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -1,250 -1,375 -907 -1,882 -406 

364 
 

Appendix 

Table 3. Balance of Payments, 2006–10 (Continued) 

(In millions of U.S. dollars, unless otherwise indicated) 

2006 2007 2008 20091 20102 

Financing (- indicates inflow) . . . . . . . . . . 1,250 1,375 907 1,882 406 

Change in net international reserves . . . . 500 437 162 588 -560 

Other foreign reserves (increase-) . . . . . . -30 122 -115 155 -20 

Change in arrears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780 816 860 1,140 986 

Financing Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 0 0 0 

Memorandum Items: 

Current Account (in percent of GDP) . . . -15.2 -12.5 -9.0 -12.9 -8.3 

Current account, cash basis (in percent of 

GDP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -13.5 -10.9 -7.7 -11.5 -7.1 

Net international reserves (end-period)5 . 1,576.0 1,139.0 978.0 390.0 950.0 

(in months of next year’s imports) . . . . 1.8 1.2 1.1 0.4 1.0 

Sudanese crude oil price (U.S. dollars per 

barrel). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54.4 58.0 81.3 44.8 66.4 

Nominal GDP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36,401.0 46,531.0 58,028.0 54,644.0 66,595.0 

Notes: 

1

Preliminary.

2

Projected.

3

Includes payments to oil companies related to profit-sharing arrangements.

4

Net short-term trade and other credit facilities of the government and commercial banks. 5

SDR125.8 million (special drawing rights of the International Monetary Fund—IMF) allocation not included.
 

Source: Based on information from International Monetary Fund, Country Report no. 10/256, 

June 2010, 27 (from Fund staff estimates based on information provided by the Sudanese authorities). 

Table 4. Major Army Equipment, 2010 

Type and Description Quantity 

Main Battle Tanks 

M-60A3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 

T-59/59D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 

T-54/55 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 

Al-Bashir (Type-85-IIM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 

Light Tanks 

T-62. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 

T-63. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 

Reconnaissance Vehicles 

AML-90 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 

BRDM-1/BRDM-2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 

Ferret. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50–80 

M1114: HMMWV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 

Saladin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30–50 

Armored Fighting Vehicles 

BMP-1 / 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 

365 
Sudan: A Country Study 

Table 4. Major Army Equipment, 2010 (Continued)
 

Type and Description Quantity 

Armored Personnel Carrier 

APC (T): 

M-113. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 

BTR-50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20–30 

APC (W): 

V-150 Commando . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55–80 

BTR-70 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 

BTR-80A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 

BTR-152 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50–80 

OT-62 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 

OT-64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 

Walid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 

Type-92 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 

Artillery 

Self-Propelled: 

2S1 Carnation, 122mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 

MK F3, 155mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 

Towed: 

M-101, 105mm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 

D-30, D-74, M-30, 122mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16+ 

M-46 / Type-59-I, 130mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 

M-114A1, 130mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 

Multiple Rocket Launchers: 

Type-63, 107mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477 

BM-21, 122mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 

Saqr, 122mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 

Type-81, 122mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 

Mortars 

AM-49, 120mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . n.a. 

M-43, 120mm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . n.a. 

81mm, 82mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . n.a. 

Antitank Weapons 

Swingfire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 

AT-3 9K11 Sagger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . n.a. 

M-40A1, 106mm Recoilless Rifles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 

RPG-7 Knout, 73mm Rocket Launchers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . n.a. 

ZIS-3, 76mm/ M-1944, 100mm Guns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 

D-44, 85mm Guns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . n.a. 

Air-Defense Weapons 

SAMS

 SA-7 Grail MANPAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 

GUNS 

Self-Propelled 

M-163 Vulcan, 20mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 

M3 VDAA, 20mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 

Towed 

ZPU-2/ZPU-4, 14.5mm; Type-63,37 mm; 

S-60,57mm; M-1944, 85mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740+ 

M-167 Vulcan, 20mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 

ZU-23-2, 23mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 

M-1939, 37mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 

Unserviceable, 37mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 

40mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 

366 
Appendix 

Table 4. Major Army Equipment, 2010 (Continued) 

Type and Description Quantity 

Infantry Weapons
 

Pistols (9mm): Helwan, H&K P9S, FN35 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . n.a.
 

Rifles (7.62mm): SKS, G3, AK-47, AKM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . n.a.
 

Sub-machine guns (9mm): Sterling, H&K MP5,
 

Berretta M12, UZI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . n.a.
 

Machine guns (7.62mm): HK21, RPD, RPK, RP-46,
 

M60, SGM, MG3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . n.a.
 

Note: n.a. = Not available. 

Source: Based on information from The Military Balance, 2010, London, 2010. 

Table 5. Major Air Force Equipment, 2010
 

Type and Description Quantity 

Fighter Ground Attack Aircraft 

A−5C Fantan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
 

MiG-29SE Fulcrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
 

MiG-29UB Fulcrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
 

MiG-23BN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
 

F−7 (MiG-21) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
 

Shenyang J-6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
 

SU-25 Frogfoot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
 

Transport Aircraft 

An-26 Curl (modified for bombing). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
 

C−130H Hercules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
 

DHC−5D Buffalo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
 

Y−8 SAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
 

An-30 Clank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
 

An-74TK-200/300 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
 

Falcon 20 (VIP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
 

Falcon 50 (VIP) 1
 

Fokker-27 (VIP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
 

Training Aircraft
 

K−8 Karakorum (combat capable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
 

Helicopters
 

Attack: Mi-24V Hind (combat capable). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
 

Support: Mi-8/Mi-171 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
 

IAR−330 (SA−330) Puma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
 

Non-operational Pumas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
 

Air Defense
 

SAMS:
 

Towed: SA−2 Guideline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
 

Source: Based on information from The Military Balance, 2010, London, 2010. 

367 
Sudan: A Country Study 

Table 6. Major Navy Equipment, 2010
 

Type and Description Quantity 

Navy
 

Patrol and Coastal Combatants
 

Patrol Boat, River (all less than 100 tonnes):
 

Kurmuk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
 

Patrol Boat, Inshore:
 

Amphibious
 

Landing Craft (Tank):
 

Sewart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
 

Ashroora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
 

Sobat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
 

Landing Craft (Vehicles and Personnel): . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
 

Source: Based on information from The Military Balance, 2010, London, 2010. 

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402 
Glossary 

Ansar—A name given in the nineteenth century to the followers of the 

Sudanese Mahdi. Used today for members of the Umma Party. 

dinar—See Sudanese dinar. 

fiscal year (FY)—An annual period established for accounting purposes. 

The Sudanese fiscal year extends from July 1 to the following June 30. 

gross domestic product (GDP)—A measure of the total value of goods 

and services produced by a domestic economy over a fixed period of 

time, such as a year. GDP is obtained by adding the value contributed 

by each sector of the economy in the form of profits, compensation to 

employees, and depreciation of physical assets (consumption of 

capital). GDP is sometimes aggregated and shown at market prices, 

meaning that indirect taxes and subsidies are included; when these 

indirect taxes and subsidies have been eliminated, the result is GDP at 

factor cost. In developing countries, estimates of the value of nonformal economic activity, such as farming, herding, and informal 

trading, may be included. 

gross national product (GNP)—Total market value of all final goods and 

services produced by an economy during a fixed period of time, such 

as a year. Consists of gross domestic product plus income received by 

residents from investments and possessions abroad, minus payments 

remitted abroad by nonresidents. GNP is the broadest measure of the 

output of goods and services by an economy. 

hectare—a unit of area commonly used for land measurement in many 

parts of the world. 1 hectare = 2.47 acres or 10,000 square meters. 

hudud—Punishments for severe crimes under Islamic law. Punishments 

include flogging, amputation of limbs, and stoning. 

Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)—The subregional 

grouping of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and 

Uganda that is focused on economic development but that more recently 

has concentrated on ending the civil war in Sudan and the conflict in 

Somalia. Before 1996 it was known as the Intergovernmental Authority 

on Drought and Development (IGADD). 

janjaweed—Armed men or roving bandits who use horses, camels, or light 

trucks to carry out attacks in Darfur. In 2003 and 2004, the janjaweed 

were usually identified with the Abbala Arabs of North Darfur who 

403 
 

Sudan: A Country Study 

were armed and sponsored by the central government to attack rebels. 

Since then, the term has come to apply to any of the lawless raiders and 

bandits who fight and plunder in Darfur, regardless of ethnic or political 

affiliation. 

Jonglei Canal—A diversion canal intended to carry water past the White 

Nile swamps in Southern Sudan. The canal was to extend 365 

kilometers from the Sobat Camp, where the Sobat River joins the 

White Nile, to Bor. Construction began from the northern terminus in 

1978 and proceeded south for 265 kilometers until the Sudan People’s 

Liberation Movement/Army attacked the giant digging machine in 

1984 and terminated the project. 

Khatmiyyah—A Muslim brotherhood established in the early nineteenth 

century by Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani. It became the best 

organized and most politically powerful brotherhood in Eastern Sudan. 

The al-Mirghani family continues to exercise control over the 

brotherhood. 

Mahdi—A messianic figure expected to come at the end of time to 

institute an Islamic society of peace and justice. In Sudan, Muhammad 

Ahmad ibn al-Sayyid Abdallah of Dongola declared himself to be the 

Mahdi in about 1880. 

Mahdism—A movement similar to a religious order founded in the late 

nineteenth century. Mahdism and its adherents, the Ansar, sought the 

regeneration of Islam. 

Muslim Brotherhood—Founded by Hasan al-Banna in Egypt in the 1920s, 

it was originally conceived as a religious revivalist movement seeking a 

return to the fundamentals of Islam in a way that would be compatible 

with the technological innovations introduced from the West. It has been 

active in Sudan since 1949. Disciplined, highly motivated, and well 

financed, “the Brotherhood,” as it is known, became a powerful political 

force during the 1970s and 1980s, although it represented only a small 

minority of Sudanese. Following the 1989 coup, the Brotherhood exerted 

influence through the National Islamic Front, which held several cabinet 

portfolios. Its members are now split between the National Congress 

Party and the Popular Congress Party. 

Sahel—A narrow band of land bordering the southern Sahara and 

stretching from Senegal in the west into Sudan in the east. It is 

characterized by an average annual rainfall of between 150 and 500 

millimeters and is mainly suited to pastoralism. 

404 
 

 

 

 

Glossary 

Salafi—Refers to the early generations of Muslims. Salafist Muslims 

believe that the closer a generation was to the time of the Prophet, the 

more correct was its understanding of Islam. 

Shi’a (from Shiat Ali, the “Party of Ali”)—A member of the smaller of 

the two great divisions of Islam. The Shi’a supported the claims of Ali 

ibn Abi Talib, the Prophet’s son-in-law, and his line to presumptive 

right to the caliphate and leadership of the Muslim community. On 

this point, they divided from the Sunni (q.v.) in the first great schism 

within Islam. Later schisms have produced further divisions among 

the Shi’a over the identity and number of their imams, spiritual leaders 

descended from Ali. There are no Shi’a in Sudan. 

shura—A consultative body that can give advice and counsel. It may 

take the form of a parliament. Islamists reject the notion of popular 

sovereignty, which belongs only to God. Hence, a shura does not 

express sovereignty but only the principle of community consensus. 

Sudanese dinar (SDD)—The unit of currency from May 1992 until July 

1, 2007, when it was replaced by the (new) Sudanese pound (q.v.). 

Sudanese pound (SDG)—Until 1992, the unit of currency was the Sudanese 

pound (SDP), consisting of 1,000 millimes = 100 piasters = 1 Sudanese 

pound. In May 1992, the al-Bashir government replaced the pound with 

the dinar (SDD), at SDD1 = SDG10. The dinar existed in parallel with 

the pound until the dinar officially replaced the pound in March 1999. 

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement of January 2005 called for a new 

unit of currency to replace the dinar, which Southerners associated with 

the regime’s Arabization policies. On January 9, 2007, the Bank of 

Sudan put the new Sudanese pound, divided into 100 piasters, into 

circulation. The new pound equals 100 dinars, or 1,000 old Sudanese 

pounds. As of July 1, 2007, the exchange rate was US$1 = SDD204 = 

SDG2. As of that date, the dinar was no longer legal tender in Sudan. On 

September 1, 2014, the exchange rate was US$1 = SDG5.68. 

sudd—Arabic term for “barrier” or “obstruction.” With lower case, the 

term designates clumps of aquatic vegetation that block the Nile 

channel; with upper case, the term Al-Sudd is used loosely for the 

entire White Nile swamps in Southern Sudan. 

Sufism—Islamic mysticism. Brotherhoods of Sufis, or mystics, exist 

throughout the Muslim world. In Sudan, the Khatmiyyah, the 

Qadiriyyah, and the Tijaniyyah are examples of major brotherhoods. 

Sunni (from the Arabic sunna, meaning “custom,” giving the connotation 

of orthodoxy in theory and practice)—A member of the larger of the 

two great divisions of Islam. Sunnis supported the traditional method 

405 
Sudan: A Country Study 

of election to the caliphate and accepted the Umayyads, whose dynasty 

succeeded the Prophet Muhammad. On this issue, they divided from 

the Shi’a (q.v.) in the first great schism within Islam. There are no Shi’a 

in Sudan. 

Three Towns—Sudanese reference to the cities of Khartoum, Khartoum 

North, and Omdurman. Located in close proximity to the juncture of the 

White Nile and Blue Nile Rivers, they form a single metropolitan area. 

Wahhabi—Reformist reactionary Islamic group, named after its founder, 

Ahmed Abd el-Wahhab (1703−92), son of a theologian from the Najd 

region of Saudi Arabia. Wahhabism is the official Islamic creed of 

Saudi Arabia. 

406 
Index 

A’ali an-Nil. See Upper Nile State 

Aba Island, 18 

Abbala (people), 18, 325, 343 

Abbas I, 16 

Abbud, Ibrahim, Major General, 33−34, 307 

Abd al-Latif, Ali, 27, 304 

Abd al-Wahhab, Ahmad, 33 

Abdallah, Muhammad Ahmad ibn al-Sayyid. 

See Mahdi, the 

Abdel-Mahmood, Fatima, 261 

Abu al-Kaylak, Muhammad, 13 

Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, 160, 195 

Abu Duqn, Sultan Badi II, 13 

Abu Hamad, 21−22, 70, 201−3, 206 

Abu Jabrah, 198, 200 

Abu Klea. See Abu Tulayh 

Abu Naamah, 130 

Abu Nidal, 53 

Abu Salih, Faisal, 309 

Abu Tulayh, 19 

Abuja, xlv, 57 

Abyei, xliii−xlv, lii, liv−lv, 75, 239−40, 243, 268, 

296, 321, 359; referendum on future of, liv, 

243 

Abyei Area Independent Battalion, 323 

Abyei Boundary Commission, 268 

Acacia senegal (gum arabic), 67, 182, 188 

Adamawa-Eastern language division, 77 

Adamawa-Ubangi branch of Niger-Congo 

language family, 91 

Addis Ababa (see also Ethiopia), l, 204, 278 

Addis Ababa Agreement (1972), 39, 267, 280, 

311, 318 

Africa Watch, 335, 338 

African Development Bank (ADB), 286 

African Rights, 47, 48 

African Union (see also United Nations−African 

Union Mission in Sudan), xlvi, liv, 234, 278, 

286, 326, 329, 331 

African Standby Force, 331 

Afro-Arab ethnicity, 79 

Afro-Asiatic languages, 77 

Agreement on Permanent Cease-fire and Security Modalities (2005), 321 

Agricultural Bank, 1621 

agricultural crops, 41, 66, 84, 90; cotton, 24, 32, 

171, 176−78, 181, 213−14; gum Arabic, 67, 

182, 188; hibiscus, 181; oilseeds, 178; peanuts, 

171, 178, 182; sesame, 172, 181, 182; sorghum, 172, 177−78; sugar, 172, 178, 183; 

watermelons, 181; wheat, 172, 183 

agricultural production, 42, 66 

Agricultural Reform Corporation, 177 

agriculture, 171−83; irrigated, 174−78; rainfed, 

179−81 

Ahfad University for Women, 128, 131, 262 

Ahl al-kitab (People of the Book), 87 

Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, 287 

air force. See Sudan Air Force 

Akol Ajawin, Lam, 49, 234, 264, 320, 339 

Alexandria, 8, 103 

Ali Dinar, 24, 304 

Ali, Muhammad (Pasha), 14, 16, 302 

Alier, Abel, 95 

Alliance of Professional and Trade Unions, 43 

Alliance of Revolutionary Forces of West 

Sudan, 314 

Alliance of the People’s Working Forces, 252 

Alwa, 8, 12 

al-Amin, Muhammad, 303 

Amarar (people; see also Beja), 80, 84 

Amnesty International, liii, 47, 48, 52, 335, 338, 

342, 352, 356 

Amum Pag’an, 264 

Anglo-Egyptian Agreement (1899), 22 

Anglo-Egyptian Agreement (1953), 29 

Anglo-Egyptian Condominium (1899–1955), 3, 

22−31, 96, 111, 113, 144, 177, 214, 229, 277, 

303−4; Egyptian objections to, 29 

Anglo-Egyptian Nile Expeditionary Force, 21 

Ansar, 18−19, 21, 22, 28, 33, 37, 39−40, 45, 85, 

102−3, 116, 163, 256, 307, 311 

Anya Nya, 34, 38−39, 92, 267, 280, 311, 

317−18, 359 

Anya Nya II, 318−19, 341 

Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party, 259 

Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD), 156−57, 158, 160, 195 

Arab League, 52, 234, 276, 288 

Arab Monetary Fund, 206, 288 

Arab peoples, xlii, 79−83, 89 

Arabic, 8, 76, 77−79, 86; Chadian colloquial 

Arabic, 78; Juba Arabic, 78; Modern Standard 

Arabic, 78; as official language, 29, 39, 51, 

407 
Sudan: A Country Study 

78−79, 128, 131, 212−13, 231, 272, 306; 

Omdurmani colloquial Arabic, 78; Quranic 

Arabic, 62, 77−78 

Arabization, 10, 27, 34, 76, 82, 83, 114, 131, 306 

Arman, Yasir, 233 

armed forces. See Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) 

arms industry, 289, 347 

Army Legitimate Command, 320 

Ash Shajarah, 332 

Ash Shamali, 74, 173 

Ash Sharqi, 74 

Ashigga Party (later National Unionist Party— 

NUP), 28 

ashraf (members of al-Mahdi family), 102 

As-Suki project, 178 

Aswan, 3, 21, 207 

Aswan High Dam, 41, 68, 176 

Atbarah, 22, 45, 70, 130, 159, 196, 212, 305; 

transport links, 202, 206, 210 

Atbarah River, 5, 41, 68, 84, 176, 178, 186; 

Upper Atbarah Dams Complex Project, 178, 

193 

al-Atta, Major Hisham, 37, 

Atuot (people), 76 

Avukaya (people), 92 

Avungara (people), 14 

Awadallah, Babikir, 36−37 

Aweil, 131 

awlad al-bahr (children of the river), 80, 82 

awlad ar-rif (children of the countryside), 80 

Al-Awsat, 74, 130, 173, 342 

Azande (people and language), 14, 77, 91−92, 

111, 315 

Azania Liberation Front, 35 

al-Azhari, Isma’il, 29, 31, 32, 35, 36, 103 

Ba’ath Party (Iraq), 130 

Babakr, Amir, 260 

Badi IV, 15 

Bahr al-Arab River, 68, 184 

Bahr al-Ghazal (province or state), 14, 16, 17, 26, 

39, 78, 104, 111, 130, 135, 174, 181, 188, 315, 

318−21, 342 

Bahr al-Ghazal River, 68, 198, 207 

Bahr al-Jabal River (White Nile), 66, 68 

Baka, 92 

Baker, Sir Samuel, 16 

Bakr, Ahmad, 13 

Bani Amir (people; see also Beja), 80, 84, 262 

Bank of Khartoum, 151, 162, 163 

Bank of Sudan, 161−64, 231 

Bank of South Sudan, 162−63, 231 

banking system (see also Islamic banking), 

160−64, 214; nationalization, 162 

Baqqara (cattle), 183−84 

Baqqara (cattle herders), 11, 16, 18, 20−21, 81, 

84, 87, 102, 118, 119, 184, 325, 342 

baraka (blessedness), 99 

Barakah River, 175; delta, 66, 175 

Barbar, 22 

Bari (people and language), 90 

Bashayir, 209−10 

al-Bashir, Umar Hassan Ahmad, li, 44−50, 117, 

123, 160, 195, 224−28, 232−33, 235−39, 245, 

251, 269, 295, 301, 306−9, 313−14, 324, 328, 

330, 343; agenda of, xlii−xliii, lii−liii, 45, 130, 

259, 286; coup by, 44, 143, 223; and peace 

process in South, 56−57; rivalry with alTurabi, 52−53, 224, 253 

Bashir (tank), 192 

Bedawiye (language), 77, 88 

Beja (people), xliii, 7, 11, 19, 65, 77, 83−84, 94, 

114, 232, 262, 270−71 

Beja Congress, li, 84, 259, 262, 270−71 

Benishangul Liberation Front, 268 

Ben Turk, Abdeleziz, 211 

Bentiu, l, 198, 204, 207, 210, 211, 265 

Beri. See Zaghawa 

Berti (people and language), 85−86 

Bideyat. See Zaghawa 

bin Laden, Osama, 53, 55, 226, 293, 317 

Bir en Natrun, 63 

Biró, Gaspar, 47 

Bisharin (people; see also Beja), 83 

Black Book of Sudan: Imbalance of Power and 

Wealth in Sudan, 85, 325 

Blue Nile River, 41, 65, 67−69, 82−83, 87, 

174−78, 186, 195 

Blue Nile State, xliii, xlviii, li, lii, 75, 91, 130, 

134, 180, 181, 193, 229, 243, 281, 296, 304, 

321, 324, 359 

boma (Southern local government unit), 243 

Bongo (people), 92 

Bor, l, 68, 263, 318, 338 

Border Intelligence Guard, 349, 350 

Bridges and Roads Corporation, 151 

Bright Star (military exercise), 346 

Britain 135, 291−92; aid from, 143, 157, 187; 

trade with, 214 

British East Africa, 26−27, 179 

British Petroleum, 198 

British rule (see also Anglo-Egyptian Condominium), xlii, 3, 21, 89, 144 

broadcasting, 274−75 

408 
Index 

budgets, liii−lv, 155−56, 240; for health care, 134
 

Burri al-Daraisa, 192
 

Bush, George W., 93, 293, 316
 

Al-Butanah, 65, 83
 

Bviri (people) 92, 

Cairo, 3, 14, 16, 25, 29, 83
 

Cairo University, 131
 

Camel Corps, 303−5, 348
 

Canada, 290; investment from, 198
 

Carter, Jimmy, 56, 339
 

cataracts. See Nile River 

cattle. See livestock 

Cease-fire Joint Military Committee, 322
 

Cease-fire Political Commission, 322
 

censorship, liii, 212−13, 270−75, 352
 

censuses, 71, 147, 165, 233
 

Central African Republic, 75, 91, 282−84,
 

315−16
 

Central Bank of Sudan. See Bank of Sudan 

Central Equatoria State, 73, 92
 

Central Hills, 181
 

Central Rainlands Zone, 181
 

Chad, 74−75, 235, 269, 326; Chadian colloquial 

Arabic, 78; Chadian people, 84, 85−86; civil 

war in, 55, 314−15; relations with, 282−84,
 

301, 314−15, 328; transport links with, 206
 

Chadic (language), 77
 

chemical weapons, 47
 

Chevron, 197−98, 207
 

Child Act (2010), 165
 

Child Law (2004), 357
 

China. See People’s Republic of China 

China International Water and Electric Company, 195
 

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC),
 

49, 198−200, 211
 

Christian missionaries, 26, 34, 47, 87, 132
 

Christian Solidarity International (CSI), 46
 

Christianity (see also individual denominations),
 

8, 11, 40, 47, 48, 79, 103−6, 249
 

Civil Aviation Authority, 208
 

civil service, 241−42, 268, 351
 

civil war, first (1955−72), 38−39, 294, 306−7,
 

317−18, 343, 359; origins of the, 29−31, 317
 

civil war, second (1983−2005), xlvi, 41, 56−57,
 

89, 122, 131, 188, 205, 248, 250−51, 308, 315,
 

318−21, 359; refugees from, 74, 267
 

climate (see also rainfall), 70−71 

Clinton, William J., 55, 293
 

Closed Districts Ordinance, 26, 28, 29, 111
 

Code of Civil Procedure (1902), 24
 

Code of Criminal Procedure (1991), 248
 

College of Mechanical Engineering, 130
 

Collo. See Shilluk
 

Committee for the Eradication of the Abduction 

of Women and Children, 166
 

Common Market for Eastern and Southern 

Africa (COMESA), 285, 286
 

communists (see also Sudan Communist Party),
 

103, 307
 

Community of Sahel-Saharan States, 286 

Community Policing Committee, 358
 

Comprehensive National Strategy, 154
 

Comprehensive Peace Agreement Between the 

Government of the Republic of Sudan and the 

Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Sudan 

People’s Liberation Army (CPA), xli−xliv, xlvi, 

liv, 71, 79, 93, 106, 131, 154, 229, 238, 294, 

296, 340; security provisions of the, 321−24
 

Compulsion Law (1998), 123
 

Congo. See Democratic Republic of the Congo
 

Constituent Assembly (1956), 39
 

Constituent Assembly (1970s), 39
 

constitution, (see also Interim Constitution of 

South Sudan, Interim National Constitution), 

of 1973, 173, 228; of 1998, 50, 166, 171, 

227−28; of the South, xlvi; Transitional Constitution of 1956, 31−32
 

Constitutional Court, 228, 246
 

Copts, 8, 11, 79, 103
 

corruption, lii, 32−33, 40, 234, 241
 

cotton. See agricultural crops
 

Council of Ministers, 227, 236−38
 

Council of States, 239−40, 246
 

counterterrorism, 226, 276, 278, 281, 293−94,
 

317
 

coups d’état and coup attempts: (1958), 33; 

(1959), 34; (1969), 36, 230; (1970s), 37, 40, 

170, 291, 307; (1985), 42, 209, 228; (1989), 

44; (1990s), 45, 309
 

courts. See legal system
 

crops. See agricultural crops
 

crime, 113, 356
 

currency, 144, 156, 160−61, 167
 

Cushitic (language), 77
 

da’wa (Islamic charities), 132
 

Daju (people), 85−86, 314
 

Al-Damazin, 130, 202−4, 323
 

Dams Implementation Unit, 178, 195
 

Danaqla (Arabized Nubians), 82
 

Danforth, John, 93, 293
 

409 
Sudan: A Country Study 

Darfur, lii, 63, 127, 130, 160, 185, 195, 213, 286, 

291−96, 304, 332, 350; before independence, 

13, 16, 17, 24; health care in, 133, 136; militias 

in, 94, 269, 301, 325−26; peoples, xliii−xlvi, 

83, 85−87, 184, 314, 325, 330; politics in, lii, 

250−51, 261−62; warfare in, li−liii, 116, 147, 

158, 264, 269−70, 283, 287, 316, 324−29, 341, 

343 

Darfur Liberation Front, 261 

Darfur Peace Agreement (2006), 232, 235, 252, 

261, 270, 294, 296, 327 

debt, international, xliii, lv, 42, 143, 145, 147, 

153−55, 290, 294 

Déby, Idriss, 282−83, 315 

Declaration of Non-Cooperation. See International Monetary Fund 

Decree 155 (1993), 47 

defense expenditure, 155, 337 

deforestation, 68−69, 172, 187−88, 192 

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), 90, 

91, 212, 268, 284 

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), li, 36, 44, 50, 

53, 101, 163, 228, 233, 258−59, 310, 315−16 

demonstrations, antigovernment, l, xlviii, 27, 45 

Deng, William, 34 

Department of Woodlands and Forests, 187 

dervishes, 101 

desertification, 68−69, 179, 187−88, 192 

al-Dhahab, Abd al-Rahman Siwar, 42, 43, 232, 

244, 308 

Didinga (people), 90−91, 303 

Didinga Hills, 66, 91 

dinar. See currency 

Dindar River, 64, 67 

Dinka (people, also called Jieng), xlvi, xlix, 14, 

76, 77, 88−90, 91, 94−96, 107, 111, 113−14, 

263, 318, 323−24, 342, 343; Abyei Dinka, 83; 

Bor Dinka, 320; Ngok Dinka, 324 

displaced people. See internally displaced people 

Doha Document for Peace in Darfur, xlv 

Dongola, 8, 14, 21, 76, 82, 118, 130, 200, 207, 

304; ancient kingdom of, 8, 10, 11, 12 

Dongotona Mountains, 66 

drought, 70, 74, 83,143, 146, 184; refugees from, 

165 

Al-Du’ayn, 342 

Dunqas, Amara, 12 

Dunqulah. See Dongola 

East African Standby Brigade (EASBRIG), 331 

Eastern Arab Corps, 305, 348, 

East Equatoria State, 92, 183, 265, 266 

Eastern Front (EF), 235, 262−63, 271, 281, 314 

Eastern Sudan, lii, 65, 127, 133−34, 223, 232, 

270−71, 297, 313−14, 359 

Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement (2006), 271 

Eastern Sudanic branch of Nilo-Saharan language group, 88, 90 

economic development, 24, 41−42, 144−49, 

189; in the South, xli, xlvi, 26−27 

economy: agriculture in, l, 149, 71−83; balance 

of payments in, 156−57, 215−17; foreign 

investment in, 151−53; government role in, 

153−55; industry in, 189−201; informal, xlvi, 

166−68; Islamization of, 146; overview of, l, 

147−48; prospects for the, 216−17 

education, 117, 120−31; for girls, 125−28; in the 

North, 121; opportunities, 82, 121, 124, 

125−27; postsecondary, 122, 128−31; preschool, 125; religious, 82; in the South, xlviii, 

xlix, 122, 124 

Egypt (see also Anglo-Egyptian Condominium), 

xlii, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 83, 134, 304; British position in, 16−25; relations with, 32, 54, 152, 176, 

193, 215, 226, 271, 276−78, 312−13, 346−47; 

trade with, 214, 215; transport links with, 

206−8 

Egyptian civil code (1949), 224 

elections, liii, 232−34; in 1958, 32; in 1965, 35; 

in 1978, 40; in 1986, 43; in 1996, 225; in 2000, 

226, 232; in 2010, 227, 252, 257 

electric power, 152, 190, 192−96 

Elemi Triangle, 285 

Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat), 211 

energy, 192−96 

English language, 30, 39, 76, 78, 79, 104, 128, 

130−31, 213, 231, 272 

Enver Pasha, 304 

environmental problems, 68−70, 180 

Equatoria, 16, 21, 26, 39, 103, 111, 174, 181, 

188, 317, 342 

Equatoria Corps, 38, 267, 304−6, 311, 317 

Equatoria Defense Force (EDF), 49, 266, 284 

Ereigat. See Irayqat 

Eritrea, 28, 75, 84, 223, 226, 252, 259, 263, 268, 

271, 275, 280−82, 313−14 

Eritrean Islamic Jihad, 49, 268, 280 

Ethiopia, 21, 28, 75, 90, 262, 305−6, 316; relations with, l, 54−55, 193, 226, 268, 275, 

280−82, 313−14, 320, 338; transport links 

with, 204, 206, 208, 217, 318 

ethnic groups (see also under individual groups, 

languages), xli, xlvi−xlix, 79−96; and agricul410 
Index 

tural crops, 84−86, 90, 91−92; and livestock, 

83−87; nomadic, 61, 63, 77, 78, 81, 83, 84, 86, 

87, 98; settled, 81, 82, 84 

ethnicity and language, 76−79, 93−96 

European Economic Community (see also European Union), 143 

European Union (EU), 208, 291, 236 

evangelical churches, 103, 104−5, 292−93 

exports, 145, 213−14; agricultural, 148, 171, 

181−83; of livestock, 183, 185−86; oil, 148, 

156, 198, 200, 215−16, 281 

Faisal Islamic Bank, 162, 163 

Fallata. See Fulani 

family life, 109, 118−20 

family planning, 73 

famine, l, 42, 70, 74−75, 146 

Al-Fashir, 13, 85, 86, 208, 325, 332 

Fashoda, 22 

Al-Fasi. See Ibn Idris, Sayyid Ahmad 

Federal Democratic Alliance, 259 

Federal Ministry of Education, 123, 124 

Fertit (people), 265, 342 

Financial Investment Bank, 162 

First Forest Act (1908), 187 

Fisheries Administration, 186−87 

fishing, 186−87 

Five-Year Plan of Economic and Social Development (1970–74), 145, 205 

Flamingo Bay (Red Sea), 334 

foreign aid, 156−60 

foreign policy, 234−35 

forests and forestry (see also deforestation), 

187−89 

Forestry Administration, 188 

Forests National Corporation (FNC), 187 

Four Freedoms Agreement (2004), 278 

Framework for Sustained Peace, Development, 

and Poverty Eradication in Sudan, 154 

France, 53, 214, 346−47 

Free Lions, 259, 262, 270−71 

Free Officers’ Movement, 36, 307 

free-trade zone (Red Sea coast), 49 

Friendship Textile Mill, 191 

Frontline States (U.S. policy), 280, 293, 316 

Front of the Islamic Pact, 254 

Fulani (language and people, also called Fallata), 

77, 86−87, 95 

Fund for Peace, 234−35 

Funj (people), 12−13, 15, 114 

Fur (people), 13, 24, 81, 84−86, 94, 114, 261, 

269, 314, 330 

Gama’a Islamiyya, 278 

Ganyiel region, 340 

Garang, John, de Mabior, xlix, 37, 43, 56, 89, 95, 

235, 244, 258, 263, 265, 279, 318, 320, 

336−40 

Garang, Rebecca, 120 

gas, natural, 192, 200 

Al-Gedaref (also seen as Al-Qadarif), 83, 101, 

131, 133, 179, 180, 184; transport links, 202−6 

Al-Geneina. See Al-Junaynah 

General Foundation for Printing Publications and 

Advertisement, 151 

Geological Survey Administration, 196 

Germany, 214, 305, 358 

Al-Gezira (also seen as Al-Jazirah), 11, 12, 15, 

21, 41, 65, 66, 73, 152, 240 

Al-Gezira College of Agriculture and Natural 

Resources, 130−31 

Gezira Light Railway, 203−4 

Gezira Scheme (see also Manaquil Extension), 

24, 65, 173, 176, 203, 214 

GIAD industrial city, 191, 347 

gold, xlv, 4−5, 196, 213 

Golu, 325 

Gondar (Ethiopia), 21, 206 

Gordon, Charles George, 17−19 

Gordon Memorial College. See University of 

Khartoum 

Gosh, Salah Abdallah, lii, 317, 352 

Government of National Unity (2005–11), xlvi, 

235, 238, 264 

Government of South Sudan (GOSS), 75, 120, 

133, 153, 189, 199, 231, 266, 302, 314, 324, 

340, 344, 352, 357−58 

Gration, Scott, 294 

Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company 

(GNPOC), 198−99, 210, 289−91 

gross domestic product (GDP), 148−49, 152, 

156, 171, 216 

Guardians of Morality, 47 

Gulf Petroleum, 199 

Gulf states. See Persian Gulf states 

Gulf War (1991), 52, 150, 158, 165, 289 

gum arabic (from Acacia senegal, known loccally as hashab), 10, 15, 67, 86, 174, 182, 188, 

202 

Gum Arabic Company, 182 

Hadendowa (people; see also Beja), 18−19 

Hajar Asalaya Sugar Project, 178 

hajj, 19, 86, 97 

Hala’ib Triangle, 54, 277−78, 312 

411 
Sudan: A Country Study 

Halfa al-Jadidah. See New Halfa 

Hamar (people), 83
 

Hamdan, Muhammad, 327
 

Hameshkoreb, 262
 

Harbin Power Engineering Company, 152, 194,
 

195
 

hashab (gum arabic trees), 67, 174
 

Hashmab (people), 81
 

Hassan, Uthman Ahmad, 309
 

Hausa (language and people), 77, 86−87 

health care, xlviii, 132−37; access to, xlvi, xlix,
 

132−34; and diseases, 136−37; infant mortality, 73; maternal mortality, 73 

Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC), 155,
 

158
 

Heglig (oil field), 210
 

High Executive Council, 39
 

Hilal, Musa, 327
 

al-Hindi, Zayn al-Abdin, 258
 

Horn of Africa, 281−82 

hudud (Islamic punishments), 98, 104, 244, 248, 

353−54
 

Hufrat al-Nahhas, 196
 

Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired 

Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), 

120, 136−37 

human rights, 45, 226, 228, 249−51, 293, 351
 

human-rights violations, xlviii, 47−48, 143, 270,
 

295, 301, 317, 328, 335−36, 338, 350
 

Human Rights Watch, 47
 

Husayn, Abd al-Rahim Muhammad, 331
 

Husayn, Seraj Mohammed, 54
 

hydrology, 67−70 

Ibn Idris, Sayyid Ahmad (Al-Fasi), 100
 

Ibn Muhammad, Abdallahi, 18, 20−21 

Ibn Sa’ad, Abdallah, 10
 

Id al-Adha (also known as Id al-Kabir), 98
 

Idris, Salah, 56
 

Idrisiyyah (Islamic order), 101
 

Imatong Mountains, 66, 188
 

imports, 146, 214−15, 216
 

independence: declaration of, 31; desire for,
 

28−29, 31
 

Independence Movement for Southern Sudan,
 

49
 

Independence of Bor Group, 49
 

India, 214, 215, 290−91
 

Industrial Development Corporation, 189
 

industry, 189−201 

inflation, liv, 145, 147, 154
 

Ingessana (people), 91
 

Ingessana Hills, 64, 196
 

Intergovernmental Authority on Development 

(IGAD), l, 223, 257, 264, 285, 286, 321
 

Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and 

Development (IGADD), 57
 

Interim Action Program (1973−77), 145, 205
 

Interim Constitution of South Sudan, 229, 231, 

239−40, 242, 245, 246−47, 271
 

Interim National Constitution, 79, 228−31,
 

235−37, 239, 243, 245, 246−47, 271, 354
 

Interim Security Force for Abyei, liv 

internally displaced people, xliv, xlvii, l, 69, 

74−75, 109, 127, 132, 137, 146, 167−68, 267, 

269−70, 326, 328, 343−45, 359
 

International Confederation of Free Trade 

Unions, 171
 

International Criminal Court, 160, 227, 286, 

327−29
 

International Criminal Police Organization 

(Interpol), 349
 

International Eminent Persons Group, 251
 

International Labour Organisation (ILO), 165, 

171
 

International Monetary Fund (IMF), 42, 146−47,
 

153−55, 158−59, 162; structural adjustment 

program of, 146, 154
 

International Religious Freedom Report, 248
 

International Slavery Convention (1926) and 

Supplementary Convention (1956), 251
 

international trade, 213−15 

Internet, 109, 111, 212, 275
 

Investment Promotion Act (1990), 151
 

Iran, 158, 287, 333−34, 347
 

Iraq, 158, 215, 287, 310, 333 

Irayqat (also seen as Ereigat), 343
 

Ironstone Plateau, 66, 181
 

irrigation, 41, 66, 68, 144−45, 174−78
 

Islamic Charter Front (ICF), 39, 254
 

Islam (see also Muslim peoples; sharia), 62, 

96−103; arrival of, xlii, 8, 10, 13; popular, 99; 

tenets and practice, 96−99
 

Islamic banking, 98, 163−64 

Islamic Development Bank (IDB), 158, 203, 

206, 288
 

Islamic law. See sharia 

Islamic Legion, 314
 

Islamic Liberation Movement, 254
 

Islamic Movement (political party), 50
 

Islamic orders, 100−103 

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Iranian), 

334, 341
 

412 
Index 

Islamic Security (Security of the Revolution), 

351 

Islamic University of Omdurman, 131 

Islamism, lii, 43, 49, 123, 227−28, 254−56, 310, 

313 

Islamization, 46, 47, 50−53, 130, 131, 225, 310, 

313, 353 

Isma’il, Mustafa Uthman, 55, 279, 313 

Israel, 215, 292 

Issaias Afwerki, 281, 313 

Al-Istiwai, 78, 318−19 

Italy, 214, 305−6 

Ja’aliyyin (people), 11, 81, 82 

Jabal al-Awliya Dam, 68, 177, 186 

Jabal Hadid (Ironstone Plateau), 66 

Jabal Marrah, 63, 84 

Jallab, Munir Sheikh el-Din, 261 

janjaweed (militia), xliv−xlv, 83, 86, 269, 314, 

325−26, 341, 343, 350 

Japan, 200, 214 

Al-Jayli refinery, 49, 194, 200, 210 

JIAD. See GIAD 

Jieng. See Dinka 

jihad, 18−19, 21, 24 

Jikaan Nuer. See Nuer 

al-Jilani, Abd al-Qadir, 100 

jizzu (area in northwest), 63 

Joint Defense Board, 322 

Joint Integrated Units (JIUs), 322−24 

Jonglei Canal, 41−42, 68, 145, 292 

Jonglei State, xlvi, xlviii, l, 66, 73, 88, 183 

Juba, xlviii, 35, 90, 116, 130, 131, 133, 212−13, 

240, 266, 319−20, 323; transport links, 204−5, 

207−8 

Juba Declaration on Unity and Integration 

(2006), 265−66 

judges, 245−48 

judicial system. See legal system 

Juhayna (people), 11, 81 

Junayd irrigation project, 178 

Al-Junaynah, 333, 356 

Junqali Canal. See Jonglei Canal 

Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), xlv−xlvi, 

li, 85,94, 251, 255, 261 

Kababish (people), 11, 83 

Kaduqli, 323 

Kajbar Dam, 194 

Kakwa (people), 90 

Kananah Sugar, 41, 152, 178, 183, 191 

KanarTel consortium, 211 

Karima. See Kuraymah 

Karora, 262 

kashifs (military leaders), 12 

Kashta (Kushite king), 5 

Kassala, 18, 28, 65, 66, 82, 83, 84, 101, 130−31, 

176, 183; transport links, 203, 205 

Kawahla (people), 81 

Keown-Boyd, Sir Alexander, 304 

Kenya, 26, 28, 74−75, 179; relations with, 285, 

314; transport links with, 205 

Kerman (people), 4, 82 

Khalid, Abdel Aziz, 260 

Khalifa (the successor; see also Ibn Muhammad, 

Abdallahi), 20−22, 303 

al-Khalifa, Sir al-Khatim, 34 

Khalil, Abd al-Majid Hamad, 308 

Khalil, Abdallah, 32−33, 304 

khalwa (religious education), 82, 99, 127, 129 

Khartoum, 45, 67, 70, 72−73, 75, 81, 82, 152, 

186, 223, 334, 337; education in, 121, 131; 

elites in, 114−15; industries in, 193; local laws 

in, 245; military forces in, 328, 331−32; police 

in, 348; religious observance in, 101−5; telecommunications in, 211−12; transport links, 

202−6, 208, 210 

Al-Khartoum (former province), 74, 82, 173, 

176, 212 

Khartoum Institute of Technical Colleges, 130 

Khartoum International Airport, 208, 333 

Khartoum North (see also Three Towns), 105, 

114, 195 

Khartoum Polytechnic, 130 

Khartoum State, 229 

Khartoum Stock Exchange, 209, 211 

Khashm al-Qirbah, 66, 82, 332 

Khashm al-Qirbah Dam, 145, 176, 186 

Khatmiyyah (Islamic order), 15, 18, 26, 28, 32, 

33, 101−2, 163, 252, 258, 310 

Kiir, Salva, Mayardit, xlviii−xlix, 234, 235−36, 

239, 264, 279, 282, 289, 314, 340 

Kitchener, Herbert, 21−23, 202 

Koka Dam Declaration (1986), 43 

Koman (language), 36 

Kony, Joseph (see also Lord’s Resistance 

Army), 284 

Kordofan see also North Kordofan; South Kordofan), 13, 63, 74, 83, 86, 184, 195, 332, 342, 

343, 359 

Kordofanian (language), 77, 93 

Kosti, 66, 130, 178, 195, 334; transport links, 

203−7 

Kreish (people), 92 

413 
Sudan: A Country Study 

Kuanyin, Kerubino Bol, 321 

Kuku (people), 90 

Kuraymah, 4, 82, 195, 202−4, 207 

Kurdufan. See Kordofan 

Kurmuk, 281 

Kush (also seen as Cush), xlii, 4−7 

Kusti. See Kosti 

Kutum, 326 

kuttub (religious education), 82 

Kuwait, 143, 178, 287; aid from, 157; investment from, 159; relations with, 271 

Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, 

159, 195, 206 

Labor Act (1997), 168, 170 

labor force, 164−66, 171; women in the, 109, 

134, 164, 168, 171 

labor unions, 151, 169−71 

Lado Enclave, 24 

Lagu, Joseph, 35, 38−39, 266, 317 

Lake Nasser, 68, 176 

Lake No, 65, 68 

Lake Nubia, 66, 176, 186 

Lake Victoria, 68 

Lakes State, 88, 183, 242 

land use and tenure, 23, 172−74 

languages (see also under individual languages), 

76−79, 121, 123−24, 128, 130, 131, 231; AfroAsiatic, 77; Arabization and, 130; distribution 

of, 80; Niger-Kordofanian, 77; Nilo-Saharan, 

77 

Latuku (people), 266 

League of Arab States (Arab League), 52, 79 

legal system: the courts, 245−48, 353−58; customary justice, 110, 243; pre-independence, 

23−24; sharia, 244−51, 353−56 

legal system of South Sudan, 247−48 

Legitimate Sudan Workers Trade Union Federation (SWLTUF), 170−71 

Liberation and Justice Movement, xlv, 262 

Liberty FM (radio station), 213, 274 

Libya, 63, 157, 215, 263, 268, 271, 278−80, 

282−83, 295, 314, 327, 333, 338, 347 

life expectancy, 73 

literacy, 8, 121, 124, 126; in South Sudan, xlvi, 

xlix, 124, 126 

livestock, 67, 69, 171, 172, 181, 183−86, 213−14 

local government, 25, 229−31, 242−44 

Local Government Act (1961), 230 

Local Government Act (2009, in South Sudan), 

231 

Lohure, Saturnino, 34 

Lokoya (people), 266 

Lologo Regional Training Center, 358 

Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), 268, 284, 

315−16 

Machakos Protocol (2002), 264, 321 

Machar Teny, Riek, xlix, 237, 263, 320, 339 

Madi (people and language), 92 

Mahariyyah, 343 

Al-Mahdi al-Muntazar. See Mahdi, the 

al-Mahdi, Abd al-Rahman, 28, 32, 33, 304 

al-Mahdi, Imam al-Hadi 33, 35, 37 

al-Mahdi, Mubarak al-Fadil, 257 

al-Mahdi, Sadiq (the elder), 33 

al-Mahdi, Sadiq (the younger), li, liii, 33, 36, 37, 

39, 40, 43−45, 102, 116, 232, 244−45, 248, 

251−52, 256−57, 308, 342, 343 

Mahdi the (Muhammad Ahmad ibn al-Sayyid 

Abdallah), 18−20, 25, 102; family of, 116 

Mahdists (dervishes), 102, 280, 304 

Mahdiyyah, the (see also Ansar), xlii, 17−21, 22, 

24, 202 

Mahhas (people), 81, 82 

Mahjub, Abd al-Khaliq, 37 

Mahjub, Muhammad Ahmad, 35 

Majdhubiyyah (Islamic order), 101 

Majlis Watani. See National Assembly 

Malakal, 22, 68, 90, 131, 133, 207, 244, 304, 

323, 343 

malnutrition (see also famine), xlix, 132, 133, 

136 

Malaysia, 198, 200, 291 

Malwal, Bona, 266 

Mamluks, 11, 12, 14−15 

Manaqil Extension, 176, 203 

Manaqil irrigation project, 145 

Mandari, or Mundari (people), 90, 319, 342 

Mango 96 FM (radio station), 213 

manufacturing, 189−92; before independence, 

24, 189; of military equipment, 289, 346 

Masalit (people and language), 77, 85−86, 261, 

269, 314, 330 

Matip, Paulino, 265−66 

media, 271−75 

medical facilities. See health 

Meina al-Mak Dam (Sinjah), 67 

Meles Zenawi, 281, 313−14 

Melut, 200, 211, 290 

Melut Basin Oil Development Project, 200, 

Meroë, xlii, 5−8, 9 

Merowe, 82, 160, 194, 195, 206 

Merowe Dam, 178, 193, 195, 197, 289 

414 
Messiriyyah. See Missiriyyah 

migration, 73−75, 76, 87, 132, 165, 320, 343−44
 

military affairs. See Sudan Armed Forces 

military coups. See coups d’état and coup 

attempts 

Military Industry Corporation, 347
 

military justice, 247, 354−55 

militias (see also under individual groups; janjaweed), xliv−xlvi, 86, 90, 250−51, 265, 295, 

301, 319−20, 324, 327−28, 340−43,350, 351,
 

354, 359
 

Minimum Standard of Wages Order (Presidential Order no. 21), 168
 

mining (see also oil), 196−97 

Ministry of Agriculture, 172
 

Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources,
 

180
 

Ministry of Defense, 331, 347
 

Ministry of Electricity and Dams, 193
 

Ministry of Health, 134
 

Ministry of Higher Education, 128
 

Ministry of Interior, 348, 351
 

Ministry of Justice, 357
 

Ministry of Labor and Administrative Reform,
 

169
 

Ministry of Livestock Services, 186
 

Minnawi, Minni Arkoi, 235, 327
 

Miraya (Mirror; radio station), 213
 

al-Mirghani, Ali, 28, 33 

al-Mirghani, al-Sayyid Muhammad Uthman, li, 

43−44, 252, 258−59 

Mirghaniyyah. See Khatmiyya 

Misiriyyah, 166, 323−24, 342
 

missionaries. See Christianity 

MobiTel, 151, 212
 

Moi, Daniel Arap, 57
 

Moore, George Curtis, 53
 

Moru (people), 92
 

Mubarak, Husni, 312−13; assassination attempt 

against, 54, 226, 278, 290, 312
 

mudharabah (silent business partnership), 164
 

Muglad basin, 198
 

al-Mula, Muhammad Atta, 352
 

Mundari. See Mandari 

Muqurra Kingdom, 6, 8
 

murabbahah (deferred payment on purchases),
 

164
 

murahalin. See militias 

Murle (people), xlviii, 90−91, 265
 

Museveni, Yoweri, 284
 

musharakah (partnership for production), 164
 

Index 

Muslim Brotherhood, 39, 43, 50, 103, 177, 123, 

244, 163, 254, 260, 309, 312, 353
 

Muslim peoples, 76, 79−87 

Naadh. See Nuer 

Naath. See Nuer 

Nafie, Ali Nafie, 235, 254
 

Naguib, Muhammad, 29
 

Nairobi, 55, 316
 

Napata, 4−5, 7, 82
 

Naqa, 9
 

Nasir Declaration, 320
 

Nasser, Gamal Abdel, 121
 

National Accounts, 147, 154
 

National Assembly (Majlis Watani), 46, 50, 225, 

226, 228, 232, 233, 236, 238−39
 

National Bank of Egypt, 161−62 

national civil service, 241−42 

National Congress Party (NCP), xlii, xliii, l−li,
 

lii, 45, 117, 225, 229, 233, 239−40, 243, 245, 

253−54
 

National Consensus Forces (NCF), li 

National Constitutional Review Commission 

(NCRC), 229, 252
 

National Council of Ministers, 227, 236−38 

National Defense Council, 330
 

National Democratic Alliance (NDA), 49, 252, 

257−59, 260, 261, 262, 265, 313, 316
 

National Elections Commission, 233, 240
 

National Elections Act (2008), 233, 240
 

National Electricity Corporation (NEC), 151, 

192−93
 

National Front, 39, 40
 

National Household Survey (2009), 147
 

National Human Rights Commission, 249
 

National Intelligence and Security Service 

(NISS, previously National Security Organization), 275, 352
 

National Islamic Front (NIF), 43, 50, 85, 121, 

163, 225, 244, 301, 309, 313, 336, 341, 351
 

National Judicial Service Commission, 246
 

National Legislature, 227, 236, 239−40
 

National Movement for Reform and Development (NMRD), 262
 

National Petroleum Commission, 199
 

National Press Council (NPC), 250
 

National Public Service Strategy, 241
 

National Redemption Front, 261
 

National Salvation Revolutionary Command 

Council (NSRCC), 44−45 

National Security Act (2010), 352
 

National Security Council, 236, 307
 

415 
 

Sudan: A Country Study 

National Security Organization (subsequently 

National Intelligence and Security Service), 

352 

National Service Law (1992), 331 

National Supreme Court, 245−47, 354 

National Unionist Party (NUP), 28, 31, 32, 39 

National Unity Day (March 27), 39 

nationalist movements, 27−28, 304, 307 

navy. See Sudan Navy 

Ndogo (people and language), 92 

Al-Neelain University, 131 

New Dawn Charter, li−lii 

New Halfa (see also Wadi Halfa), 176, 178, 183 

New National Democratic Party (NNDP), 261 

New Sudan Council of Churches, 105, 274 

Newbold, Sir Douglas, 28 

newspapers. See print media 

Nhial, Abdullah Deng, 233, 255 

Niger-Congo (language group), 77, 91 

Niger-Kordofanian (language superstock), 77 

Nigeria, 57, 77, 134 

Al-Nilein Bank, 163 

Nile Basin Initiative, 193, 277, 186 

Nile Petroleum Corporation (Nilepet), 199 

Nile River (see also Bahr al-Jabal), 3, 61, 67−69, 

82; cataracts, 4−5, 64, 206; and irrigation, 41, 

174−78; navy bases, 334; transportation on, 

206−7; waters allocation, 24, 41, 176, 277−78, 

313 

Nile River Transport Corporation, 207 

Nile Unity Party (NUP), 103 

Nile Waters Agreement (1929), 24, 176 

Nile Waters Treaty (1959), 41, 176, 313 

Nilo-Saharan (language group), 77, 85, 88, 91 

Nilotes, xlii, 14, 88−90, 95, 104, 106−7, 111−13, 

136 

Nilotic cattle and goats, 183−84 

Nilotic plain, 65−66 

Nimeiri. See al-Numayri, Ja’far 

Noba (people), 7 

Nobadia (also called Ballanah), 7, 8 

Noel, Jr., Cleo A., 53 

nomads and seminomads, 81, 83−87, 98, 

109−10, 118, 127, 178, 181, 184−85, 330, 342 

nongovernmental organizations, 158, 168 

al-Nor, Abd al-Wahid Muhammad Ahmed, 261 

North Bahr al-Ghazal State, 66, 88, 243, 265 

North Darfur State, xlv, 67, 69, 77, 181, 200, 

327, 343 

North Kordofan State, 67, 69, 127, 181, 195 

North–South division (see also civil war, first; 

civil war, second; Southern Sudan), 8, 62, 88, 

93, 94, 232; and border issues, xliii, liv−lv, 

268; and British rule, 3, 26−27, 29−31; education and, 125−27, 130, 131; and future relations, xliv, 296, 359; health care and, 133−34 

Nuba, xliii, 7, 88, 92−93, 94, 114, 185, 232, 

322−23, 343 

Nuba Mountains, xliii, li, 49, 63, 77, 88, 93, 196, 

250, 268, 302−3, 321, 323, 356 

Nubia, 4, 8, 10, 12, 41, 82 

Nubian Desert, 63 

Nubian (people and language), xliii, 8, 11, 41, 

77, 79−83, 176, 232 

Nuer (people and language, also called Naadh 

and Naath), xlviii−xlix, 14, 76, 77, 88−90, 

95−96, 106−7, 111, 232, 263, 265, 318, 341, 

343; Jikaan Nuer, 320; Lou Nuer, xlviii, 320 

Nugud, Mohamed Ibrahim, 260 

al-Numayri, Ja’far, 36−42, 98, 104, 114, 121, 

145, 157, 233, 244, 248, 252, 254, 267, 301, 

307−8, 310−11, 318, 343 

Nurses’ Training College, 127 

Nyala, 202−5, 325 

Nyiking, 90, 107 

Nyoun, William, 339 

Al-Obeid, 15, 18, 45, 200, 202−5, 208, 304, 332 

October Revolution (1964), 34 

Office of State Security, 351 

oil, liv−lv, 197−201, 224; discovery of, 197; 

exploration for, 42, 192, 197−98, 200, 201; 

exports, l, 49, 148, 213−14, 289; imports, 197, 

214−15; pipelines, xliii, 49, 148, 194, 199, 200, 

210−11, 289−91; refining capacity, xliii, 198, 

200; revenues, xliii, xlvi, liii, 323, 337 

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), 

290−91 

omda (head of village), 110 

Omdurman, 22, 45, 127−28, 240, 328, 336−37; 

elites in, 114−15; transportation links of, 208, 

333 

Omdurman Ahlia University, 131 

Omdurman Girls’ Intermediate School, 127 

Omdurman Secondary School for Girls, 127 

Operation Iron Fist (Ugandan), 284 

Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), 295 

Organization of African Unity (OAU, now African Union), 54, 233, 278, 286 

Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), 

52, 276, 288 

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), 200; Fund for International 

Development, 159, 193 

416 
 

247 

Index 

Ottoman Empire, 12−17, 89, 304 

parliament. See National Assembly, National 

Legislature 

payam (government administrative district), 243, 

penal code (1991), 46 

People’s Assembly, 40, 307 

People’s Cooperative Bank, 162 

People’s Democratic Party (PDP), 32, 101 

People’s Republic of China, 49, 183, 200, 289−90, 

346−47; aid and investment from, 49, 158, 186, 

191, 194, 196, 203−4, 332 

Persian Gulf states, relations with, 152, 158, 

216−17, 241, 336 

Persian Gulf War (1991), 52, 150, 158, 165, 289 

Petrodar, 211 

petroleum. See oil 

Petroleam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), 

198−200, 211, 291 

Piankhy, 5 

Pibor Post, 318 

pipelines. See oil 

Pochala, 318 

Police Act (1979), 349 

Political Association Act (1998), 50, 258 

political groups, li, liii, 25−26, 251−66, 313, 351; 

in East, 262−63; in North, 251−61; restrictions 

on, 252, 255; in South, 263−66; in West, 

261−62 

Political Parties Act (2007), 252 

pollution, 69−70 

Popular Arab and Islamic Congress (PAIC), 52, 

256, 276 

Popular Committees, 47 

Popular Congress Party (PCP), li, 233, 239, 

254−56, 270 

Popular Defense Forces (PDF), 48, 121, 302, 

330, 332, 335, 340−41, 349, 350 

Popular Defense Forces Act (1989), 341, 343 

Popular National Congress (PNC), 233, 254 

Popular Police Force Act (1992), 47 

Popular Police Forces, 47, 349, 350 

population (see also censuses), 71−73, 188; 

before independence, 22 

Port Sudan, liv, 24, 82, 84, 130, 152, 190, 200, 

289, 291, 305; oil refinery, 189, 198, 200; 

transportation links, 202−6, 208−11, 333 

Presbyterians, 103 

presidency (national), 227, 235−38 

Presidential Council, 236 

Presidential Guard, 351 

print media, xlix, liii, 224, 250, 271−73, 335 

prisons, 356−58; conditions in, xlix, 250 

privatization, 150−51, 170, 190, 207, 209 

Privatization of State Corporations Act (1992), 

150 

Protestant churches, 103−5 

Protocol on Power Sharing (2004), 126, 229 

Psitek, 212 

Public Order Police, 47 

Public Sector Enterprises Disposition Bill 

(1990), 150 

Al-Qadarif. See Al-Gedaref 

al-Qadhafi, Mu’ammar, 278−80, 284 

al-Qaeda, 224, 317 

Qadiriyyah brotherhood, 100 

qadis (Islamic judges), 15, 353 

Qallabat, 21 

Qash River and Delta, 65, 66, 175 

Qatar, xlv, 49, 160, 191, 211, 283, 328 

Qaysan, 318 

qoz (geographic region), 63, 67 

Quran, 98−99, 100, 164 

Quranic education, 99, 127, 129 

radio stations, 78, 212−13, 274 

Rahad River, 64, 67, 176 

railroads (see also Sudan Railways Corporation—SRC), 201−5, 217, 291 

rainfall (see also drought), 63, 67, 69, 70, 85, 

143, 171, 179−80 

Rapid Support Forces, xlv, liii 

Rashaida (people), 83, 262, 270−71 

Real Estate Bank, 151 

Red Sea, 3, 7, 10, 12, 16, 186−87, 197, 202; area, 

262; ports, 209−10, 334 

Red Sea Free Trade Zone, 191 

Red Sea Hills, 65, 196 

Red Sea State, 134 

referendum on the future of Sudan (2011), 

xli−xlii, 57, 153, 217 

refugees (see also internally displaced people), 

xlviii, 73−75, 104, 110, 233, 282, 284−85, 291, 

344, 350; from civil war, 104−5, 122, 146, 

269−70, 294; from drought and famine, 74, 

143, 301, 320; from other countries, 103, 146, 

282, 315 

regionalism, 93−96, 266−71 

religion (see also under individual religions), 

96−109, 115, 117; indigenous, 87, 106−8 

Reserve Corps, 303 

reth (religious leader/king of Shilluk), 90, 107 

417 
Sudan: A Country Study 

Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), 

36−38, 224−25, 228, 230, 232, 235, 237, 245, 

251, 272 

Revolutionary Command Council for National 

Salvation (RCC–NS) , 170, 308, 351 

Rift Valley Fever, 185−86 

river transport, 206−8 

River Transport Corporation (RTC), 151, 207 

Rizayqat (people), 83, 166, 342, 343 

road network, 204−6; development of, 145, 217; 

international, 314 

Roman Catholicism, 26, 103−5 

Roseires Dam, 41, 67, 145, 176, 178, 186, 

192−94, 195 

Royal Dutch Shell, 198 

Rufaa al-Haj, 95, 342 

Rumbek, 116, 129, 318 

rural areas, l73, 78, 84, 111, 115, 122, 152; courts 

in, 247; health care in, 132, 134, 135 

Russia (see also Soviet Union), 290, 332 

Sahara Desert, 70, 188 

Sahel, 100, 143, 188 

Al-Salaam Bank, 163 

Salih, Ali Abdallah, 288 

Salih, Zubayr Muhammad, 45, 52 

Salim, Mabrouk Mubarak, 262 

Sammaniyyah brotherhood, 18 

Sannar. See Sinnar 

al-Saud, Muhammad ibn Faisal, 163 

Saudi Arabia, 135, 143, 157, 163, 178, 191, 271, 

288, 346; trade with, 183, 185−86, 214−15, 

217; transport links with, 208 

Saudi Fund for Development, 157, 195 

Savings & Social Development Bank, 162 

Sawakin (Suakin), 19, 21, 84, 187, 209−10 

Sawba. See Soba 

schools (see also education), 121, 123−24 

Sea Ports Corporation, 207, 209 

Security of the Revolution. See Islamic Security 

Security Sector Reform program, 357 

Self-Determination Agreement (1952), 28 

Semna, 4 

Sennar. See Sinnar 

Senussi movement, 304 

sesame. See agricultural crops 

Setit Dam, 178 

Setit River, 195 

shaduf (a device to raise water), 175 

sharia (see also Islam; Muslim peoples), 10, 39, 

41, 42, 89, 98−99, 104, 106, 244−45, 258, 318, 

353, 354; under al-Bashir, xliii, lii, 46, 50; 

courts, 248−49; before independence, 15, 21; 

and North–South divide, 41, 43; September 

Laws (1983), 244−45, 256, 258, 353−54 

Sharia High Supervisory Board, 162 

Shayqiyyah (Shaygis people), 81, 82 

Shendi, 304 

Shi’a Islam, 96, 102 

Al-Shifa Pharmaceutical Industries, 55−56, 293, 

316, 347 

Shilluk people (Collo), xlii, 13, 14, 88, 90, 95, 

107, 112, 263, 265, 343 

shipping, 206−10 

Shukriyyah (people), 11, 81, 82 

shura (consultation), 228, 256 

Sinjah, 67 

Sinnar, 12−13, 14−15, 19, 65, 91, 180, 184, 191; 

transport links, 202−5 

Sinnar Dam, 24, 67, 186, 192 

Sinopec, 199 

al-Sir, Hatim, 259 

Six-Year Plan of Economic and Social Development (1977–82), 145 

slavery, xlii, 47−48, 91, 302; modern-day, 166, 

251, 293, 341, 342 

slave trade, 4−5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14−17, 18, 26, 

27, 93, 95, 166 

sleeping sickness, 92 

smuggling, 334 

Soba, 5, 8 

Sobat River, 68, 207 

social order, the, 109−20; stratification of, 

116−18 

Socialist Popular Party, 50 

Solong, Sulayman, 13 

Somalia, 28, 75, 235, 288, 313 

sorghum. See agricultural crops 

South Africa, 212, 329, 358 

South Darfur State, 73, 83, 198, 243, 327 

South Kordofan State, xliii, xlviii, li−lii, 75, 83, 

88, 92, 93, 180, 229, 232, 240, 242−43, 268, 

296, 321 

South Sudan Anticorruption Commission, 242 

South Sudan Civil Service Commission 

(SSCSC), 242 

Southern Sudan Council of Ministers, 236−39 

South Sudan Defense Force (SSDF), 265−66 

South Sudan Democratic Forum, 264 

South Sudan Democratic Front, 264, 266 

South Sudan Human Rights Commission, 249 

South Sudan Independence Movement (SSIM), 

49, 114, 266, 321, 339−40 

418 
South Sudan Legislative Assembly, 233, 236,
 

238, 240
 

South Sudan Liberation Movement/Army
 

(SSLM/A), 38
 

South Sudan Police Service (SSPS), 357−58 

South Sudan Prison Service, 358
 

South Sudan Security Committee, 237
 

South Sudan United Democratic Alliance 

(SSUDA), 265
 

South Sudan Unity Movement, 114, 265
 

Southern Front, 35
 

Southern Regional Administration, 122
 

Southern Regional Assembly, 39, 41
 

Southern States Coordination Council (SSCC), 

264−65 

Southern Sudan (see also civil war, first; civil 

war, second; ethnic groups; Government of
 

South Sudan; health care; languages: North–
 

South division; Sudan People’s Liberation 

Movement/Army), xlvi−l, 73, 87−89, 147,
 

195, 226, 288, 315, 323; Arabization of, 76; 

British policy in, 26−27, 111, 267, 304; civil 

service in, 241−42; corruption in, xlvi, xlx,
 

234, 340; elites in, 115−16, 118; education in,
 

112, 121−22, 306; elections in, 232, 234; foreign relations of, 278, 282, 284−85, 314; at 

independence, xlvi−xlix; Islamization in, 105; 

militias in, 335; Northern domination of, 116,
 

306; oil in, 198−200; peace process, 56−57; 

police in, 348, 350; population of, 71, 73; religion in, 106−7; refugees from, 284, 344; transport links in, 204−8, 211, 217, 285
 

Southern Sudan Liberation Front (SSLF), 318
 

Southern Sudan Provisional Government, 318
 

Southern Sudanese Political Association, 43
 

Soviet Union (see also Russia), 38, 158, 214, 

290, 344
 

Special Courts Act (1989), 247
 

Stack, Sir Lee, 25, 305
 

State Security Organisation, 40
 

strikes, 41, 169−71 

Suakin. See Sawakin 

Sudan Administrative Conference (1946), 29
 

Sudan Advisory Council on Human Rights, 249
 

Sudan African National Union (SANU), 34−35, 

Sudan Air Force, 327, 333−34 

Sudan Airways, 54, 151, 208−9
 

Sudan Alliance Forces, 260
 

Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), xlv, li, 39, 236, 

301−2, 306, 315, 317−22, 330−37, 340, 350, 

358−59; conscription and, 335; early developIndex 

ment of, 302−6; human-rights abuses by, 48, 

250; foreign military assistance to, 344−47; 

Joint Integrated Units (JIUs), 322−24; militias 

and, 340−41; nationalism in, 304; personnel, 

330, 334−36; political groups in, 310−12; 

purges of, 307−9; regional commands of, 311, 

333; Southerners in, 306, 311−12; training, 

236−7; women in, 330
 

Sudan Army, 331−32 

Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference, 47
 

Sudan Commercial Bank, 162
 

Sudan Communist Party (SCP; see also communists), 34, 37, 169−70, 260, 307, 310, 320; 

abolished, 35, 169; attempted coup by, 37; support for, 259
 

Sudan Council of Churches (SCC), 47, 105
 

Sudan Currency Board, 161
 

Sudan Defence Force (SDF), 25, 28, 305−6, 348
 

Sudan Development Corporation, 178
 

Sudan Duty Free Zone Company, 151
 

Sudan Gezira Board, 203
 

Sudan Human Rights Organization (SHRO), 

249
 

Sudan Inter-Religious Council, 105
 

Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), 

xlv−xlvi, li, 85, 94, 235, 251, 252, 259, 261, 

269, 325−29
 

Sudan Light and Power Company, 192
 

Sudan Mining Corporation (SMC), 196
 

Sudan National Broadcasting Corporation, 213, 

275
 

Sudan National Labor Party, 264−65 

Sudan National Petroleum Corporation (Sudapet), 198−99 

Sudan National Radio Corporation, 213, 274
 

Sudan Navy, 333 

Sudan News Agency, 272
 

Sudan Organization Against Torture (SOAT), 

352
 

Sudan Peace Act (U.S. law), 293
 

Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), xlvi, 

xlviii−xlix, li, 41, 43, 56, 90, 235, 260, 263, 

335−36, 357; ethnic groups in, 94, 338; humanrights violations by, xlviii, 47, 48, 335−36; matériel, 282, 338; SPLA–Bahr al-Ghazal Group, 49, 

321; SPLA–Bor Group, 266; SPLA–United faction, 49; training, 338
 

Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), 

xlviii, 41, 44, 113, 161, 233, 234, 239−41, 243, 

255, 259, 260, 263−64, 296, 318; factions, 

xlix, l, 234, 240−41, 264; National Liberation
 

419 

264 
 

Sudan: A Country Study 

Council, 229; SPLM−Democratic Change,
 

234, 240−41, 264
 

Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army
 

(SPLM/A), xlix, l, 89, 91, 267−68, 285, 293,
 

318−20, 337−43, 347, 353, 358−59; actions of,
 

205−6, 341−42; foreign aid to, 280; foundation
 

of, 338; human-rights violations by, 338; 

SPLM/A factions, xlvi−xlviii, li, liii, 339
 

Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 24, 176
 

Sudan Police College, 348−50 

Sudan Police Force (SPF), 348−50 

Sudan Political Service, 23, 27, 31
 

Sudan Prison Service, 356
 

Sudan Radio and Television Corporation, 212
 

Sudan Radio Service, 274
 

Sudan Railway Workers’ Union, 169
 

Sudan Railways Corporation (SRC), 144, 151,
 

201, 203−4, 207, 209, 210, 349; antecedents 

of, 24
 

Sudan River Transport Corporation, 207
 

Sudan Security Organization (SSO), 351
 

Sudan Shipping Line, 151, 210
 

Sudan Socialist Union (SSU), 37, 39, 40, 42,
 

114, 170, 261, 307
 

Sudan Sugar Company, 183
 

Sudan Telecommunications Company (SudaTel), 151, 211−12 

Sudan Textile Industries, 191
 

Sudan Workers’ Trade Union Federation 

(SWTUF), 169−71, 260
 

Sudanese Allied Forces, 316
 

Sudanese Businessmen and Employers Federation, 169
 

Sudanese Federation of Employees and Professionals Trade Unions, 170
 

Sudanese Medical Council, 135
 

Sudanese Movement for National Liberation,
 

260
 

Sudanese National Alliance (SNA), 252, 260
 

Sudanese National Party, 50
 

Sudanese Pound (SDG), 156, 160−61 

SudaNet, 212
 

Sudapet, 198
 

SudaTel, 211−12 

sudd (swamp), 65
 

Al-Sudd, 65−68, 187, 198, 207
 

Suez Canal, 17, 29, 303
 

Sufism, 62, 100
 

al-Suhayni, Abdallah, 24
 

Sumbeiywo, Lazaro, 285
 

Sunni Islam, 62, 96, 102, 353
 

Suny Liberation Front, 84
 

Supreme Commission, 31, 35
 

Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, 33, 34
 

Supreme Court. See National Supreme Court 

Supreme Court of South Sudan, 245, 246−47 

Supreme Judicial Council, 246
 

Sudan Workers’ Trade Union Federation 

(SWTUF), 169−71 

sugar. See agricultural crops 

Taha, Ali Uthman Muhammad, 225, 235, 236, 

254, 255, 258, 279
 

Taha, Mohamed, 272
 

Taharqa, 5
 

Tahir, Umar Muhammad, 262
 

Takari (people; see also Hausa), 87
 

Talisman Energy, 198, 290
 

Tama (ethnic group), 315
 

Tanginya, Gabriel, 266
 

Taqatu Hayya, 202
 

Tawkar, 65, 66, 84
 

taxation, 156, 163, 168; historical, 11, 13, 18, 19, 

23, 24
 

telephones, 211−12; cellular, 111
 

television, 78, 111; stations, 212−13, 275
 

Ten-Year Plan of Economic and Social Development (1961–70), 144−45 

terrorism, support for, 53−56, 143, 157, 158, 

224, 226, 250, 293, 317
 

Three Towns (Omdurman, Khartoum, and 

Khartoum North), 73−74, 76, 114, 132, 155
 

Tijaniyyah (Islamic order), 100
 

Tini (Tinay), 325
 

Tonga (in South), 318
 

Torit, 38, 104, 226, 317
 

Total, 198−99 

TotalFinaElf, 292
 

Trade Union Act (1992), 170
 

Trade Unions Act (1971), 170
 

Trades and Tradesmen’s Union Ordinance 

(1948), 169
 

Transitional Constitution (1956), 31, 34, 36
 

Transitional Military Council (TMC), 42−43,
 

308
 

Transitional National Assembly (TNA), 45−46,
 

225, 232
 

Transitional National Council (TNC), 45
 

Transitional Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly, 240
 

transportation, 201−11, 217
 

Tripoli Agreement (2006), 283, 314
 

Tripoli summits, xlv, 313−14 

420 
al-Turabi, Hassan Abdallah, 43, 44, 50−53, 103, 

254−56, 270, 288, 301, 313, 353; under arrest, 

50; and legal system, 244−45, 248; and opposition to al-Bashir, li, lii, 52−53, 224−26, 233, 

252, 253, 309; as speaker of National Assembly, 49, 228, 275 

Turkey, 152, 304 

Turkiyyah, xlii, 14−17, 18, 102 

Tushkah. See Tushki 

Tushki, 21 

Al-Ubayyid. See Al-Obeid 

Uduk (people), 91 

Uganda, 26, 28, 68, 74, 90, 179, 314, 316, 320; 

aid to Sudanese opposition, 263, 268, 284; 

relations with, 226, 284−85, 336, 358 

Ukel Abango, Joseph, 265 

Umar, Ibrahim Ahmad, 253 

Um Jalul, 343 

Umm Diwaykarat, 22 

Umm Ruwabah, 205 

Umma Party (see also Ansar), 28, 43, 50, 53, 

102−3, 163, 256−57, 342; in coalitions, 32, 35, 

44; in elections, 43, 228, 232, 233; and opposition to al-Bashir, li, 45, 316, 320 

Umma Reform and Renewal Party (URRP), 257 

Union of Sudan African Parties, 49, 264, 265, 

321 

unions (see also individual unions), 151, 169−71 

United Arab Emirates, 163, 191, 208, 211 

United Democratic Party, 264 

United Democratic Salvation Front (UDSF), 

264, 266 

United Front for Democratic Change (Chadian 

group), 314−15 

United Nations, xlvi, liv, 47, 154, 270, 294−96, 

322, 358; arms embargo, 332; Department of 

Economic and Social Affairs, 241; reports, 335 

United Nations−African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), xliv, 270, 278, 289−91, 296, 

313, 330 

United Nations Development Programme 

(UNDP), 358 

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 187 

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 74, 284 

United Nations Human Rights Commission, 295 

United Nations Mission in the Republic of South 

Sudan (UNMISS), xlviii 

United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), 

274, 285, 289−91, 296, 324, 358 

Index 

United Nations Office for the Coordination of 

Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), 326 

United Nations Security Council, 54−55, 284, 

289, 295, 316, 324, 327, 330; Resolution 598, 

287; Resolution 1044, 290, 316; Resolution 

1591, 332 

United Police Forces (UPF), 349 

United States, 327; aid from, 32, 143, 157−58, 

160, 214; investment by, 190; matériel from, 

346; relations with, 33, 55−56, 151, 152, 224, 

226, 287, 292−94, 316−17; support for opposition groups, 263, 316 

United States Agency for International Development (USAID), 127, 157 

United States Arms Control and Disarmament 

Agency, 346 

United States Census Bureau, 71−73 

United States Central Intelligence Agency, 55 

United States Congress, 292−93 

United States Department of State, 248; annual 

reports on human-rights practices, 250, 336 

United Tribes Society (later, White Flag 

League), 27 

Unity State, l, 343 

Unity Bank, 162 

Unity Field, 198, 210 

universities, 128, 130−31, 

University of Khartoum, 78, 117, 121, 128, 130, 

336 

Unregistered Land Act (1970), 173 

Upper Egypt, 5, 7, 82, 83 

Upper Nile Dam, 178 

Upper Nile Province, 16, 22, 26, 39, 103, 111, 

318, 340, 341, 343 

Upper Nile State, l, 66, 88, 130, 180, 181, 188, 

244, 265, 324 

urban life, 61, 62, 69−70, 73−74, 180, 181, 244, 

265, 324; town courts, 247; urbanization, 109, 

115, 118, 166 

Voice of Sudan (radio station), 274 

Wad Madani, 45, 130, 204−5, 212 

Wadi Halfa (see also New Halfa), 19, 21, 82, 

186; transport links, 201, 203, 204−5, 207 

Wadi Sayyidna Air Base, 333, 337 

wages, 168−69 

Wahhabism, 288 

Wako, Archbishop Gabriel, 47 

Wani, Clement, 320 

Warab State, 66, 73 

421 
Sudan: A Country Study 

Wau, 35, 105, 116, 131, 244, 318, 323, 340, 342; 

transport links, 202−5, 207 

West Africans, 56−57 

West Atlantic languages, 77 

West Bahr al-Ghazal State, 67, 88, 91, 92, 183, 

244, 265, 315 

West Darfur State, 325 

West Equatoria State, 67, 91, 243, 316 

West Kordofan, 242−43 

Western Arab Corps, 304, 305 

Western Sudan (see also Darfur), 63−64, 118, 

174, 200, 232, 269−70 

White Army, 320 

White Flag League (previously United Tribes 

Society), 27, 304 

White Nile River (south of Khartoum, north of 

Uganda, known as Bahr al-Jabal), 41, 65−69, 

90, 102, 176−78, 186; transport on, 206−7 

White Nile State, 180, 181 

White Nile Sugar Company, 152, 191 

Williamson, Richard, 294 

Wingate, Sir Reginald, 23, 304 

women: and education, 125−28; and family, 

118−20; and genital mutilation, 119−20, 250; 

in labor force, 109, 134, 164, 168, 171; and 

legal system, 357; and literacy, 124; in military, 

335; in police, 349; restrictions on, 47, 248−49 

Woods and Forests Ordinance (1901), 187 

World Bank, 42, 133, 143, 155, 156, 158, 160, 

209−10, 358 

World Food Program, 127, 206, 295, 326 

World Health Organization (WHO), 73, 132, 

133 

World War I, 24, 303−4 

World War II, 28, 144, 305−6 

Yambio, 70 

Yau Yau, David, xlviii 

Yei, 90, 213, 319 

Yohannes IV (of Ethiopia), 21 

Youth for Reconstruction, 351 

Yugoslavia, 210, 333, 336 

Zaghawa (people), 85, 94, 261, 269, 282, 

314−15, 330 

Zaire. See Democratic Republic of the Congo 

zar ceremonies, 119−20 

Zenawi, Meles. See Meles Zenawi 

al-Zubayr, Rahma Mansur, 17, 19 

Zubayr, Cardinal Gabriel, 104 

Zubayr, Salah, 312−13 

422 
Contributors 

Peter K. Bechtold is a recognized expert on Sudan and the Middle East. 

He has lectured and published widely on the politics and society of the 

country. 

LaVerle Berry is a senior Africa analyst with the Federal Research 

Division of the Library of Congress. 

Virginia DeLancey is an economist whose main focus is on subSaharan Africa. She has taught and written extensively about 

economic development of the continent. 

Thomas P. Ofcansky has served as a senior Africa analyst with the U.S. 

Department of Defense and the Department of State. He is the author 

of many publications on Sudan and neighboring countries. 

David H. Shinn has held senior positions with the U.S. Department of 

State, including ambassadorships in Burkina Faso and Ethiopia and 

serving as deputy chief of mission in Cameroon and Sudan. He has 

lectured and published on Sudan and East Africa. 

423 

Published Country Studies 

(Area Handbook Series) 

Afghanistan Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory 

Albania Coast) 

Algeria Cuba 

Angola Cyprus 

Argentina Czechoslovakia 

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Dominican Republic 

and Georgia and Haiti 

Australia Ecuador 

Austria Egypt 

Bangladesh El Salvador 

Belarus and Moldova Estonia, Latvia, and 

Belgium Lithuania 

Bolivia Ethiopia 

Brazil Finland 

Bulgaria Germany 

Burma Ghana 

Cambodia Greece 

Cameroon Guatemala 

Chad Guinea 

Chile Guyana and Belize 

China Honduras 

Colombia Hungary 

Commonwealth Caribbean, India 

Islands of the Indian Ocean 

Congo Indonesia 

Costa Rica Iran 

425 
Iraq Philippines 

Israel Poland 

Italy Portugal 

Japan Romania 

Jordan Russia 

Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Rwanda and Burundi 

Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia 

and Uzbekistan Senegal 

Kenya Sierra Leone 

Korea, North Singapore 

Korea, South Somalia 

Laos South Africa 

Lebanon Soviet Union 

Liberia Spain 

Libya Sri Lanka 

Malawi Sudan 

Malaysia Syria 

Mauritania Tanzania 

Mexico Thailand 

Mongolia Tunisia 

Morocco Turkey 

Mozambique Uganda 

Nepal and Bhutan Uruguay 

Nicaragua Venezuela 

Nigeria Vietnam 

Oceania Yemens, The 

Pakistan Yugoslavia 

Panama Zaire 

Paraguay Zambia 

Persian Gulf States Zimbabwe 

Peru 

426