Sudan

History

Prehistoric Sudan (before c. 8000 BC)

Affad 23 is an archaeological site located in the Affad region of southern Dongola Reach in northern Sudan, which hosts "the well-preserved remains of prehistoric camps (relics of the oldest open-air hut in the world) and diverse hunting and gathering loci some 50,000 years old".

By the eighth millennium BC, people of a Neolithic culture had settled into a sedentary way of life there in fortified mudbrick villages, where they supplemented hunting and fishing on the Nile with grain gathering and cattle herding. Neolithic peoples created cemeteries such as R12. During the fifth millennium BC, migrations from the drying Sahara brought neolithic people into the Nile Valley along with agriculture.

The population that resulted from this cultural and genetic mixing developed a social hierarchy over the next centuries which became the Kingdom of Kerma at 2500 BC. Anthropological and archaeological research indicates that during the predynastic period Nubia and Nagadan Upper Egypt were ethnically and culturally nearly identical, and thus, simultaneously evolved systems of pharaonic kingship by 3300 BC.

Kerma culture (2500–1500 BC)

The Kerma culture was an early civilization centered in Kerma, Sudan. It flourished from around 2500 BC to 1500 BC in ancient Nubia. The Kerma culture was based in the southern part of Nubia, or "Upper Nubia" (in parts of present-day northern and central Sudan), and later extended its reach northward into Lower Nubia and the border of Egypt. The polity seems to have been one of several Nile Valley states during the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. In the Kingdom of Kerma's latest phase, lasting from about 1700–1500 BC, it absorbed the Sudanese kingdom of Saï and became a sizable, populous empire rivaling Egypt.

Egyptian Nubia (1504–780 BC)

Mentuhotep II, the 21st century BC founder of the Middle Kingdom, is recorded to have undertaken campaigns against Kush in the 29th and 31st years of his reign. This is the earliest Egyptian reference to Kush; the Nubian region had gone by other names in the Old Kingdom. Under Thutmose I, Egypt made several campaigns south.

The Egyptians ruled Kush in the New kingdom beginning when the Egyptian King Thutmose I occupied Kush and destroyed its capital, Kerma.

This eventually resulted in their annexation of Nubia . Around 1500 BC, Nubia was absorbed into the New Kingdom of Egypt, but rebellions continued for centuries. After the conquest, Kerma culture was increasingly Egyptianized, yet rebellions continued for 220 years until . Nubia nevertheless became a key province of the New Kingdom, economically, politically, and spiritually. Indeed, major pharaonic ceremonies were held at Jebel Barkal near Napata. As an Egyptian colony from the 16th century BC, Nubia ("Kush") was governed by an Egyptian Viceroy of Kush.

Resistance to the early eighteenth Dynasty Egyptian rule by neighboring Kush is evidenced in the writings of Ahmose, son of Ebana, an Egyptian warrior who served under Nebpehtrya Ahmose (1539–1514 BC), Djeserkara Amenhotep I (1514–1493 BC), and Aakheperkara Thutmose I (1493–1481 BC). At the end of the Second Intermediate Period (mid-sixteenth century BC), Egypt faced the twin existential threats – the Hyksos in the North and the Kushites in the South. Taken from the autobiographical inscriptions on the walls of his tomb-chapel, the Egyptians undertook campaigns to defeat Kush and conquer Nubia under the rule of Amenhotep I (1514–1493 BC). In Ahmose's writings, the Kushites are described as archers, "Now after his Majesty had slain the Bedoin of Asia, he sailed upstream to Upper Nubia to destroy the Nubian bowmen." The tomb writings contain two other references to the Nubian bowmen of Kush. By 1200 BC, Egyptian involvement in the Dongola Reach was nonexistent.

Egypt's international prestige had declined considerably towards the end of the Third Intermediate Period. Its historical allies, the inhabitants of Canaan, had fallen to the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BC), and then the resurgent Neo-Assyrian Empire (935–605 BC). The Assyrians, from the tenth century BC onwards, had once more expanded from northern Mesopotamia, and conquered a vast empire, including the whole of the Near East, and much of Anatolia, the eastern Mediterranean, the Caucasus and early Iron Age Iran.

According to Josephus Flavius, the biblical Moses led the Egyptian army in a siege of the Kushite city of Meroe. To end the siege Princess Tharbis was given to Moses as a (diplomatic) bride, and thus the Egyptian army retreated back to Egypt.

Kingdom of Kush (c. 780 BC–350 AD)

The Kingdom of Kush was an ancient Nubian state centred on the confluences of the Blue Nile and White Nile, and the Atbarah River and the Nile River. It was established after the Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt; it was centred at Napata in its early phase. After King Kashta ("the Kushite") invaded Egypt in the eighth century BC, the Kushite kings ruled as pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt for nearly a century before being defeated and driven out by the Assyrians. At the height of their glory, the Kushites conquered an empire that stretched from what is now known as South Kordofan to the Sinai. Pharaoh Piye attempted to expand the empire into the Near East but was thwarted by the Assyrian king Sargon II.

Between 800 BCE and 100 AD the Nubian pyramids were built, among them can be named El-Kurru, Kashta, Piye, Tantamani, Shabaka, Pyramids of Gebel Barkal, Pyramids of Meroe (Begarawiyah), the Sedeinga pyramids, and Pyramids of Nuri. The Kingdom of Kush is mentioned in the Bible as having saved the Israelites from the wrath of the Assyrians, although disease among the besiegers might have been one of the reasons for the failure to take the city.

The war that took place between Pharaoh Taharqa and the Assyrian king Sennacherib was a decisive event in Western history, with the Nubians being defeated in their attempts to gain a foothold in the Near East by Assyria. Sennacherib's successor Esarhaddon went further and invaded Egypt itself to secure his control of the Levant. This succeeded, as he managed to expel Taharqa from Lower Egypt. Taharqa fled back to Upper Egypt and Nubia, where he died two years later. Lower Egypt came under Assyrian vassalage but proved unruly, unsuccessfully rebelling against the Assyrians. Then, the king Tantamani, a successor of Taharqa, made a final determined attempt to regain Lower Egypt from the newly reinstated Assyrian vassal Necho I. He managed to retake Memphis killing Necho in the process and besieged cities in the Nile Delta. Ashurbanipal, who had succeeded Esarhaddon, sent a large army in Egypt to regain control. He routed Tantamani near Memphis and, pursuing him, sacked Thebes. Although the Assyrians immediately departed Upper Egypt after these events, weakened, Thebes peacefully submitted itself to Necho's son Psamtik I less than a decade later.

While this brought an end to the expansive Nubian Empire, the state continued on a smaller scale, centered on Napata. The city was raided by the Egyptian 590 BC, and sometime soon after to the late-3rd century BC, the Kushite resettled in Meroë.

Medieval Christian Nubian kingdoms (c. 350–1500)

On the turn of the fifth century the Blemmyes established a short-lived state in Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia, probably centred around Talmis (Kalabsha), but before 450 they were already driven out of the Nile Valley by the Nobatians. The latter eventually founded a kingdom on their own, Nobatia.

By the sixth century there were in total three Nubian kingdoms: Nobatia in the north, which had its capital at Pachoras (Faras); the central kingdom, Makuria centred at Tungul (Old Dongola), about south of modern Dongola; and Alodia, in the heartland of the old Kushitic kingdom, which had its capital at Soba (now a suburb of modern-day Khartoum). Still in the sixth century they converted to Christianity. In the seventh century, probably at some point between 628 and 642, Nobatia was incorporated into Makuria.

Between 639 and 641 the Muslim Arabs of the Rashidun Caliphate conquered Byzantine Egypt. In 641 or 642 and again in 652 they invaded Nubia but were repelled, making the Nubians one of the few who managed to defeat the Arabs during the Islamic expansion. Afterward the Makurian king and the Arabs agreed on a unique non-aggression pact that also included an annual exchange of gifts, thus acknowledging Makuria's independence. While the Arabs failed to conquer Nubia they began to settle east of the Nile, where they eventually founded several port towns and intermarried with the local Beja.

From the mid-eighth to mid-eleventh century the political power and cultural development of Christian Nubia peaked. In 747 Makuria invaded Egypt, which at this time belonged to the declining Umayyads, and it did so again in the early 960s, when it pushed as far north as Akhmim. Makuria maintained close dynastic ties with Alodia, perhaps resulting in the temporary unification of the two kingdoms into one state. The culture of the medieval Nubians has been described as "Afro-Byzantine", but was also increasingly influenced by Arab culture. The state organisation was extremely centralised, being based on the Byzantine bureaucracy of the sixth and seventh centuries. Arts flourished in the form of pottery paintings and especially wall paintings. The Nubians developed an alphabet for their language, Old Nobiin, basing it on the Coptic alphabet, while also using Greek, Coptic and Arabic. Women enjoyed high social status: they had access to education, could own, buy and sell land and often used their wealth to endow churches and church paintings. Even the royal succession was matrilineal, with the son of the king's sister being the rightful heir.

From the late 11th/12th century, Makuria's capital Dongola was in decline, and Alodia's capital declined in the 12th century as well. In the 14th and 15th centuries Bedouin tribes overran most of Sudan, migrating to the Butana, the Gezira, Kordofan and Darfur. In 1365 a civil war forced the Makurian court to flee to Gebel Adda in Lower Nubia, while Dongola was destroyed and left to the Arabs. Afterwards Makuria continued to exist only as a petty kingdom. After the prosperous reign of king Joel ( 1463–1484) Makuria collapsed. Coastal areas from southern Sudan up to the port city of Suakin was succeeded by the Adal Sultanate in the fifteenth century. To the south, the kingdom of Alodia fell to either the Arabs, commanded by tribal leader Abdallah Jamma, or the Funj, an African people originating from the south. Datings range from the 9th century after the Hijra ( 1396–1494), the late 15th century, 1504 to 1509. An alodian rump state might have survived in the form of the kingdom of Fazughli, lasting until 1685.

Islamic kingdoms of Sennar and Darfur (c. 1500–1820)

In 1504 the Funj are recorded to have founded the Kingdom of Sennar, in which Abdallah Jamma's realm was incorporated. By 1523, when Jewish traveller David Reubeni visited Sudan, the Funj state already extended as far north as Dongola. Meanwhile, Islam began to be preached on the Nile by Sufi holy men who settled there in the 15th and 16th centuries and by David Reubeni's visit king Amara Dunqas, previously a Pagan or nominal Christian, was recorded to be Muslim. However, the Funj would retain un-Islamic customs like the divine kingship or the consumption of alcohol until the 18th century. Sudanese folk Islam preserved many rituals stemming from Christian traditions until the recent past.

Soon the Funj came in conflict with the Ottomans, who had occupied Suakin and eventually pushed south along the Nile, reaching the third Nile cataract area in 1583/1584. A subsequent Ottoman attempt to capture Dongola was repelled by the Funj in 1585. Afterwards, Hannik, located just south of the third cataract, would mark the border between the two states. The aftermath of the Ottoman invasion saw the attempted usurpation of Ajib, a minor king of northern Nubia. While the Funj eventually killed him in 1611/1612 his successors, the Abdallab, were granted to govern everything north of the confluence of Blue and White Niles with considerable autonomy.

During the 17th century the Funj state reached its widest extent, but in the following century it began to decline. A coup in 1718 brought a dynastic change, while another one in 1761–1762 resulted in the Hamaj Regency, where the Hamaj (a people from the Ethiopian borderlands) effectively ruled while the Funj sultans were their mere puppets. Shortly afterwards the sultanate began to fragment; by the early 19th century it was essentially restricted to the Gezira.

The coup of 1718 kicked off a policy of pursuing a more orthodox Islam, which in turn promoted the Arabisation of the state. To legitimise their rule over their Arab subjects the Funj began to propagate an Umayyad descent narrative. North of the confluence of the Blue and White Niles, as far downstream as Al Dabbah, the Nubians adopted the tribal identity of the Arab Jaalin. Until the 19th century Arabic had succeeded in becoming the dominant language of central riverine Sudan and most of Kordofan.

West of the Nile, in Darfur, the Islamic period saw at first the rise of the Tunjur kingdom, which replaced the old Daju kingdom in the 15th century and extended as far west as Wadai. The Tunjur people were probably Arabised Berbers and, their ruling elite at least, Muslims. In the 17th century the Tunjur were driven from power by the Keira sultanate. The Keira state, nominally Muslim since the reign of Sulayman Solong (r. 1660–1680), was initially a small kingdom in northern Jebel Marra, but expanded west- and northwards in the early 18th century and eastwards under the rule of Muhammad Tayrab (r. 1751–1786), peaking in the conquest of Kordofan in 1785. The apogee of this empire, now roughly the size of present-day Nigeria, would last until 1821.

Turco-Egyptian Sudan (1820–1885)

In 1820–1821, the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali of Egypt, invaded and conquered northern Sudan. Commanded by his son Isma'il, the invading force sought to obtain black slaves for a new Egyptian army, find new sources of revenue, and crush the surviving Mamluks who had fled to Dongola. The Egyptian policy of conquest was later expanded by Isma'il Pasha, under whose reign most of the remainder of modern-day Sudan, including Darfur and Equatoria, was annexed.

The Egyptian authorities established a highly centralized bureaucracy and made significant improvements to the Sudanese infrastructure, primarily in the north. This included the introduction of a telegraph network, steamer services on the Nile, and the expansion of basin irrigation and cotton production.

Despite these developments, the regime imposed harsh taxes that deeply alienated the Sudanese population. Furthermore, the aggressive expansion of the ivory and slave trades in the southern regions – and the subsequent brutal, European-led anti-slavery campaigns under officials like Charles George Gordon – decimated local economies and fueled widespread resentment. In 1879, the Great Powers forced the removal of Isma'il and established his son Tewfik Pasha in his place. Tewfik's mismanagement resulted in the 'Urabi revolt, prompting a British occupation of Egypt in 1882. Sudan was left in the hands of a corrupt Khedivial administration, setting the stage for a massive popular uprising.

The Mahdist State and the Battle of Omdurman (1881–1898)

Capitalizing on the profound disillusionment with Turco-Egyptian rule, a religious leader named Muhammad Ahmad proclaimed himself the Mahdi (the Guided One) in June 1881. Leading a holy war to restore Islamic purity, the Mahdi rallied a massive following known as the ansar. His successful military campaign against the Turco-Egyptian government (the Turkiyah) culminated in the capture of Khartoum in January 1885, where General Gordon was killed.

Muhammad Ahmad died in June 1885, a mere six months after his victory. After a power struggle amongst his deputies, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad overcame the opposition and assumed the title of Khalifa (successor). Abdallahi consolidated the Mahdiyah, establishing its capital in Omdurman and instituting a strict administration heavily reliant on his Baggara supporters from western Sudan, whom he appointed as emirs over the provinces.

Regional relations remained highly tense as the Khalifa sought to aggressively export his Islamic revolution. In 1887, a 60,000-man Ansar army invaded Ethiopia, penetrating as far as Gondar. In 1889, Abd ar-Rahman an-Nujumi, the Khalifa's general, attempted an invasion of Egypt but was defeated by British-led Egyptian troops at Tushkah, breaking the spell of the Ansar's invincibility. The Belgians prevented the Mahdi's men from conquering Equatoria, and in 1893, the Italians repelled an Ansar attack at Agordat (in Eritrea).

In the 1890s, fearing French and Belgian encroachment on the Nile headwaters, the British authorized a reconquest of the Sudan to safeguard their planned irrigation dam at Aswan. Major General Herbert Kitchener led a well-equipped Anglo-Egyptian army against the Mahdist forces. The campaign culminated in a devastating defeat for the Ansar at the Battle of Omdurman on 2 September 1898. Utilizing modern Maxim machine guns and artillery, Kitchener's forces killed approximately 10,000 Mahdist warriors while suffering only 48 fatalities. A year later, the Battle of Umm Diwaykarat on 25 November 1899 resulted in the death of the Khalifa, subsequently bringing to an end the Mahdist State.

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1899–1956)

In 1899, Britain and Egypt reached an agreement under which Sudan was run by a governor-general appointed by Egypt with British consent. In reality, Sudan was effectively administered as a Crown colony entirely dominated by British personnel in its upper echelons. In reality, Sudan was effectively administered as a Crown colony entirely dominated by British personnel in its upper echelons. The British were keen to reverse the process, started under Muhammad Ali Pasha, of uniting the Nile Valley under Egyptian leadership and sought to frustrate all efforts aimed at further uniting the two countries.

Under the Delimitation, Sudan's border with Abyssinia was contested by raiding tribesmen trading slaves, breaching boundaries of the law. In 1905 local chieftain Sultan Yambio, reluctant to the end, gave up the struggle with British forces that had occupied the Kordofan region, finally ending the lawlessness. Ordinances published by Britain enacted a system of taxation. This was following the precedent set by the Khalifa. The main taxes were recognized. These taxes were on land, herds, and date-palms. Consolidating control required massive military effort; in the first three decades of British rule, over 170 military patrols were dispatched to suppress localized resistance in the southern provinces, with the final Nuer resistance only crushed in 1928.

The continued British administration of Sudan fuelled an increasingly strident nationalist backlash, with Egyptian nationalist leaders determined to force Britain to recognise a single independent union of Egypt and Sudan. With a formal end to Ottoman rule in 1914, Sir Reginald Wingate was sent that December to occupy Sudan as the new Military Governor. Hussein Kamel was declared Sultan of Egypt and Sudan, as was his brother and successor, Fuad I. They continued upon their insistence of a single Egyptian-Sudanese state even when the Sultanate of Egypt was retitled as the Kingdom of Egypt and Sudan, but it was Saad Zaghloul who continued to be frustrated in the ambitions until his death in 1927.

From 1924 until independence in 1956, the British had a policy of running Sudan as two essentially separate territories; the north and south. This isolation of the southern region was formalized by the 1922 Passports and Permits Ordinance and the comprehensive 1930 Southern Policy, which relied on Christian mission schools and established English as the official language. The assassination of a Governor-General of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in Cairo was the causative factor; it brought demands of the newly elected Wafd government from colonial forces. A permanent establishment of two battalions in Khartoum was renamed the Sudan Defence Force acting as under the government, replacing the former garrison of Egyptian army soldiers, saw action afterward during the Walwal Incident. The Wafdist parliamentary majority had rejected Sarwat Pasha's accommodation plan with Austen Chamberlain in London; yet Cairo still needed the money. The Sudanese Government's revenue had reached a peak in 1928 at £6.6 million, thereafter the Wafdist disruptions, and Italian borders incursions from Somaliland, London decided to reduce expenditure during the Great Depression. Cotton and gum exports were dwarfed by the necessity to import almost everything from Britain leading to a balance of payments deficit at Khartoum. Following William Garstin's 1904 hydrological survey, the British established the Gezira Scheme to cultivate long-staple cotton, generating significant revenue but making the country acutely vulnerable to these global market fluctuations.

In July 1936 the Liberal Constitutional leader, Muhammed Mahmoud was persuaded to bring Wafd delegates to London to sign the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty, "the beginning of a new stage in Anglo-Egyptian relations", wrote Anthony Eden. The British Army was allowed to return to Sudan to protect the Canal Zone. They were able to find training facilities, and the RAF was free to fly over Egyptian territory. It did not, however, resolve the problem of Sudan: the Sudanese Intelligentsia agitated for a return to metropolitan rule, conspiring with Germany's agents. In 1938, the intelligentsia formed the Graduates' General Congress, which by 1942 demanded self-determination and eventually fractured into the Ashiqqa (seeking unity with Egypt) and the Umma Party (demanding full independence).

Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini made it clear that he could not invade Abyssinia without first conquering Egypt and Sudan; they intended unification of Italian Libya with Italian East Africa. The British Imperial General Staff prepared for military defence of the region, which was thin on the ground. The British ambassador blocked Italian attempts to secure a Non-Aggression Treaty with Egypt-Sudan. But Mahmoud was a supporter of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem; the region was caught between the Empire's efforts to save the Jews, and moderate Arab calls to halt migration.

The Sudanese Government was directly involved militarily in the East African Campaign. Formed in 1925, the Sudan Defence Force played an active part in responding to incursions early in World War Two. Italian troops occupied Kassala and other border areas from Italian Somaliland during 1940. In 1942, the SDF also played a part in the invasion of the Italian colony by British and Commonwealth forces. The last British governor-general was Robert George Howe. Following the war, British administrators attempted to reverse the policy of southern isolation through the 1946 Sudan Administrative Conference and the 1947 Juba Conference, structurally binding the south to the north ahead of independence.

The Egyptian revolution of 1952 finally heralded the beginning of the march towards Sudanese independence. Having abolished the monarchy in 1953, Egypt's new leaders, Mohammed Naguib, whose mother was Sudanese, and later Gamal Abdel Nasser, believed the only way to end British domination in Sudan was for Egypt to officially abandon its claims of sovereignty. In addition, Nasser knew it would be difficult for Egypt to govern an impoverished Sudan after its independence. The British on the other hand continued their political and financial support for the Mahdist successor, Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi, who it was believed would resist Egyptian pressure for Sudanese independence. Abd al-Rahman was capable of this, but his regime was plagued by political ineptitude, which garnered a colossal loss of support in northern and central Sudan. Both Egypt and Britain sensed a great instability fomenting, and thus opted to allow both Sudanese regions, north and south to have a free vote on whether they wished independence or a British withdrawal. However, southern representatives were completely excluded from these transitional agreements. During the rapid "Sudanization" of the civil service, out of 800 positions vacated by the British, southerners received only four minor posts, a marginalization that boiled over into armed revolt on 18 August 1955, sparking the First Sudanese Civil War.

Republic of Sudan (1956–1969)

Independence and the first democratic period

An electoral process in 1953 resulted in the composition of a democratic parliament, and Ismail al-Azhari of the National Unionist Party (NUP) was elected as the first prime minister, leading the first modern Sudanese government. As Sudan moved toward consolidating its national liberation, disputes between the elites of the north and south erupted. Southerners were excluded from the negotiations that preceded independence, and the rapid replacement of British administrators with northerners – a process known as "Sudanization" – generated profound discontent. This situation was aggravated by arbitrary actions of the NUP government, which, starting with the Equatoria Corps mutiny in August 1955, triggered the beginning of a 17-year armed civil conflict.

It was against this backdrop of escalating violence that, on 1 January 1956, in a special ceremony held at the People's Palace in Khartoum, the Egyptian and British flags were lowered. The new Sudanese flag, composed of green, blue, and yellow stripes, was raised in their place, symbolizing the beginning of Sudan as a sovereign nation-state.

Following formal independence, the parliamentary government was marked by political instability, corruption, sectarian factionalism, and the neglect of southern demands for federation. This nascent Sudanese state possessed limited autonomy and was effectively controlled by an "incipient bourgeoisie" – a traditionalist establishment that dominated the main political parties and immobilized institutional reforms. The polarization between al-Azhari's NUP and the Umma Party – supported by the Ansar religious order – stalled economic development. In July 1956, a shifting coalition of the Umma Party and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) replaced al-Azhari's government, electing Abdallah Khalil as prime minister.

The military regime of Ibrahim Abboud (1958–1964)

The parliamentary impasse ended abruptly on 17 November 1958, when the army chief of staff, General Ibrahim Abboud, executed a bloodless coup d'état, establishing the country's first military dictatorship. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, led by Abboud, dissolved parliament, suspended the constitution, and banned all political parties.

While the military regime achieved some economic progress and successfully renegotiated the sharing of the Nile waters with Egypt in 1959, its southern policy proved disastrous. The regime sought to reverse the disintegrative effects of British colonial policies through forced cultural assimilation, implementing strict policies of Arabization and Islamization directed at the southern provinces. The government banned Christian religious gatherings outside of churches, and in February 1964, expelled all remaining foreign Christian missionaries from the country.

These repressive measures severely escalated separatist sentiments. In September 1963, southern dissidents and former soldiers formed a guerrilla movement known as the Anyanya, which launched military attacks across Equatoria and consolidated the First Sudanese Civil War.

The October Revolution and the Second Parliamentary Era (1964–1969)

By 1964, the escalating civil war in the south and rising economic discontent severely eroded the military regime's credibility. In October, mass protests and a general strike – known as the October Revolution – forced General Abboud to resign. A transitional caretaker government was formed under the premiership of Sirr al-Khatim al-Khalifa. Notably, this cabinet was the first in Sudan's history to include representatives from the Sudanese Communist Party, the Muslim Brotherhood, and trade unions.

In March 1965, the transitional government convened a Round Table Conference in Khartoum in an attempt to resolve the southern conflict. The conference brought together northern politicians and southern leaders, but it failed to reach a consensus on the region's constitutional status. Following this failure, violence intensified. In July 1965, northern military garrisons went on a rampage, committing massacres against civilians in Juba and Wau, leaving over a thousand dead and severely undermining any prospects for a near-term political solution.

The second parliamentary period (1965–1969) was dominated by extreme political factionalism. No single party secured a workable majority, leading to a succession of weak coalition governments, primarily between the NUP (which later merged to form the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP) and the Umma Party. Governance was further paralyzed when the Umma Party split into two rival factions led by Sadiq al-Mahdi and his uncle, Imam Al-Hadi al-Mahdi. The political arena was also polarized by the controversial dissolution of the Communist Party in late 1965, a measure that excluded radical forces and pushed them toward extra-legal opposition. This chronic instability, combined with economic stagnation and the unending war in the south, ultimately set the stage for the military takeover by Gaafar Nimeiry in May 1969.

Democratic Republic of the Sudan (1969–1985)

The 1969 coup and the crisis with the left

The political paralysis of the second democratic period ended on 25 May 1969, when a group of officers led by Colonel Gaafar Nimeiry executed a coup d'état. Nimeiry assumed the role of prime minister, abolished parliament, and outlawed traditional political parties. Initially, the new military government – styling itself as the Free Officers Movement – adopted a left-wing nationalist platform and forged a "progressive alliance" with the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP).

The governing alliance was short-lived. Internal disputes over economic policy, regional integration with Egypt and Libya, and the ideological alignment of the regime led to a clear rupture. In July 1971, military officers affiliated with the SCP, led by Hashem al-Atta, executed a counter-coup that seized power in Khartoum for three days. With the support of loyalist military elements and decisive intervention from Libya, Nimeiry regained control of the state. He subsequently ordered a systematic purge of the country's communist and trade union leaders, executing figures such as SCP General Secretary Abdel Khaliq Mahjub and Minister of Southern Affairs Joseph Garang.

The Addis Ababa Agreement and economic restructuring

Following the eradication of the communist left, Nimeiry shifted his administration toward a pro-Western technocratic elite, abandoning structural social reforms in favor of capitalist development, and sought national reconciliation. In March 1972, the government signed the Addis Ababa Agreement with the Anyanya rebel forces, commanded by Joseph Lagu. The treaty granted regional autonomy to the southern provinces, integrated the rebels into the national army, and ended the First Sudanese Civil War, ensuring a decade of relative internal stability.

In terms of the economy, Sudan radically altered its production structure. Moving away from socialist planning, the government adopted an alignment with the Western capitalist bloc and the conservative Arab states of the Arabian Peninsula, particularly Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. The regime heavily promoted mechanized agriculture with the ambition of turning Sudan into the "breadbasket of the Arab world," fueled by recycled petrodollars and Western technology. However, deficient planning, corruption, and the systemic shocks of the 1970s oil crisis resulted in massive external debt. To manage the crisis, the government entered into stabilization programs with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) beginning in 1972, which mandated privatization, the elimination of basic subsidies, and the devaluation of the Sudanese currency.

National Reconciliation and the September Laws

To broaden his political base, which was widely eroded by the economic crisis and hyperinflation, Nimeiry formalized the "National Reconciliation" in 1977. The president reached an agreement with Sadiq al-Mahdi, the traditional leader of the Ansar, and allowed the pragmatic reintegration of conservative and Islamist forces into the state apparatus. This included the Muslim Brotherhood, whose leader, Hassan al-Turabi, was appointed Attorney General in 1979.

The institutional assimilation of the Islamists fundamentally modified the trajectory of the country. Seeking new sources of legitimacy amidst economic failure, Nimeiry unilaterally abrogated the Addis Ababa Agreement in 1983 by dividing the autonomous southern region into three distinct provinces. In September of the same year, the regime imposed the "September Laws," instituting sharia (Islamic law) as a unified penal code for the entire national territory and applying it compulsorily even to the non-Muslim populations in the south.

Second civil war and the 1985 Intifada

The imposition of sharia and the breach of regional autonomy immediately triggered the Second Sudanese Civil War. Following the mutiny of the army's Battalion 105 in Bor in early 1983, dissident troops formed the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) under the command of John Garang. Unlike previous southern separatist movements, the SPLA adopted a secular, Marxist-oriented platform that firmly rejected secession, advocating instead for the comprehensive restructuring of Sudan into a new unified, socialist state.

The financial exhaustion caused by the civil war, combined with severe regional droughts and IMF-mandated austerity measures – which sharply increased the prices of basic goods such as bread, sugar, and petrol – rendered Nimeiry's regime unsustainable. In late March and early April 1985, while the president was traveling to the United States, a general political strike led by trade unions and professional associations paralyzed Khartoum. This massive popular uprising, historiographically known as the 1985 Intifada, forced the upper echelons of the armed forces to intervene. On 6 April 1985, General Abdel Rahman Swar al-Dahab deposed Nimeiry, assumed control of the country through a Transitional Military Council (TMC), and promised democratic elections, thus dismantling the dictatorship that had lasted for sixteen years.

Third democratic period and the military coup (1985–1989)

Transitional council and the 1986 elections

Following Nimeiry's deposition in the 1985 Intifada, General Abdel Rahman Swar al-Dahab fulfilled his promise to transfer power to civilians. A Transitional Military Council (TMC), administering alongside a civilian Provisional Council of Ministers, governed the country for a year and organized multiparty parliamentary elections in April 1986, marking the beginning of Sudan's third democratic period. The Umma Party obtained the largest bloc in the new assembly with 97 of 207 seats. Its leader, Sadiq al-Mahdi, assumed the office of prime minister, forming a fragile and highly fragmented coalition government that included the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the National Islamic Front (NIF).

Civilian failure and war escalation

The new civilian administration proved ineffective in solving the structural crises inherited from the dictatorship. Sadiq al-Mahdi yielded to pressure from the conservative and Islamist factions of his coalition, refusing to repeal the "September Laws" (the national application of sharia instituted by Nimeiry in 1983). The maintenance of Islamic law precluded any peace agreement with the SPLA led by John Garang, who demanded the freezing of sharia and the establishment of a secular, unified state. In November 1988, the DUP attempted to bypass the impasse by negotiating a framework for peace directly with the SPLA in Addis Ababa, but the NIF categorically rejected the agreement, sparking protests in Khartoum.

Consequently, the Second Sudanese Civil War intensified in the southern provinces. The conflict consumed the majority of the state budget, paralyzed food production, and exacerbated the economic collapse, resulting in severe famines and the displacement of millions of civilians.

1989 coup d'état

Faced with popular frustrations, economic stagnation, and the imminent collapse of his coalition, Sadiq al-Mahdi sought even greater political support from the NIF in early 1989. This shift provoked a strong reaction from the military, which was dissatisfied with the conduct of the war and the political paralysis. On 30 June 1989, Brigadier General Omar al-Bashir led a bloodless military coup d'état. The seizure of power was structurally and ideologically engineered by the National Islamic Front and its primary ideologue, Hassan al-Turabi.

The new junta, calling itself the Revolutionary Command Council of the Salvation Revolution, immediately dissolved parliament, suspended the constitution, and banned all independent political parties, trade unions, and newspapers. The regime systematically purged the armed forces and the civil service, replacing secularists and moderates with Islamist loyalists. This consolidated an Islamic fundamentalist dictatorship that would govern Sudan with absolute authority for the following three decades.

A new coup and al-Bashir era (1989–2019)

Consolidation of power and Islamic radicalism (1989–1999)

On 30 June 1989, Brigadier General Omar al-Bashir led a bloodless military coup, overthrowing the democratically elected government. The new military junta, heavily backed by the National Islamic Front (NIF), suspended political parties and introduced an Islamic legal code on the national level. Al-Bashir carried out sweeping purges in the upper ranks of the army and civil service, banned associations and independent newspapers, and imprisoned leading political figures and trade unionists. On 16 October 1993, al-Bashir appointed himself President and disbanded the Revolutionary Command Council, absorbing its executive and legislative powers. In the 1996 general election, he was the only candidate legally permitted to run for the presidency. Sudan effectively became a one-party state under the National Congress Party (NCP).

During the 1990s, the regime pursued a radical international agenda. Hassan al-Turabi, the NIF's ideological leader and then Speaker of the National Assembly, reached out to Islamic fundamentalist groups and invited Osama bin Laden to the country. Sudan's international isolation deepened after it was implicated in the 1995 assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa. The United States subsequently listed Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism. Following Al Qaeda's bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the US launched Operation Infinite Reach, targeting the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum under the false assumption that it produced chemical weapons. Facing mounting pressure, pragmatic elements within the government worked to appease critics by expelling members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and encouraging bin Laden to leave.

A major political schism occurred ahead of the 2000 presidential election. When al-Turabi introduced a bill to reduce the president's powers, al-Bashir declared a state of emergency, dissolved parliament, and ousted his former ally. After al-Turabi urged a boycott of the re-election campaign and controversially signed an agreement with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), he was placed under house arrest in 2001.

Civil War resolution, Darfur, and regional conflicts (2000–2011)

The early 2000s were marked by simultaneous efforts to end the decades-long civil war in the south and the eruption of new conflicts in the west. On 9 January 2005, the government signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), officially ending the Second Sudanese Civil War. The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) was established to support its implementation, and humanitarian relief efforts were gradually transitioned to recovery activities as conditions in Southern Sudan stabilized.

However, as peace was being brokered in the south, a new crisis erupted in the west. In February 2003, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) took up arms, accusing the government of marginalizing non-Arab Sudanese in favor of Sudanese Arabs, thereby precipitating the War in Darfur. The government responded by arming Arabic-speaking nomadic militias known as the Janjaweed, who committed widespread atrocities. The conflict has since been described as a genocide, leading the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue two arrest warrants for President al-Bashir. A preliminary Darfur Peace Agreement was signed in May 2006, but the region remained highly unstable.

Parallel to the Darfur conflict, diplomatic interventions addressed other regional disputes. In eastern Sudan, a coalition of rebel groups known as the Eastern Front signed a peace agreement with the government in October 2006. Furthermore, the Chad–Sudan Conflict (2005–2007), which had erupted when violence spilled over the Darfur border, was officially mitigated when the leaders of Sudan and Chad signed a non-aggression pact in Saudi Arabia in May 2007. Amidst these political crises, Sudan also suffered from severe natural disasters, including devastating floods in July 2007 that directly affected over 400,000 people.

Partition, economic crisis, and the fall of Bashir (2011–2019)

The 2005 peace agreement was a prerequisite to the 2011 referendum: the result was a nearly unanimous vote in favour of the secession of South Sudan. The partition deprived Khartoum of significant oil revenues, triggering immediate macroeconomic shocks. Tensions remained high along the new border; the Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile erupted between the Sudanese Army and the Sudan Revolutionary Front over the oil-rich region of Abyei. A year later, during the 2012 Heglig Crisis, Sudan and South Sudan fought a brief war over these contested border regions.

The economic impact of the partition led to harsh austerity measures and the Sudanese Intifada, which ended only in 2013 after al-Bashir promised he would not seek re-election. He later broke his promise and sought re-election in 2015, winning amidst a broad opposition boycott and a low voter turnout of 46%.

On 13 January 2017, US president Barack Obama signed an Executive Order lifting many sanctions placed against Sudan. On 6 October 2017, US president Donald Trump lifted most of the remaining sanctions against the country. Despite the lifting of sanctions, Sudan's economy continued to collapse, suffering from an acute shortage of foreign currency and skyrocketing inflation. This growing economic desperation ultimately paved the way for the nationwide protests that led to the regime's downfall in 2019.

Fall of al-Bashir and ongoing political instability (2019–present)

Revolution, transition, and the 2021 coup

On 19 December 2018, the tripling of bread prices amid 70 percent inflation ignited the Sudanese Revolution. President Omar al-Bashir refused to step down, prompting diverse opposition groups to converge into a united coalition. After months of youth-driven protests and the arrest of over 800 opposition figures, the military deposed al-Bashir on 11 April 2019, ending his thirty-year rule. Civilian demonstrations demanding a democratic transition continued, culminating in 3 June 2019 Khartoum massacre, where security forces killed over 100 protesters, leading to Sudan's temporary suspension from the African Union.

In August 2019, civilian and military factions formed a joint Sovereignty Council of Sudan and appointed economist Abdalla Hamdok as prime minister and Nemat Abdullah Khair as Chief Justice. Hamdok formed a diverse cabinet – including Sudan's first female foreign minister and a Coptic Christian woman – and sought $10 billion to stabilize an economy exhausted by civil war, while Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates heavily backed the military council.

The fragile transition collapsed when General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan led a military coup on 25 October 2021, following a failed putsch a month earlier. Al-Burhan dissolved the government and detained Hamdok. Although a November agreement briefly reinstated Hamdok – who subsequently fired top police officials – he resigned in January 2022 amid relentless anti-coup protests. Under acting Prime Minister Osman Hussein, the military crackdown intensified, resulting in mass detentions, 87 protester deaths, and 25 documented sexual assaults by March 2022.

2023–present: Civil war and humanitarian crisis

In April 2023, tensions over the planned transition to civilian rule escalated between al-Burhan's national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by his deputy Hemedti. On 15 April, the rivalry erupted into a devastating civil war, beginning with the Battle of Khartoum. The conflict quickly drew international scrutiny; Sudanese officials and US lawmakers – during a May 2024 congressional briefing convened by Eleanor Holmes Norton and featuring advocates Mohamed Seifeldein and Hagir S. Elsheikh – accused the United Arab Emirates of arming the RSF and fueling the destruction in both Sudan and Yemen.

Both factions have been accused of severe war crimes. The RSF systematically targeted Black indigenous communities in Darfur, leading international observers to warn of a renewed genocide. Ethnic cleansing campaigns in Geneina caused up to 15,000 Masalit deaths, while the RSF's October 2025 capture of El Fasher reportedly resulted in widespread rapes and the murder of up to 60,000 people.

The war precipitated one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters. Early casualties included three World Food Programme workers. By 2024, US officials estimated 150,000 people had died nationally. Displacement surged to 8.6 million by April 2024, with 18 million facing severe hunger and over 95 percent of the population unable to afford a daily meal. United Nations projections for 2025 estimate that 30.4 million Sudanese will require urgent humanitarian aid as the state's infrastructure remains in ruins.

Geography

Sudan is situated in North Africa, with an coastline bordering the Red Sea. It has land borders with Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Chad, and Libya. With an area of , it is the third-largest country on the continent (after Algeria and Democratic Republic of the Congo) and the fifteenth-largest in the world.

Sudan lies between latitudes 8° and 23°N. The terrain is generally flat plains, broken by several mountain ranges. In the west, the Deriba Caldera (), located in the Marrah Mountains, is the highest point in Sudan. In the east are the Red Sea Hills.

The Blue Nile and White Nile rivers meet in Khartoum to form the Nile, which flows northwards through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea. The Blue Nile's course through Sudan is nearly long and is joined by the Dinder and Rahad Rivers between Sennar and Khartoum. The White Nile within Sudan has no significant tributaries.

There are several dams on the Blue and White Niles. Among them are the Sennar and Roseires Dams on the Blue Nile, and the Jebel Aulia Dam on the White Nile. There is also Lake Nubia on the Sudanese-Egyptian border.

Rich mineral resources are available in Sudan including asbestos, chromite, cobalt, copper, gold, granite, gypsum, iron, kaolin, lead, manganese, mica, natural gas, nickel, petroleum, silver, tin, uranium and zinc. In 2015, Sudan's gold production was 82 metric tons.

Climate

The amount of rainfall increases towards the south. The central and the northern part have extremely dry, semi-desert areas such as the Nubian Desert to the northeast and the Bayuda Desert to the east; in the south, there are grasslands and tropical savanna. Sudan's rainy season lasts for about four months (June to September) in the north, and up to six months (May to October) in the south.

The dry regions are plagued by sandstorms, known as haboob, which can completely block out the sun. In the northern and western semi-desert areas, people rely on scarce rainfall for basic agriculture and many are nomadic, travelling with their herds of sheep and camels. Nearer the River Nile, there are well-irrigated farms growing cash crops. The sunshine duration is very high all over the country but especially in deserts where it can soar to over 4,000 hours per year.

Environmental issues

Desertification is a serious problem in Sudan. There is also concern over soil erosion. Agricultural expansion, both public and private, has proceeded without conservation measures. The consequences have manifested themselves in the form of deforestation, soil desiccation, and the lowering of soil fertility and the water table.

The nation's wildlife is threatened by poaching. As of 2001, twenty-one mammal species and nine bird species are endangered, as well as two species of plants. Critically endangered species include: the waldrapp, northern white rhinoceros, tora hartebeest, slender-horned gazelle, and hawksbill turtle. The Sahara oryx has become extinct in the wild.

Wildlife

Government and politics

The government and politics of Sudan are currently in a state of severe crisis and institutional fragmentation due to the ongoing Sudanese civil war (2023–present). Prior to 2019, the political system formally operated within the framework of a federal authoritarian Islamic republic led by President Omar al-Bashir. Following his overthrow in a military coup, the country entered a turbulent transitional period. Initially managed by the Transitional Military Council, the state apparatus was restructured in August 2019 under a Constitutional Declaration that established a joint military-civilian Transitional Sovereignty Council as the head of state, alongside a civilian prime minister.

This democratic transition was abruptly derailed by a military coup in October 2021, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The central government completely fractured in April 2023 with the outbreak of the civil war. Currently, the national administration is heavily contested; the Sudanese Armed Forces controls certain state institutions, while a rival Government of Peace and Unity was declared in April 2025 to administer areas seized by the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias. According to the 2023 V-Dem Democracy indices, Sudan ranked as the 6th least democratic country in Africa.

The judicial branch of the Sudanese government conventionally consists of a Constitutional Court of nine justices, the National Supreme Court, the Court of Cassation, and other national courts. The National Judicial Service Commission provides overall management for the judiciary. Sudan accepts the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, though with reservations.

Legal system and Islamic law

The legal architecture of Sudan has undergone profound structural transformations, shifting from customary pluralism to colonial dualism, and eventually to the absolute codification of Islamic penal law by the modern state.

Pre-colonial and colonial pluralism

Prior to the 20th century, the application of sharia in the Funj and Darfur sultanates operated within a pluralistic framework, continuously interacting with local customary law (urf). This flexibility was violently interrupted during the Mahdist State (1881–1898), a theocratic regime that suppressed traditional Islamic jurisprudence in favor of a rigid, centralized interpretation of the Quran and the Sunnah.

With the establishment of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium in 1899, the British colonial administration implemented a system of asymmetric legal pluralism. The imperial state introduced civil and criminal codes modeled on English common law to govern the public sphere. Sharia was not abolished, but it was strictly confined to the realm of personal status matters (such as marriage, divorce, and inheritance) exclusively for the Muslim population, overseen by state-appointed Islamic courts.

Post-independence and the September Laws

Following independence in 1956, Sudan inherited this dualist legal system. However, the role of religion in the state apparatus became the central axis of political dispute. Conservative factions and the Islamic Charter Front, led by Hassan al-Turabi, mounted continuous pressure to adopt a fully Islamic constitution, a move staunchly opposed by the non-Muslim populations of the south.

The historical rupture occurred in September 1983, when President Gaafar Nimeiri unilaterally abolished the dualist system and instituted sharia throughout Sudan, known as the September Laws. This sweeping legal reform codified Islamic jurisprudence into the national penal system, instituting hudud punishments–such as public amputations and stoning–and symbolically disposing of alcohol. The imposition of this penal code over the entire territory, compulsorily submitting the non-Muslim populations of the south, violated the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement–that had granted the south self-governance–and immediately triggered the Second Sudanese Civil War. In early 1984, the Islamization process expanded into the economy, eliminating interest and instituting mandatory zakat.

Codification under al-Bashir

During the regime of Omar al-Bashir (1989–2019), the legal system remained strictly based on Islamic law. The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement established some exemptions for non-Muslims in the south and in Khartoum, but the application of sharia remained geographically inconsistent and structurally penalized minorities and women.

The Sudanese penal code heavily enforced corporal and capital punishments. Sudan's public order laws allowed police officers to publicly whip women accused of public indecency. Flogging was utilized widely; for instance, 53 Christians were flogged on rioting charges in 2001, and between 2009 and 2014, numerous individuals were sentenced to 40–100 lashes, leading to several deaths in custody. Judicial executions included stoning for adultery claims, and crucifixion or hanging for crimes relating to murder and armed robbery, with 88 individuals sentenced to such execution methods in 2002.

Post-revolution secularization

Following the ousting of al-Bashir in 2019, the new interim constitution omitted any mention of sharia law as the primary source of legislation. In July 2020, the transitional government executed comprehensive penal reforms, abolishing the apostasy law, ending public flogging, lifting the alcohol ban for non-Muslims, and criminalizing female genital mutilation with up to three years in prison. In September 2020, the transitional government and rebel group leaders signed an accord officially separating religion and state, formally ending three decades of rule under Islamic law and mandating that no official state religion would be established.

Administrative divisions

Sudan is divided into 18 states (wilayat, sing. wilayah). They are further divided into 133 districts.

Regional bodies

In addition to the states, there also exist regional administrative bodies established by peace agreements between the central government and rebel groups.

• The Darfur Regional Government was established by the Darfur Peace Agreement to act as a coordinating body for the states that make up the region of Darfur.
• The Eastern Sudan States Coordinating Council was established by the Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement between the Sudanese Government and the rebel Eastern Front to act as a coordinating body for the three eastern states.
• The Abyei Area, located on the border between South Sudan and the Republic of the Sudan, currently has a special administrative status and is governed by an Abyei Area Administration. It was due to hold a referendum in 2011 on whether to be part of South Sudan or part of the Republic of the Sudan.

Disputed areas and zones of conflict

• In April 2012, the South Sudanese army captured the Heglig oil field from Sudan, which the Sudanese army later recaptured.
• Kafia Kingi and Radom National Park was a part of Bahr el Ghazal in 1956. Sudan has recognised South Sudanese independence according to the borders for 1 January 1956.
• The Abyei Area is disputed region between Sudan and South Sudan. It is currently under Sudanese rule.
• The states of South Kurdufan and Blue Nile are to hold "popular consultations" to determine their constitutional future within Sudan.
• The Hala'ib Triangle is disputed region between Sudan and Egypt. It is currently under Egyptian administration.
• Bir Tawil is a terra nullius occurring on the border between Egypt and Sudan, claimed by neither state.

Foreign relations

Independence and the Cold War (1956–1989)

Following its independence in 1956, Sudan's foreign policy primarily centered on navigating its complex relationship with Egypt and maintaining a non-aligned stance during the Cold War. In 1959, the two nations signed the landmark Nile Waters Agreement, regulating the use of the river's flow and paving the way for the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Sudan also played a central role in regional Arab diplomacy; following the 1967 Six-Day War, the country hosted the historic Arab League summit in Khartoum, which issued the famous "Three No's" resolution (no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel).

During the presidency of Gaafar Nimeiry (1969–1985), Sudan's international alignments shifted dramatically. Initially, Nimeiry aligned the country with the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. However, following the abortive communist-led coup in 1971, Nimeiry expelled Soviet advisors, chilled ties with Moscow, and pivoted sharply toward the West, becoming a major recipient of United States economic and military aid. Regionally, Sudan became deeply embroiled in proxy conflicts in the Horn of Africa. The government supported Eritrean insurgents against the Soviet-backed Derg regime in Ethiopia, while Ethiopia, in retaliation, provided safe havens and military backing to the Sudan People's Liberation Army rebels. Regionally, Nimeiry's foreign policy was highly volatile. In 1970, Sudan agreed to form a tripartite federation with Egypt and Libya, but relations with Muammar Gaddafi quickly deteriorated into open hostility, leading Libya to sponsor armed incursions into Khartoum. Furthermore, Sudan's burgeoning relationship with the West was severely tested in March 1973, when Palestinian militants from the Black September Organization stormed the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, capturing and assassinating Western diplomats, including the United States ambassador.

Islamist era and international isolation (1989–2019)

Following the 1989 coup, Sudan faced severe international isolation. This diplomatic alienation was driven not only by the regime's radical Islamist policies, but crucially by the government's official support for Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, which deeply angered the United Nations and Western powers. During the 1990s, the government supported regional insurgencies, including the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda, prompting Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia to form a United States-backed "Front Line States" alliance to contain Khartoum's influence. Perceiving the regime as a threat, the United States designated Sudan as a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 1993. In response, Sudan deepened its relations with Iraq and Iran.

By the late 1990s, following the 1998 United States embassy bombings in East Africa and subsequent retaliatory strikes, Sudan began to moderate its stance to ease international pressure. The country expelled extremist figures and prioritized the development of its oil infrastructure, which led to extensive economic and military relations with China. Regionally, Sudan maintained a territorial dispute with Egypt over the Hala'ib Triangle. By the 2000s, foreign relations centered on resolving the Second Sudanese Civil War and addressing international condemnation over the war in Darfur. Furthermore, Sudan recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in 2005, and later participated in the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen in 2015.

Transition and recent conflicts (2019–present)

Sudan was temporarily suspended from the African Union in 2019 due to the violent military crackdown that followed al-Bashir's ousting. Seeking to reintegrate into the global community, the transitional government agreed in 2020 to normalize ties with Israel under the United States-brokered Abraham Accords. Consequently, the United States removed Sudan from its terrorism list after Khartoum agreed to pay $335 million in compensation to the victims of the 1998 embassy bombings. Regional tensions also persisted; in 2021, a dispute with Ethiopia over the filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam escalated, leading to military posturing and fears of a water conflict.

The outbreak of the Sudanese civil war in 2023 severely disrupted foreign relations, forcing the closure of most Western embassies in Khartoum and triggering mass international evacuations. Lacking official state support, thousands of foreign nationals relied on ad hoc networks and international organizations to flee the violence. The conflict drew varying international responses, including a 2024 humanitarian conference hosted by France. However, diplomatic efforts remained fraught; in 2025, the Sudanese government boycotted a summit in Addis Ababa, accusing the United Arab Emirates of using financial aid pledges to obscure its military backing of the Rapid Support Forces.

International organisations in Sudan

Several UN agents operate in Sudan, including the World Food Programme (WFP); the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO); the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF); the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); the United Nations Mine Service (UNMAS), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and the World Bank. Also present is the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Due to Sudan's prolonged history of civil war, numerous non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are involved in humanitarian efforts to assist internally displaced people across the country, particularly in the peripheries. Historically, during the earlier civil wars, international organizations such as the Red Cross operated mostly in the southern provinces but were based in the capital, Khartoum. The attention of NGOs expanded significantly after conflict erupted in the western region of Darfur in 2003. During the civil war prior to the 2011 secession, the most visible organization operating in southern Sudan was the Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) consortium. Some international trade and humanitarian frameworks categorize Sudan as part of the Greater Horn of Africa.

Although many international organizations were historically concentrated in the southern and western regions, several also maintain a strong presence in the north. For example, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization operates in Khartoum. Largely funded by the European Union, it has established centers to promote vocational training and industrial skills. The Canadian International Development Agency has also operated extensively in northern Sudan.

Military

The Sudanese Armed Forces is the regular forces of Sudan and is divided into five branches: the Sudanese Army, Sudanese Navy (including the Marine Corps), Sudanese Air Force, Border Patrol and the Internal Affairs Defence Force, totalling about 200,000 troops. The military of Sudan has become a well-equipped fighting force; a result of increasing local production of heavy and advanced arms. These forces are under the command of the National Assembly and its strategic principles include defending Sudan's external borders and preserving internal security.

Since the Darfur crisis in 2004, safe-keeping the central government from the armed resistance and rebellion of paramilitary rebel groups such as the Sudan People's Liberation Army, the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) have been important priorities. While not official, the Sudanese military also uses nomad militias, the most prominent being the Janjaweed, in executing a counter-insurgency war. Somewhere between 200,000 and 400,000 people have died in the violent struggles.

Human rights

Since 1983, a combination of civil war and famine has taken the lives of nearly two million people in Sudan. It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people had been taken into slavery during the Second Sudanese Civil War.

Muslims who convert to Christianity can face the death penalty for apostasy; see Persecution of Christians in Sudan and the death sentence against Mariam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag (who actually was raised as Christian). According to a 2013 UNICEF report, 88% of women in Sudan had undergone female genital mutilation. Sudan's Personal Status law on marriage has been criticised for restricting women's rights and allowing child marriage. Evidence suggests that support for female genital mutilation remains high, especially among rural and less well educated groups, although it has been declining in recent years. Homosexuality is illegal; as of July 2020 it was no longer a capital offence, with the highest punishment being life imprisonment.

A report published by Human Rights Watch in 2018 revealed that Sudan has made no meaningful attempts to provide accountability for past and current violations. The report documented human rights abuses against civilians in Darfur, southern Kordofan, and Blue Nile. During 2018, the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) used excessive force to disperse protests and detained dozens of activists and opposition members. Moreover, the Sudanese forces blocked United Nations-African Union Hybrid Operation and other international relief and aid agencies to access to displaced people and conflict-ridden areas in Darfur.

Darfur

A 14 August 2006 letter from the executive director of Human Rights Watch found that the Sudanese government is both incapable of protecting its own citizens in Darfur and unwilling to do so, and that its militias are guilty of crimes against humanity. The letter added that these human-rights abuses have existed since 2004. Some reports attribute part of the violations to the rebels as well as the government and the Janjaweed. The U.S. State Department's human-rights report issued in March 2007 claims that "[a]ll parties to the conflagration committed serious abuses, including widespread killing of civilians, rape as a tool of war, systematic torture, robbery and recruitment of child soldiers."

Over 2.8 million civilians have been displaced and the death toll is estimated at 300,000 killed. Both government forces and militias allied with the government are known to attack not only civilians in Darfur, but also humanitarian workers. Sympathisers of rebel groups are arbitrarily detained, as are foreign journalists, human-rights defenders, student activists and displaced people in and around Khartoum, some of whom face torture. The rebel groups have also been accused in a report issued by the U.S. government of attacking humanitarian workers and of killing innocent civilians. According to UNICEF, in 2008, there were as many as 6,000 child soldiers in Darfur.

Freedom of speech

Under the government of Omar al-Bashir (1989–2019), Sudan's media outlets were given little freedom in their reporting. In 2014, Reporters Without Borders' freedom of the press rankings placed Sudan at 172nd of 180 countries. After al-Bashir's ousting in 2019, there was a brief period under a civilian-led transitional government where there was some press freedom. However, the leaders of a 2021 coup quickly reversed these changes. "The sector is deeply polarised", Reporters Without Borders stated in their 2023 summary of press freedom in the country. "Journalistic critics have been arrested, and the internet is regularly shut down in order to block the flow of information." Additional crackdowns occurred after the beginning of the 2023 Sudanese civil war.

Economy

In 2010, Sudan was considered the 17th-fastest-growing economy in the world and the rapid development of the country largely from oil profits even when facing international sanctions was noted by The New York Times in a 2006 article. Because of the secession of South Sudan, which contained about 75 percent of Sudan's oilfields, Sudan entered a phase of stagflation, GDP growth slowed to 3.4 percent in 2014, 3.1 percent in 2015 and was projected to recover slowly to 3.7 percent in 2016 while inflation remained as high as 21.8% . Sudan's GDP fell from US$123.053 billion in 2017 to US$40.852 billion in 2018.

Even with the oil profits before the secession of South Sudan, Sudan still faced formidable economic problems, and its growth was still a rise from a very low level of per capita output. The economy of Sudan has been steadily growing over the 2000s, and according to a World Bank report the overall growth in GDP in 2010 was 5.2 percent compared to 2009 growth of 4.2 percent. This growth was sustained even during the war in Darfur and period of southern autonomy preceding South Sudan's independence. Oil was Sudan's main export, with production increasing dramatically during the late 2000s, in the years before South Sudan gained independence in July 2011. With rising oil revenues, the Sudanese economy was booming, with a growth rate of about nine percent in 2007. The independence of oil-rich South Sudan, however, placed most major oil fields out of the Sudanese government's direct control and oil production in Sudan fell from around to under . Production has since recovered to hover around for 2014–15.

To export oil, South Sudan relies on a pipeline to Port Sudan on Sudan's Red Sea coast, as South Sudan is a landlocked country, as well as the oil refining facilities in Sudan. In August 2012, Sudan and South Sudan agreed to a deal to transport South Sudanese oil through Sudanese pipelines to Port Sudan.

The People's Republic of China is one of Sudan's major trading partners, China owns a 40 percent share in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company. The country also sells Sudan small arms, which have been used in military operations such as the conflicts in Darfur and South Kordofan.

While historically agriculture remains the main source of income and employment hiring of over 80 percent of Sudanese, and makes up a third of the economic sector, oil production drove most of Sudan's post-2000 growth. Currently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is working hand in hand with Khartoum government to implement sound macroeconomic policies. This follows a turbulent period in the 1980s when debt-ridden Sudan's relations with the IMF and World Bank soured, culminating in its eventual suspension from the IMF.

According to the Corruptions Perception Index, Sudan is one of the most corrupt nations in the world. According to the Global Hunger Index of 2013, Sudan has an GHI indicator value of 27.0 indicating that the nation has an 'Alarming Hunger Situation.' It is rated the fifth hungriest nation in the world. According to the 2015 Human Development Index (HDI) Sudan ranked the 167th place in human development, indicating Sudan still has one of the lowest human development rates in the world. In 2014, 45% of the population lives on less than US$3.20 per day, up from 43% in 2009.

Science and research

Sudan has around 25–30 universities; instruction is primarily in Arabic or English. Education at the secondary and university levels has been seriously hampered by the requirement that most males perform military service before completing their education. In addition, the "Islamisation" encouraged by president Al-Bashir alienated many researchers. The official language of instruction in universities was changed from English to Arabic and Islamic courses became mandatory. Internal science funding withered. According to UNESCO, more than 3,000 Sudanese researchers left the country between 2002 and 2014. By 2013, the country had a mere 19 researchers for every 100,000 citizens, or 1/30 the ratio of Egypt, according to the Sudanese National Centre for Research. In 2015, Sudan published only about 500 scientific papers. In comparison, Poland, a country of similar population size, publishes on the order of 10,000 papers per year.

Sudan's National Space Program has produced multiple CubeSat satellites, and has plans to produce a Sudanese communications satellite (SUDASAT-1) and a Sudanese remote sensing satellite (SRSS-1). The Sudanese government contributed to an offer pool for a private-sector ground surveying Satellite operating above Sudan, Arabsat 6A, which was successfully launched on 11 April 2019, from the Kennedy Space Center. Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir called for an African Space Agency in 2012, but plans were never made final.

Demographics

In Sudan's 2008 census, the population of northern, western and eastern Sudan was recorded to be over 30 million. The population of Sudan was estimated to be around 50 million in 2024. This is a significant increase over the past four decades, as the 1983 census put the total population of Sudan, including present-day South Sudan, at 21.6 million. The population of Greater Khartoum (including Khartoum, Omdurman, and Khartoum North) is growing rapidly and was recorded to be 5.2 million.

Aside from being a refugee-generating country, Sudan also hosts a large population of refugees from other countries. According to UNHCR statistics, more than 1.1 million refugees and asylum seekers lived in Sudan in August 2019. The majority of this population came from South Sudan (858,607 people), Eritrea (123,413), Syria (93,502), Ethiopia (14,201), the Central African Republic (11,713) and Chad (3,100). Apart from these, the UNHCR report 1,864,195 Internally displaced persons (IDP's). Sudan is a party to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.

Ethnic groups

The Arab population is estimated at 70% of the national total. They are almost entirely Muslims and speak predominantly Sudanese Arabic. Other ethnicities include Beja, Fur, Nubians, Nuba and Copts.

Non-Arab groups are often ethnically, linguistically and to varying degrees culturally distinct. These include the Beja (over two million), Fur (over one million), Nuba (approx. one million), Moro, Masalit, Bornu, Tama, Fulani, Hausa, Nubians, Berta, Zaghawa, Nyimang, Ingessana, Daju, Koalib, Gumuz, Midob and Tagale. Hausa is used as a trade language.^[where?] There is also a small, but prominent Greek community.

Some Arab tribes speak other regional forms of Arabic, such as the Awadia and Fadnia tribes and Bani Arak tribes, who speak Najdi Arabic; and the Beni Ḥassān, Al-Ashraf, Kawhla and Rashaida who speak Hejazi Arabic. A few Arab Bedouin of the northern Rizeigat speak Sudanese Arabic and share the same culture as the Sudanese Arabs. Some Baggara and Tunjur speak Chadian Arabic.

Sudanese Arabs of northern and eastern Sudan claim to descend primarily from migrants from the Arabian Peninsula and intermarriages with the indigenous populations of Sudan. The Nubian people share a common history with Nubians in southern Egypt. The vast majority of Arab tribes in Sudan migrated into Sudan in the 12th century, intermarried with the indigenous Nubian and other African populations and gradually introduced Islam. Additionally, a few pre-Islamic Arabic tribes existed in Sudan from earlier migrations into the region from western Arabia.

In several studies on the Arabization of Sudanese people, historians have discussed the meaning of Arab versus non-Arab cultural identities. For example, historian Elena Vezzadini argues that the ethnic character of different Sudanese groups depends on the way this part of Sudanese history is interpreted and that there are no clear historical arguments for this distinction. In short, she states that "Arab migrants were absorbed into local structures, that they became "Sudanized" and that "In a way, a group became Arab when it started to claim that it was."

In an article on the genealogy of different Sudanese ethnic groups, French archaeologist and linguist Claude Rilly argues that most Sudanese Arabs who claim Arab descent based on an important male ancestor ignore the fact that their DNA is largely made up of generations of African or African-Arab wives and their children, which means that these claims are rather more founded on oral traditions than on biological facts.

Urban areas

Languages

Approximately 70 languages are native to Sudan. Prior to 2005, Arabic was the nation's sole official language. In the 2005 constitution, Sudan's official languages became Arabic and English.

Sudan has multiple regional sign languages, which are not mutually intelligible. A 2009 proposal for a unified Sudanese Sign Language had been worked out.

The literacy rate is 70.2% of the total population (male: 79.6%, female: 60.8%).

Religion

At the 2011 division which split off South Sudan, over 97% of the population in the remaining Sudan adhered to Islam. Most Muslims are divided between two groups: Sufi and Salafi Muslims. Two popular divisions of Sufism, the Ansar and the Khatmia, are associated with the opposition Umma and Democratic Unionist parties, respectively. Only the Darfur region has traditionally been bereft of the Sufi brotherhoods common in the rest of the country.

Long-established groups of Coptic Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Christians exist in Khartoum and other northern cities. Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox communities also exist in Khartoum and eastern Sudan, largely made up of refugees and migrants from the past few decades. The Armenian Apostolic Church also has a presence serving the Sudanese-Armenians. The Sudan Evangelical Presbyterian Church also has membership.

Religious identity plays a role in the country's political divisions. Northern and western Muslims have dominated the country's political and economic system since independence. The NCP draws much of its support from Islamists, Salafis/Wahhabis and other conservative Arab-Muslims in the north. The Umma Party has traditionally attracted Arab followers of the Ansar sect of Sufism as well as non-Arab Muslims from Darfur and Kordofan. The Democratic Unionist Party includes both Arab and non-Arab Muslims in the north and east, especially those in the Khatmia Sufi sect.

Health

Sudan has a life expectancy of 65.1 years, according to the latest data for the year 2019 from macrotrends.net. Infant mortality in 2016 was 44.8 per 1,000.

UNICEF estimates that 87% of Sudanese females between the ages of 15 and 49 have had female genital mutilation performed on them.

Education

Education in Sudan is free and compulsory for children aged 6 to 13 years, although more than 40% of children do not go to schools due to the economic situation. Environmental and social factors also increase the difficulty of getting to school, especially for girls. Primary education consists of eight years, followed by three years of secondary education. The former educational ladder 6 + 3 + 3 was changed in 1990. The primary language at all levels is Arabic. Schools are concentrated in urban areas; many in the west have been damaged or destroyed by years of civil war. In 2001 the World Bank estimated that primary enrollment was 46 percent of eligible pupils and 21 percent of secondary students. Enrollment varies widely, falling below 20 percent in some provinces. The literacy rate is 70.2% of total population, male: 79.6%, female: 60.8%.

Culture

Sudanese culture melds the behaviours, practices, and beliefs of about 578 ethnic groups, communicating in numerous different dialects and languages, in a region microcosmic of Africa, with geographic extremes varying from sandy desert to tropical forest. Recent evidence suggests that while most citizens of the country identify strongly with both Sudan and their religion, Arab and African supranational identities are much more polarising and contested.

Media

Music

Sudan has a rich and unique musical culture that has been through chronic instability and repression during the modern history of Sudan. Beginning with the imposition of strict Salafi interpretation of sharia law in 1983, many of the country's most prominent poets and artists, like Mahjoub Sharif, were imprisoned while others, like Mohammed el Amin (returned to Sudan in the mid-1990s) and Mohammed Wardi (returned to Sudan 2003), fled to Cairo. Traditional music suffered too, with traditional Zār ceremonies being interrupted and drums confiscated .

At the same time European militaries contributed to the development of Sudanese music by introducing new instruments and styles; military bands, especially the Scottish bagpipes, were renowned, and set traditional music to military march music. The march March Shulkawi No 1, is an example, set to the sounds of the Shilluk. Northern Sudan listens to different music than the rest of Sudan. A type of music called Aldlayib uses a musical instrument called the Tambur. The Tambur has five strings, is made from wood and makes music accompanied by the voices of human applause and singing artists.

Cinema

The cinema of Sudan began with cinematography by the British colonial presence in the early 20th century. After independence in 1956, a vigorous documentary film tradition was established, but financial pressures and serious constraints imposed by the Islamist government led to the decline of filmmaking from the 1990s onwards. Since the 2010s, several initiatives have shown an encouraging revival of filmmaking and public interest in film shows and festivals, albeit limited mainly to Khartoum.

The use of photography in Sudan goes back to the 1880s and the Anglo-Egyptian rule. As in other countries, the growing importance of photography for mass media like newspapers, as well as for amateur photographers led to a wider photographic documentation and use of photographs in Sudan during the 20th century and beyond. In the 21st century, photography in Sudan has undergone important changes, mainly due to digital photography and distribution through social media and the internet.

Clothing

Most Sudanese wear either traditional or Western attire. A traditional garb widely worn by Sudanese men is the jalabiya, which is a loose-fitting, long-sleeved, collarless ankle-length garment also common to Egypt. The jalabiya is often accompanied by a large turban and a scarf, and the garment may be white, coloured, striped, and made of fabric varying in thickness, depending on the season of the year and personal preferences. The most common dress for Sudanese women is the thobe or thawb, pronounced tobe in Sudanese dialect. The thobe is a white or colourful long, one-piece cloth that women wrap around their inner garments, usually covering their head and hair.

Due to a 1991 penal code (Public Order Law), women were not allowed to wear trousers in public, because it was interpreted as an "obscene outfit". The punishment for wearing trousers could be up to 40 lashes, but after being found guilty in 2009, one woman was fined the equivalent of 200 U.S. dollars instead.

Sport

Like in many countries, football is the most popular sport also in Sudan. The Sudan Football Association was founded in 1936 and thus it became one of the oldest football associations to exist in Africa. However, before the foundation of the Football Association, Sudan had started experiencing football brought to the country by the British colonizers since early 20th century via Egypt. Other Sudanese clubs founded at that time include Al-Hilal Omdurman, Al-Merrikh, which led to popularization of football in the country. The Khartoum League became the first national league to be played in Sudan, laying ground for the future development of Sudanese football.

Since September 2019, there has been an official national league for women's football clubs that started on the basis of informal women's clubs since the beginning of the 2000s. In 2021, the Sudan women's national football team participated for the first time in the Arab Women's Cup, held in Cairo, Egypt.

Sudan's national beach volleyball team competed at the 2018–2020 CAVB Beach Volleyball Continental Cup in both the women's and the men's section. In June 2022, Patricia Seif El Din El Haj, the first Sudanese woman wrestler to participate in an African championship, was photographed by Reuters photographer Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah, as she got ready to travel to Nigeria to prepare for the 2024 Summer Olympic games.

See also

• List of massacres in Sudan
• Outline of Sudan
• Orders, decorations, and medals of Sudan

Notes

Language notes

General notes

Citations

Bibliography

• Berry, LaVerle B., ed. (2015). Sudan: a country study. Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.) .
• Churchill, Winston (1899; 2000). The river war: an historical account of the reconquest of the Soudan. Carroll & Graf (New York City). .
• Clammer, Paul (2005). Sudan: the Bradt travel guide. Bradt Travel Guides (Chalfont St. Peter); Globe Pequot Press. (Guilford, Connecticut). .
• El Mahdi, Mandour. (1965). A short history of the Sudan. Oxford University Press. .
• Evans-Pritchard, Blake; Polese, Violetta (2008). Sudan: the city trail guide. City Trail Publishing. .
• Jok, Jok Madut (2007). Sudan: race, religion and violence. Oneworld Publications (Oxford). .
• Köndgen, Olaf (2017). The codification of Islamic criminal law in the Sudan. Penal codes and Supreme Court case law under Numayri and al-Bashir. Brill (Leiden, Boston). .
• Mwakikagile, Godfrey (2001). Slavery in Mauritania and Sudan: the state against Blacks, in The modern African state: quest for transformation. Nova Science Publishers (Huntington, New York). .
• Peterson, Scott (2001). Me against my brother: at war in Somalia, Sudan and Rwanda—a journalist reports from the battlefields of Africa. Routledge (London; New York City). .
• Prunier, Gérard (2005). Darfur: the ambiguous genocide. Cornell University Press (Ithaca, New York). .
• ZilfÅ«, Ê»Iá¹£mat Ḥasan (translation: Clark, Peter) (1980). Karari: the Sudanese account of the battle of Omdurman. Frederick Warne & Co (London). .

External links

•   Government of Sudan
• Statistics Official website of Central Bureau of Statistics
• News headline links from Al Jazeera.
• Sudan, Democracy Now!