Sudan

"Sudanese Republic" redirects here. For other uses, see Sudan (disambiguation).
This article is about the country. Not to be confused with South Sudan, Sudan (region), or The Sudans.

Republic of the Sudan
جمهورية السودان (Arabic)
Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān
Motto: النصر لنا
an-Naṣr lanā
"Victory is ours"
Anthem: نحن جند اللّٰه، جند الوطن
Naḥnu jund Allah, jund al-waṭan
"We are Soldiers of God, Soldiers of the Homeland"
  Location of the Republic of the Sudan
  Territory claimed but not controlled
Capital
and largest city
Khartoum
Capital-in-exilePort Sudan[a]
Official languages
Ethnic groups
Religion
(2020)[13]
Demonym(s)Sudanese
GovernmentFederal republic under a military junta[14][15]
LegislatureVacant
Formation
2500 BC
1070 BC
• Makuria, Nobatia, and Alodia
c. 350
• Tunjur, Funj, and Darfur Sultanates
c. 1500
1820
1885
1899
1 January 1956
25 May 1969
6 April 1985
• Secession of South Sudan
9 July 2011
19 December 2018
20 August 2019
Area
• Total
1,886,068 km2 (728,215 sq mi) (15th)
Population
• 2024 estimate
50,467,278[16] (30th)
• Density
21.3/km2 (55.2/sq mi) (202nd)
GDP (PPP)2023 estimate
• Total
Decrease $172.651 billion[17] (71st)
• Per capita
Decrease $3,604[17] (151st)
GDP (nominal)2023 estimate
• Total
Decrease $25.569 billion[17] (96th)
• Per capita
Decrease $533[17] (171st)
Gini (2014)Positive decrease 34.2[18]
medium inequality
HDI (2022)Increase 0.516[19]
low (170th)
CurrencySudanese pound (SDG)
Time zoneUTC+2 (CAT)
Date formatdd/mm/yyyy
Drives onright
Calling code+249
ISO 3166 codeSD
Internet TLD.sd
سودان.

Sudan,[c] officially the Republic of the Sudan,[d] is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the southeast, and South Sudan to the south. Sudan has a population of 50 million people as of 2024[20] and occupies 1,886,068 square kilometres (728,215 square miles), making it Africa's third-largest country by area and the third-largest by area in the Arab League. It was the largest country by area in Africa and the Arab League until the secession of South Sudan in 2011;[21] since then both titles have been held by Algeria. Sudan's capital and most populous city is Khartoum.

The area that is now Sudan witnessed the Khormusan (c. 40000–16000 BC),[22] Halfan culture (c. 20500–17000 BC),[23][24] Sebilian (c. 13000–10000 BC),[25] Qadan culture (c. 15000–5000 BC),[26] the war of Jebel Sahaba, the earliest known war in the world, around 11500 BC,[27][28] A-Group culture[29] (c. 3800–3100 BC), Kingdom of Kerma (c. 2500–1500 BC), the Egyptian New Kingdom (c. 1500–1070 BC), and the Kingdom of Kush (c. 785 BC – 350 AD). After the fall of Kush, the Nubians formed the three Christian kingdoms of Nobatia, Makuria, and Alodia.

Between the 14th and 15th centuries, most of Sudan was gradually settled by Arab nomads. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, central and eastern Sudan were dominated by the Funj sultanate, while Darfur ruled the west and the Ottomans the east. In 1811, Mamluks established a state at Dunqulah as a base for their slave trading. Under Turco-Egyptian rule of Sudan after the 1820s, the practice of trading slaves was entrenched along a north–south axis, with slave raids taking place in southern parts of the country and slaves being transported to Egypt and the Ottoman Empire.[30]

From the 19th century, the entirety of Sudan was conquered by the Egyptians under the Muhammad Ali dynasty. Religious-nationalist fervour erupted in the Mahdist Uprising in which Mahdist forces were eventually defeated by a joint Egyptian-British military force. In 1899, under British pressure, Egypt agreed to share sovereignty over Sudan with the United Kingdom as a condominium. In effect, Sudan was governed as a British possession.[31]

The Egyptian revolution of 1952 toppled the monarchy and demanded the withdrawal of British forces from all of Egypt and Sudan. Muhammad Naguib, one of the two co-leaders of the revolution and Egypt's first President, was half-Sudanese and had been raised in Sudan. He made securing Sudanese independence a priority of the revolutionary government. The following year, under Egyptian and Sudanese pressure, the British agreed to Egypt's demand for both governments to terminate their shared sovereignty over Sudan and to grant Sudan independence. On 1 January 1956, Sudan was duly declared an independent state.

After Sudan became independent, the Gaafar Nimeiry regime began Islamist rule.[32] This exacerbated the rift between the Islamic North, the seat of the government, and the Animists and Christians in the South. Differences in language, religion, and political power erupted in a civil war between government forces, influenced by the National Islamic Front (NIF), and the southern rebels, whose most influential faction was the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), which eventually led to the independence of South Sudan in 2011.[33] Between 1989 and 2019, a 30-year-long military dictatorship led by Omar al-Bashir ruled Sudan and committed widespread human rights abuses, including torture, persecution of minorities, alleged sponsorship of global terrorism, and ethnic genocide in Darfur from 2003–2020. Overall, the regime killed an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 people. Protests erupted in 2018, demanding Bashir's resignation, which resulted in a coup d'état on 11 April 2019 and Bashir's imprisonment.[34] Sudan is currently embroiled in a civil war between two rival factions, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Islam was Sudan's state religion and Islamic laws were applied from 1983 until 2020 when the country became a secular state.[32] Sudan is a least developed country and among the poorest countries in the world,[35] ranking 170th on the Human Development Index as of 2024 and 185th by nominal GDP per capita. Its economy largely relies on agriculture due to international sanctions and isolation, as well as a history of internal instability and factional violence. The large majority of Sudan is dry and over 60% of Sudan's population lives in poverty. Sudan is a member of the United Nations, Arab League, African Union, COMESA, Non-Aligned Movement and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

  1. ^ "Paramilitary RSF say they have seized Sudan's second city". Reuters.
  2. ^ a b "People and Society CIA world factbook". 10 May 2022.
  3. ^ "Beja". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
  4. ^ "The Nuba people". 3 August 2015. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  5. ^ "Fur". Ethnologue. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  6. ^ "الجهاز المركزي للتعبئة العامة والإحصاء" (PDF).
  7. ^ "Nobiin". Ethnologue. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  8. ^ "Dongolawi". Ethnologue. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  9. ^ "Midob". Ethnologue. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  10. ^ "Ghulfan". Ethnologue. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  11. ^ "Kadaru". Ethnologue. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  12. ^ "Demographics and Ethnic Groups of Sudan". Retrieved 1 November 2023.
  13. ^ "National Profiles". Association of Religion Data Archives. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  14. ^ Gavin, Michelle (8 April 2022). "Junta and Public at Odds in Sudan". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
  15. ^ Jeffrey, Jack (23 October 2022). "Analysis: Year post-coup, cracks in Sudan's military junta". Associated Press. Cairo, Egypt. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
  16. ^ "Sudan". The World Factbook (2024 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 24 September 2022. (Archived 2022 edition.)
  17. ^ a b c d "World Economic Outlook Database, October 2023 Edition. (Sudan)". International Monetary Fund. 10 October 2023. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  18. ^ "Gini Index". World Bank. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
  19. ^ "Human Development Report 2023/24". United Nations Development Programme. 13 March 2024. Archived from the original on 19 March 2024. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  20. ^ "Sudan Population 2024 (Live)". Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  21. ^ "Area". The World Factbook. U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
  22. ^ Goder-Goldberger, Mae (25 June 2013). "The Khormusan: Evidence for an MSA East African industry in Nubia". Quaternary International. The Middle Palaeolithic in the Desert. 300: 182–194. Bibcode:2013QuInt.300..182G. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.11.031. ISSN 1040-6182.
  23. ^ Bailey, Geoff N.; McBurney, Charles B. M., eds. (1986). Stone age prehistory: studies in memory of Charles McBurney. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-25773-2.
  24. ^ "Halfan | archaeology". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  25. ^ "Introduction to Ancient Egypt | World Civilizations I (HIS101) – Biel". Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  26. ^ "Nubia - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics". Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  27. ^ Kelly, Raymond (October 2005). "The evolution of lethal intergroup violence". PNAS. 102 (43): 24–29. doi:10.1073/pnas.0505955102. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 1266108. PMID 16129826.
  28. ^ Crevecoeur, Isabelle; Dias-Meirinho, Marie-Hélène; Zazzo, Antoine; Antoine, Daniel; Bon, François (27 May 2021). "New insights on interpersonal violence in the Late Pleistocene based on the Nile valley cemetery of Jebel Sahaba". Scientific Reports. 11 (1): 9991. Bibcode:2021NatSR..11.9991C. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-89386-y. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 8159958. PMID 34045477.
  29. ^ "Ancient Nubia: A-Group 3800–3100 BC | Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures". Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  30. ^ Walz, Terence (2018). "Egyptian-Sudanese Trade in the Ottoman Period to 1882". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.8. ISBN 978-0-19-027773-4.
  31. ^ Henehan, Alva D. Jr. (2016). For Want Of A Camel: The Story of Britain's Failed Sudan Campaign, 1883–1885. [Place of publication not identified]: Outskirts Press. ISBN 978-1-4787-6562-2. OCLC 1007048089.
  32. ^ a b "عن السودان" (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 2 September 2013. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
  33. ^ Collins, Robert O. (2008). A History of Modern Sudan. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-85820-5.
  34. ^ "Omar al-Bashir Fast Facts". CNN. 10 December 2012.
  35. ^ "World Bank Open Data". World Bank Open Data. Retrieved 31 May 2024.


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