The original inhabitants of this area were converted to Christianity – the Egyptian-based Coptic version - in the sixth century AD, and then to Islam in the 15th century, when Arabic forces from the Gulf moved into the region. The Egyptians reclaimed control of the provinces of Nubia, Senaar and Kordofan, which make up modern Sudan, in a campaign between 1820 and 1822. In the mid-19th century, Sudan became of interest to the UK, because of its strategic importance for trade routes to India via the newly-opened Suez Canal, as well as the desire to limit French influence in the West. The French
had already encroached as far as Chad – Sudan’s immediate neighbor – and would ultimately control the bulk of northwest Africa.
Consequently, Sudan came under British and Egyptian control in the 1880s. Local resistance at this time was led by Mahdi Mohammed Ahmed, a figure revered by his people as both a mystic and a holy warrior. The so-called Mahdists defeated a British-led force of Egyptian troops in 1883. This culminated in the death of the British commander, General Gordon, when the Sudanese took Khartoum after a long siege. The Mahdists retained control of Sudan until the British re-conquered the territory in 1898. An Anglo-Egyptian condominium was established in 1899. In 1914, Egypt itself was made a British protectorate and Sudan was accordingly taken under British rule. When the protectorate was dissolved in 1922, the future of Sudan was left open, as a subject of further negotiations. In 1929, the condominium was restored.
A further Anglo-Egyptian treaty in 1936 allowed Egyptian troops and civilian immigrants to enter Sudan without restriction. After World War II, Sudan became the subject of serious contention between Britain and Egypt. Efforts to co-opt Sudan to Egyptian control in 1951 were firmly resisted by the Sudanese. Then, in 1952, the overthrow of Egypt’s King Farouk by Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser (see Egypt) brought to power an Egyptian government more sympathetic towards Sudan’s independence aspirations. In 1952, Britain and Egypt agreed on a constitution for Sudan, allowing free elections and a referendum on independence, which was finally granted in 1956.
The Sudanese House of Representatives, elected in November 1953, chose Abdullah Khalil, leader of the Umma (People’s) Party, as premier. However, Khalil’s government lasted less than two years, before it was overthrown by army chief Ibrahim Abboud. Resenting the political domination of the mainly Muslim North, the mostly Christian and animist southerners launched an insurrection against the Khartoum government. This was the trigger for a conflict that has raged almost continuously ever since and claimed an estimated 2 million lives. In a pattern to be repeated time and again, the new regime held talks with southern leaders and offered limited autonomy; the southerners then rejected the terms as inadequate. Abboud was, in turn, turfed out of office in 1964.
In May 1969, the civilian government of Mohammed Ahmed Mahgoub, which had been elected after the fall of the Abboud regime in 1964, was itself deposed in a military coup that installed Jafaar al-Nimeri as president. Nimeri negotiated a settlement with the south in 1972. When the settlement collapsed in 1983, it signalled the beginning of the end for Nimeri himself. The main cause was the introduction of Islamic Sharia law, intended to placate increasingly troublesome Muslim elements complaining about the austerity program introduced on the instruction of the IMF earlier in the year. Not surprisingly, it was not well received in the south either and was later withdrawn.
The southerners soon returned to fully-fledged armed struggle under the banner of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Front (SPLF) and its military arm, the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), led by John Garang. Kahrtoum politics were still as unstable as ever: in 1985, Nimeri was overthrown while visiting the USA. The new regime was unable to stabilize its rule and, after four years, was itself overthrown by General Omar al-Bashir.
This coup was different. Unlike its predecessors, the new government had a political backbone and an ideological direction – these were provided by the National Islamic Front, a fundamentalist Islamic political organization led by Sheikh Hassan al-Turabi. The Front’s influence became quickly apparent when Sharia was once again introduced at the beginning of 1991.
The tide of the war also started to turn Khartoum’s way, after a major split within the SPLA into two factions – the ‘Torit’, mostly Dinka tribespeople who remained loyal to the veteran SPLA leader John Garang, and the ‘Nasir’, mainly drawn from the Nu’er tribe, who followed the breakaway leader Riek Macahar. But the fundamentalist nature of the government in Khartoum was causing worries in many quarters and it was not long before SPLA attracted new supporters. These included Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda and, most importantly, the USA. By 1995, the SPLA had recovered much of its position.
In 1996, the Bashir-Turabi regime sought to consolidate its political legitimacy by holding national elections. These were comfortably won by al-Bashir, standing for the presidency, and al-Turabi as head of the National Congress Party. That same year, the US Clinton administration, apparently convinced that Sudan was supporting international terrorism and developing chemical weapons, launched a missile attack on a legitimate pharmaceutical plant. While the attack was misconceived, it appears to have had the unintended effect of bringing a simmering power struggle between al-Bashir and al-Turabi to a head. This was won by al-Bashir, who went on to win a second electoral term as president in 2000; al-Turabi disappeared from the political scene after his release from two years' imprisonment in October 2001.
In 1999, the long-running southern war took a new turn when oil deposits, discovered earlier in the decade, came on stream and provided the government with a significant new source of revenue. With its coffers boosted, the government was now hopeful of a rapid victory over the rebels. It didn’t happen and, in late 2002, the government re-started talks with the rebels. Some progress was made: the government has now accepted autonomy for the south, while SPLA has conceded the application of Islamic Sharia law in government-controlled areas. In December 2003, the two sides also agreed a carve-up of the revenues. However, problems accumulated and intensified in 2004. In January, the army was forced to move to Darfur to quell the rebel uprisings, with ethnic Africans fighting repression by the Arab-dominated government (although with both sides following Islam). Over half a million people fled across the border into Chad. In March 2004, the UN announced that the pro-government Arab "Janjaweed" militias were carrying out systematic killings of African villagers in Darfur. This was later labelled as 'genocide' by the US administration. Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi was arrested. Despite another signed deal to end the civil war in May 2004, between SPLA rebel leaders and the government, the conflict soon resumed. The future events of Sudan may well, unfortunately, adhere to this same continual pattern: intimated resolution of the terrible conflict being undercut by further bouts of violence and disorder.
GovernmentExecutive power is vested in the president, who is popularly elected for a five-year term. The 400-member Majlis Watani serves as the national assembly – 275 of its members are directly elected for a four-year term in multi-seat constituencies; the remainder are indirectly elected by a national conference.
EconomyOnce described as the bread basket of the Arab world, Sudan is a country of high, though largely unrealised, economic potential, which is presently crippled by civil war, a foreign debt of around US$15 billion, and climatic effects which have brought both drought and flooding.
Agriculture employs most of the workforce, producing cotton – the major export, wheat, groundnuts, sorghum and sugar cane. Production of gum arabic, once an important product, has declined through the introduction of synthetic substitutes and increasing competition, particularly from West Africa. Livestock breeding has suffered from persistent drought.
The manufacturing sector concentrates on processing the country’s agricultural output (sugar, for example) and the production of textiles, cement and some consumer goods. There are some mineral deposits including marble, mica, chromite, gypsum and gold.
There are also some onshore oil deposits: located in the mid 1990s, these came on stream in 1999 and have been of some help in easing Sudan’s chronic power shortages. The government has announced a major dam project on the Nile and a new oil refinery that are intended to meet both electricity demand and the urgent need for planned water distribution.
Ultimately, Sudan relies on foreign aid to sustain its economy. Natural phenomena, compounded by the effects of the two-decade-long civil war, have made this more pressing than usual since 2000, as Sudan has needed two large injections of emergency food aid to stave off mass famine.
Relations with the IMF have been rocky (Sudan was almost thrown out in the mid 1990s) but the Fund is now providing some financial support in exchange for a standard economic reform program. Elsewhere, while the political posture of Sudan’s Islamic government has alienated Western governments, it can still rely on support from wealthy Arab states, notably Saudi Arabia.
Nonetheless, the Islamic government’s economic program has successfully achieved its principal targets of 5 to 6% annual growth and inflation of below 5%.
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