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General information
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Full name:
Republic of Sudan
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Population:
35 million
(UN, 2005)
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Capital:
Khartoum
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Area:
2.5
million sq km (966,757 sq miles)
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Major languages:
Arabic;
Nubian, others
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Major religions:
Islam,
Christianity
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Life expectancy:
55 years
(men), 58 years (women) (UN)
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Monetary unit:
Sudanese
dinar
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Main exports:
Oil,
cotton, sesame, livestock and hides, gum Arabic
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GNI per capita:
US $640 (World Bank, 2006)
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Internet domain:
.sd
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International dialing code:
+249
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Sudan
Sudan is the largest and one of the most diverse countries in
Africa, home to deserts, mountain ranges, swamps and rain forests.
| It has emerged from a
21-year civil war between the mainly Muslim north and the Animist
and Christian south which is said to have cost the lives of 1.5
million people. Southern rebels said they were battling |
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oppression
and
marginalization.
After two years of
bargaining the government and rebels signed a comprehensive peace
deal in January 2005. The accord provides for a high degree of autonomy for
the south. The region will also share oil revenue equally with the
north. But decades of fighting have left the infrastructure in
tatters. With the return of millions of displaced southerners, there
is a pressing need for reconstruction.
The economic dividends
of peace could be great. Sudan has large areas of cultivatable land,
as well as gold and cotton. Its oil reserves are ripe for further
exploitation.
But while the
government and southern rebels inched closer to peace, fighting
broke out in the western region of Darfur in early 2003 when rebels
seeking greater autonomy began an insurrection.
Up to two million
people have fled their homes and tens of thousands of people have
been killed. Pro-government Arab militias are accused of carrying
out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against non-Arab groups in the
region.
Sudan's name comes from
the Arabic "bilad al-sudan", or land of the blacks. Arabic is the
official language and Islam is the religion of the state, but the
country has a large non-Arabic speaking and non-Muslim population
which has rejected attempts by the government in Khartoum to impose
Islamic Sharia law on the country as a whole.
President Omar al-Bashir
has been locked in a power struggle with Hassan al-Turabi, his
former mentor and the main ideologue of Sudan's Islamist government.
Since 2001 Mr. Turabi has spent periods in detention and has been
accused, but not tried, over an alleged coup plot.
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The
Sudan government has
signed a preliminary peace agreement with the
main opposition umbrella group, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The signing of the
accord marks another key step in efforts to bring peace to all of
Africa's largest country.
A final deal due to be
signed in February should end 16 years of low-intensity conflict,
mainly in the north and east of the country.
A peace deal with the
southern-based SPLA rebels was signed this month.
Foreign Minister
Mustafa Osman Ismail told journalists on Sunday that as part of
their strategy they were considering releasing all political
prisoners.
The main Islamist
opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi is currently in prison.
"We hope no one will
remain in Sudanese prisons except criminals and the unjust," he
said, in comments quoted by the independent Al-Ayyam newspaper.
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