Facts about Sudan

The statement went on to call for Chadians to form a patriotic front against Sudan.

Southern Sudan is an autonomous region intermediate between the states and the national government.

On December 23, 2005 Chad, Sudan's neighbor to the west, declared a 'state of belligerency' with Sudan and accused the country of being the "common enemy of the nation (Chad)."

Solidarity with other Arab countries has been a feature of Sudan’s foreign policy.

Sudan has turned around a struggling economy with sound economic policies and infrastructure investments, but it still faces formidable economic problems.

Northern Sudan, lying between the Egyptian border and Khartoum, has two distinct parts, the desert and the Nile Valley.

Currently oil is Sudan's main export, and the production is increasing dramatically.

Voters from the worldwide South Sudanese diaspora were included.

In 1820, Northern Sudan came under the Egyptian rule by Mehemet Alij, the viceroy of the Ottoman Empire.

Sudan is situated in northern Africa, with a 853 km (530 mi) coastline bordering the Red Sea.

Sudan has a rich and unique musical culture that has been through chronic instability and repression during the modern history of Sudan.

Many Sudanese objected both to the return of the Egyptians and to the fact that other nations were deciding their destiny.

Situated in Northern Africa, The Sudan (officially Republic of Sudan) is the third largest country in Africa.

Elections were held during November and December 1953 and resulted in victory for the NUP, and its leader, Ismail al-Aihari, who became the Sudan's first Prime Minister in January 1954.

Todd Matthews-Jouda switched nationalities from American to Sudanese in September 2003 and competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

The indigenous Christian churches in Sudan, with external support, continued their mission.

In 1983 the civil war was reignited following President Gaafar Nimeiry’s decision to circumvent the Addis Ababa Agreement, by attempting to create a Federated Sudan including states in Southern Sudan.

The revolutionary government of General Bashir announced sweeping reforms in Sudanese education in September 1990.

Under the CPA, an Interim National Constitution was ratified July 5, 2005 which granted Southern Sudan autonomy for six years, to be followed by a referendum about independence in 2011.

Sudan became subject to a governor-general appointed by Egypt with British consent.

The southern region became independent on July 9, 2011, with the name of South Sudan.

Several Sudanese born basketball players have played in the American National Basketball Association.

Southern Sudan became an independent country, with the name of South Sudan, on July 9, 2011.

The Sudan national football team, nicknamed Sokoor Al-Jediane is the national team of Sudan and is controlled by the Sudan Soccer Association.

Military regimes have dominated Sudanese politics since the country's independence from the United Kingdom in 1956.

The central clay plains provide the backbone of Sudan's economy because they are productive where settlements cluster around available water.

By the late 1990s, Sudan experienced strained or broken diplomatic relations with most of its nine neighboring countries.

A referendum took place in Southern Sudan in January 2011, on whether the region should remain a part of Sudan or be independent.

From 1924, until independence in 1956, the British had a policy of running Sudan as two essentially separate colonies, the south and the north.

Allegations of the government’s complicity in the assassination attempt against the Egyptian president in Ethiopia in 1995 led to UN Security Council sanctions against the Sudan.

The northern states cover most of the Sudan and include most of the urban centers.

Efforts are being made to solve the crisis in Darfur and other regions in Sudan.

The resulting conflict was known as the First Sudanese Civil War which lasted from 1955 to 1972.

A statement issued by Chadian government on December 23, accused Sudanese militias of making daily incursions into Chad, stealing cattle, killing innocent people and burning villages on the Chadian border.

At independence in 1956, education accounted for only 15.5 percent of the Sudanese budget.

Northeast of the central clay plains lies eastern Sudan, which is divided between desert and semidesert and includes Al Butanah, the Qash Delta, the Red Sea Hills, and the coastal plain.

Southern Sudan is scheduled to have a referendum on independence in six years as of 2006.

The proliferation of upper-level technical schools has not dealt with what most experts saw as Sudan's basic education problem: providing a primary education to as many Sudanese children as possible.

The Sudan People's Liberation Army formed in May 1983 as a result.

Finally, in June 1983, the Sudanese Government under President Gaafar Nimeiry abrogated the Addis Ababa Peace Agreement.

Sudan has an authoritarian government in which all effective political power is in the hands of the President.

Western Sudan is a generic term describing the regions known as Darfur and Kurdufan that comprise 850,000 square kilometers.

The Azande, Bor, and Jo Luo are “Sudanic” tribes in the west, and the Acholi and Lotuhu live in the extreme south, extending into Uganda.

Sudan has two distinct major cultures—Arabs with Nubian (Kushite) roots and non-Arab Black Africans—with hundreds of ethnic and tribal divisions and language groups, which makes effective collaboration among them a major problem.

Sudan is the sixteenth largest country in the world, geographically.

The nation's Parliament voted unanimously in December 1955 that the Sudan should become "a fully independent sovereign state."

The South of Sudan was predominately Black, with a mixture of Christians and Animists.

Sudanese culture melds the behaviors, practices, and beliefs of about 578 tribes, communicating in 145 different languages, in a region microcosmic of Africa, with geographic extremes varying from sandy desert to tropical forest.

The foreign relations of Sudan are generally in line with the Muslim Arab world, but are also based on Sudan's economic ties with the People's Republic of China and Western Europe.

The Egyptians developed Sudan’s trade in ivory and slaves.

During the 1500s a people called the Funj conquered much of Sudan.

The Naivasha peace treaty was signed on January 9, 2005, granting Southern Sudan autonomy for six years, followed by a referendum about independence.

The Nile is the dominant geographic feature of Sudan, flowing 3,000 kilometers from Uganda in the south to Egypt in the north.

Relations between Sudan and Libya deteriorated in the early 1970s and reached a low in October 1981, when Libya began a policy of crossborder raids into western Sudan.

Under the Addis Ababa Agreement, Southern Sudan was given considerable autonomy.

During the 1990s, Sudan sought to steer a nonaligned course, courting Western aid and seeking rapprochement with Arab states, while maintaining cooperative ties with Libya, Syria, North Korea, Iran, and Iraq.

A merchant class of Arabs became economically dominant in feudal Sudan.

The threats to people of South Sudan after referendum are numerous, with security topping the list.

On October 14th, 2006 a peace treaty was signed by the eastern Sudanese and the Sudanese Government headed by President Al-Bashir.

In 1999, Sudan was one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse countries in the world.

Religious leader Muhammad al Abdalla, the self-proclaimed Messiah, sought to purify Islam in Sudan.

The chronic instability in Sudan holds much of the population at or below the poverty line.

The North of Sudan had historically closer ties with Egypt and was predominately Arab and Muslim.

On January 19, 1899 Britain and Egypt signed an agreement under which the Sudan was to be administered jointly.

The Sudan practices capital punishment, which can be applied to minors as well as adults.

Agriculture production remains Sudan's most important sector, employing 80% of the work force and contributing 39 percent of GDP.

The accord effectively agreed to grant Sudan self government within three years.

In 1983 the people identified as Arabs constituted nearly 40 percent of the total Sudanese population and nearly 55 percent of the population of the northern provinces.

Three ancient Kushite kingdoms existed consecutively in northern Sudan.

During the 1980s and 1990s some of Sudan's smaller ethnic and linguistic groups disappeared.

The public and private education systems inherited by the government after independence were designed more to provide civil servants and professionals to serve the colonial administration than to educate the Sudanese.

Most of the twenty-two million Sudanese who live in this region are Arabic-speaking Muslims, though the majority also use a traditional non-Arabic mother tongue — e.g., Nubian, Beja, Fur, Nuban, Ingessana, etc.

Sudan’s rainy season lasts for about three months (July to September) in the north, and up to six months (June to November) in the south.

British and Egyptian officers in the Sudanese civil service were quickly replaced by Sudanese nationals.

The Nuba, on the front lines between the north and the south of Sudan, have retained a vibrant folk tradition.

The United Nations Mission In Sudan (UNMIS) was established under UN Security Council Resolution 1590 in March 24, 2005.

According to The World Factbook, the primary religions of Sudan are Islam (approx.

Sudan is one of the states that recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.

An August 14, 2006 letter from the Executive Director of the Human Rights Watch found that the Sudanese government is both "incapable and unwilling" to protect its own citizens in Darfur.

The Dinka, whose population is estimated at more than one million, are the largest of the many black African tribes of the Sudan.

Sudan's border states have felt the effects of that country's near-constant fighting as they've been forced to provide shelter for fleeing refugees.

On November 3, 1997, the U.S. government imposed a trade embargo against Sudan and a total asset freeze against the Government of Sudan under Executive Order 13067.

In 1999, Sudan began exporting crude oil and in the last quarter of 1999 recorded its first trade surplus.

Joint Ministerial Councils have been set up between Sudan and Ethiopia and Sudan and Egypt.

Both Egypt and Great Britain abandoned Sudan, leaving Sudan a theocratic Mahdist state.

When the Arab-Israeli war began in June 1967, Sudan declared war on Israel.

The year before independence, a civil war began between Northern and Southern Sudan.