The Republic of the Sudan is a country located in North Africa. Bordered by Egypt to the north, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, and Libya, Chad, and Burkina Faso to the west, Sudan is the third-largest country in Africa. It has a population of 40,235,000 people, divided between Afro-Arabs and native Africans, most of which adhere to Islam.
History[]
A map of Sudan
Sudan gained independence from the United Kingdom on 1 January 1956 after being governed jointly with Egypt as Anglo-Egyptian Sudan for 57 years, and it was larger in size after independence, ruling over both its present-day boundaries in addition to South Sudan, which gained its independence in 2011. Sudan was always divided, with the Muslim Afro-Arabs of the north having animosity with the native Africans of the south. After the First Sudanese Civil War of 1956-1972, Sudan was forced to give autonomy to the south of the country after some bloody fighting. Sudan had token involvement in the Arab-Israeli Conflict, sending soldiers to fight in the Six-Day War and Yom Kippur War alongside its ally of Egypt, but in 1983 the country faced the Second Sudanese Civil War after President Gaafar Nimeiry - influenced by the eminence grise National Islamic Front leader Hassan al-Turabi - implemented sharia law in both the north and south. The civil war lasted for 22 years and saw the north use massacre as a tool of warfare, killing several innocent South Sudanese people. The Janjaweed paramilitaries were used to terrorize native Africans for years. In 2005, a peace treaty ended the uprising, with South Sudan holding an independence referendum in 2011. However, the Darfur War continued as oppressed Africans rose in rebellion against Omar al-Bashir's dictatorship, and the Janjaweed continued their reign of terror, killing 300,000 people and displacing 3,000,000. Sudan is still a dictatorship with limited rights for its people, and the Darfur War is still going on.
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