Sudan

Country in northeast Africa, bounded north by Egypt, northeast by the Red Sea, east by Ethiopia and Eritrea, south by Kenya, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), west by the Central African Republic and Chad, and northwest by Libya. It is the largest country in Africa.

Government

The 1973 constitution was suspended after a military coup in 1985 and a Transitional Military Council established, charged with the task of producing a new constitution and, after a further transitional period, of declaring itself a parliament, subject to election every four years. A further military coup in 1989 installed a Revolutionary Command Council. In 1992 a 300-member interim national assembly was formed, prior to the holding of free elections, but the army retained ultimate control.

In 1991 a federal system was introduced, the country being divided into nine states, each with a high degree of autonomy.

History

In ancient times, the region was known as Nubia and was taken over by the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt. The Nubians were later converted to Coptic Christianity in the 6th century and to Islam in the 15th century when Arabs invaded. Sudan was again ruled by Egypt from 1820. A revolt began in 1881, led by a sheikh who took the title of Mahdi and captured Khartoum in 1885. It was subdued by an Anglo-Egyptian army under Lord Kitchener in 1896–98 and administered as an Anglo-Egyptian condominium from 1899.

Independent republic

The Sudan, as it was called, achieved independence as a republic in 1956. Two years later a coup ousted the civil administration, and a military government was set up; in 1964 this was overthrown and civilian rule was reinstated. Five years later the army returned in a coup led by Col Gaafar Muhammad Nimeri. All political bodies were abolished, the Revolutionary Command Council set up, and the country's name changed to the Democratic Republic of Sudan. Close links were established with Egypt, and in 1970 an agreement in principle was reached for eventual union. In 1972 this should have become, with the addition of Syria, the Federation of Arab Republics, but internal opposition blocked both developments. In 1971 a new constitution was adopted, Nimeri confirmed as president, and the Sudanese Socialist Union declared the only party.

Regional problems

The most serious problem confronting Nimeri was open aggression between the Muslim north and the chiefly Christian south, which dated back to 1955. At a conference in Addis Ababa in 1972 he granted the three southern provinces a considerable degree of autonomy, but fighting continued. Nimeri turned to the West, and the USA, for support. By 1974 he had established a national assembly, but his position still relied on army backing. In 1983 he was re-elected for a third term, but regional problems persisted.

Islamic law

Nimeri imposed strict Islamic law (Shari'a) throughout the country in 1983, alienating the south and prompting the creation of a rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). The government's economic policies contributed to the widespread civil unrest. In 1985 military incursions by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the military wing of the SPLM, into the Nuba hills in southern Kordofan Province set the Baggara Arabs (mainly cattle herders) against the Nuba (mainly farmers), creating tens of thousands of Nuba refugees.

Military takeover

In March 1985 a general strike was provoked by a sharp devaluation of the Sudanese pound and an increase in bread prices. Nimeri was in the USA when army mutiny threatened. One of his supporters, Gen Swar al-Dahab, took over in a bloodless coup. He set up a 15-member Transitional Military Council and held elections for a legislative assembly in April 1986, contested by more than 40 parties, the three most significant being the Islamic-nationalist New National Umma Party (NNUP), which won 99 seats; the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), 63 seats; and the fundamentalist National Islamic Front (NIF), 51 seats. A coalition government was formed, with Ahmed Ali El-Mirghani (DUP) as president of the Supreme Council and Sadiq al-Mahdi (NNUP) as prime minister. The new assembly was given the task of drafting a permanent constitution. Strikes and shortages persisted, with inflation running at about 100% and the highest national debt in Africa. A virtual civil war had broken out between the army and the SPLA in the south, where drought, famine, and an influx of refugees from neighbouring states had aggravated the situation, and in July 1987 a state of emergency was declared.

In April 1988, the prime minister announced the second break-up of his coalition government of national unity. A new coalition was formed in May, including the NNUP, DUP, and NIF. In December 1988 the signing of a peace agreement with the SPLA, led by John Garang de Mabior, threatened to split the coalition and eventually led to a military takeover by Gen Ahmed el-Bashir in July 1989. El-Bashir established a 15-member Revolutionary Command Council with himself as head of state and government, the military having foiled the second attempt in six months to restore former strongman Gaafar Nimeri to power.

Escalating civil strife

Bashir's government arrested al-Mahdi and announced that its first priority was to bring an end to the six-year war between the Muslim north and the Christian and animist south. As part of an effort to do so, it announced that the country would be divided into nine provinces, under a federal system. However, fighting continued, with a new SPLA offensive, and there were reports of mounting casualties in the southeast, where Islamic fundamentalist government forces were engaged in a ruthless campaign against the largely Christian and animist population. Early in 1992 the government declared a jihad (holy war) against the Nuba, and 163,000 were subjected to forced relocation.

There were reports of a split within the rebel SPLA in 1991 and in May 1992 two SPLA faction leaders, John Garang and Riek Machar, entered into peace negotiations with the military government. In October 1993 the military council was replaced by a civilian government, but the army retained ultimate control. SPLA leaders Garang and Machar agreed to a ceasefire early in 1995, but hostilities later renewed and there were reports of systematic abuse of human rights by all parties. In all, 1–3 million were killed in political violence 1983–94; an estimated 700,000 people were internally displaced by 1994.

The first presidential and parliamentary elections since the military coup were held in March 1996.

In October 1997 peace talks began between the government and rebel forces. However, fighting continued and in January 1998 the government claimed significant successes against the SPLA. In July 1998 the rebel Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) declared a three-month ceasefire.

In November 1999 the National Assembly voted to reintroduce a multiparty system, ending a ban on political parties and other similar groups.

US sanctions

Citing Sudan's support for terrorism, the USA in November 1997 imposed economic sanctions that included a ban on bank loans and seizure of Sudanese assets in the USA. US President Bill Clinton also signed an order banning shipment of American technology to Sudan and import of its goods.

Humanitarian crisis

The Sudan People's Liberation Army in July 1998 declared a three-month ceasefire in its fight against troops of the Islamist government to allow delivery of relief food to hundreds of thousands of starving people. The Sudanese government agreed to a one-month truce.

The UN returned to rebel-held southern Sudan in June 1999 for the first time since the 1980s, to distribute food to 100,000 desperate civilians.

Diplomacy

After five years of acrimony and rebel wars across their mutual border, the president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, and of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, signed an agreement to restore diplomatic ties in December 1999. Diplomatic ties were formally restored with Egypt early in 2000. Diplomacy had broken down in 1995 when Egypt accused Sudan of an abortive assassination attempt against the Egyptian president, Mubarak.

Government struggle for power

Days before Sudan's parliament was due to vote on changes to the constitution which would have reduced President Bashir's powers, the president declared a state of emergency and dissolved parliament, in January 2000, sacking his entire cabinet, state governors, and senior advisers. In a continuing power struggle, the parliament speaker, Hassan Turabi, accused the president of effectively staging a coup. At the end of January, some key ministers regained their jobs, and President Bashir appeared to be reconciled with Turabi. Problems continued into 2000 with rebel groups who refused President Bashir's offer of unconditional amnesty to all of his opponents.

Unexpected legislation in early September 2000 banned women in the capital, Khartoum, from working in public places where they might meet men.

In December, Bashir was re-elected and general elections were held. However, opposition parties boycotted the polls and there was no voting in the predominantly non-Muslim south, where civil war continued and famine threatened 3 million people. In February 2001, the UN World Food Programme launched an appeal for US$135 million in aid to ease the threat. The UN also removed 2,500 child soldiers, who had been demobilized from the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army, from conflict zones in Sudan. Also in February, the leader of the opposition Popular National Congress (PNC) was arrested after the PNC signed an agreement with the rebel SPLA, pledging to offer peaceful popular resistance to the government.

In March, the British charity Christian Aid accused Sudan's government of systematically depopulating oil-rich areas to allow in international oil companies. The charity reported that tens of thousands of people had been displaced.

In April 2001, Sudan's deputy defence minister and 13 other military officers were killed when their plane crashed on take-off in southern Sudan.

Hassan Turabi, arrested in February for alleged sympathies with the rebellion movement, was released from jail in May and placed under house arrest. In another move to ease the way towards peace, the government announced that air attacks on the Sudanese People's Liberation Army would stop in the country's southern and Nuba Mountains regions. However, talks between the main parties in Sudan's civil war ended in early June without agreement on a ceasefire.

Ceasefire accepted

In July 2001, the government accepted a Libyan–Egyptian peace plan aimed at ending the 18-year civil war. The plan proposed the formation of an interim administration representing all political forces. The SPLA also welcomed the initiative. A further ceasefire was signed between the government and the SPLM in February 2002, halting the fighting in the Nuba Mountains that had been ongoing for 16 years. In July 2002, the government and the SPLA agreed a framework for peace. The agreement envisaged exemption from Islamic law for non-Muslims in the south, and a power-sharing government for a six-year transitional period, after which a referendum on self-determination would be held.

Sudan (redirected from Sudan Black B)