Sudan- Country Profile

Sudan is a sprawling nation of more than 40 million people, which blends rich Arab and African cultures—at times uncomfortably. Sudanese President Omer Al Bashir came to power in a 1989 military coup and the nation is ruled by a strict Islamic code of law known as Shari’a. At present, Sudan boasts one of the ten fastest growing economies in the world; and the capital city Khartoum is experiencing an economic boom spurred by investment in the nation’s oil reserves.

Despite a thriving economic sector Sudan’s western Darfur region remains wracked by violent conflict, and a 2005 peace agreement that ended twenty-one years of civil war between north and south Sudan has faced its own setbacks in recent months.

The nation has a long history of ethnic strife. After gaining independence from colonial England in 1956, Sudan entered five decades of civil unrest, which exploded into war in 1983 between the nation’s Muslim Arab north and African south which is primarily Christian and animist.

The war, fought in the southern theatre, was a struggle over religion and resources.
Southern rebels formed the powerful Sudan’ People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). The SPLM/A fought a government plat to forcibly Islamicize the south and charged northern foes with attempting to steal the south’s vast, untapped oil reserves.

In January 2005 the SPLM/A and the government of Sudan inked a peace accord, ending the twenty-one war.

Southern Sudan was granted an autonomous government and protocols were signed on wealth-sharing—with particular attention paid to southern oil reserves. As part of the deal southern Sudanese will vote in a 2011 referendum on whether to remain united with the north or secede and form their own nation.

More than 2 million southern Sudanese died during the prolonged conflict, while some 4 million others fled the south, settling in Khartoum and overseas.

As the north/south conflict came to a close, a separate ethnic conflict rent Sudan’s western Darfur region. A vast, remote area the size of France, Darfur has long been marred by conflicts over land and water between nomadic Arab tribes and African farmers. Unlike the north/south war, racial distinctions are often unclear in Darfur and all parties to the conflict practice Islam, but traditional rivalries run deep.

In February 2003, the rebel Sudan Liberation Army attacked government positions in Darfur, complaining that the region remained undeveloped due to neglect from Sudan’s government.

Khartoum is charged with exploiting the region’s deep inter-ethnic tensions by providing arms to Arab tribes, who formed armed militias and concentrated savage attacks on civilian encampments.
These militias, known as janjaweed, continue to move with impunity, raping, looting and killing at will.

A May 5th peace agreement brokered by the African Union in Abuja, Nigeria was hailed by the international community as Darfur’s best bet toward ending the conflict.

But only one faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement, led by 38-year-old former schoolteacher Minni Minnawi signed on to the deal. Other rebel factions refused to sign on to the agreement, complaining that the deal does not meet their basic demands of wealth and power sharing.\

Minnawi rose to the post of senior advisor to President Omer Al Bashir, but the widely lauded agreement faltered as holdout rebels and the government continued to battle it out in Darfur, with civilians again caught in the crossfire.

As the eyes of the international community turned to Darfur, western nations in particular have increasingly demanded United Nations intervention in the embattled region. Sudan has refused a UN presence, instead affirming its faith in the 7,000 member African Union force, which has struggled with a lack of funding and a weak mandate.

More than 2.5 million people have been displaced by the fighting, in Darfur and eastern Chad. And while the Sudanese government sets the death toll at about 9,000 outside observers including the World Health Organization say more than 200,000 people have died.

The United States has labeled the conflict “genocide,” though the United Nations has restricted its definition to the less severe “ethnic cleansing.”
Observers fear that the conflict, which has spread into neighboring Chad, will engulf the entire region.