REPUBLIC OF SUDAN Official name: Jumhuriyat as-Sudan (Republic of Sudan) Location: East Africa International organisations: The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, The African Union, The Arab League, The Non-Aligned Movement, The Organisation of Islamic Conference, The United Nations. Borders: Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Democratic Reublic), Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Uganda Coastline: Red Sea Land area: 2,505,810 Km2 Population: 37,100,000 Ethnicity: The majority (about 60%) of the Sudanese are of Arab or mixed Arab-Nubian descent: these groups predominate in the north and centre of the country. In the south the population is mainly black African (or Bantu), the main ethnic groups being the Azande, Dinka, Nuer and Shilluk peoples. There are small European, Armenian and Indian minorities.

Languages: Arabic is the official language and is aggressively promoted by the government, but only about 70% speak it as their first language. In the south the population speak various African languages, with English as the language of communications.
Religion: Islam is the state religion. The majority of Sudanese (70%) are Sunni Moslem, the north and centre of the country being overwhelmingly Moslem. The Christian (about 10%) and animist (20%) populations are mostly in the south.
Form of government: Military dictatorship. Sudan is divided into 26 states.
Capital: Khartoum
Constitution: Sudan has had four constitutions since independence, but all have been suspended following coups. The most recent constitution came into effect on 30 June 1998, but was suspended in 1999.
Head of state: The President, in theory elected by direct univeral suffrage for a five-year term. The current president took power in a military coup and has retained it through fraudulent elections, the most recent of which was in December 2000.
Head of government: The President, who appoints all ministers.
Legislature: Sudan has a unicameral legislature, the National Assembly (Majlis Watani), which has 360 members. Of these 270 directly elected for four-year terms from single-member constituencies, while 100 members are appointed to represent women, university graduates and trade unions. The last elections to this body were held in December 2000. The legislature has no real power and candidates opposed by the government cannot contest elections.
Electoral authority: Elections are conducted by the government.
Freedom House rating: Political Rights 7, Civil Liberties 7
(Freedom House lists Sudan as one of the world's nine worst regimes for both political rights and civil rights.)

Political history

The Ottoman Empire acquired Egypt in 1517 and claimed sovereignty over the Sudan area, but did not penetrate the area until the 1820s. When the British assumed de facto control over Egypt, they also acquired control of Sudan. General Charles Gordon was de facto ruler of Sudan from 1874 until his death at the hands of a revolutionary army led by the religious leader known as the Mahdi in 1885. Following the reconquest of Sudan by Kitchener in 1895, the area became an Anglo-Egyptian "condominium." From 1914 to 1945 Sudan was effectively ruled by the British.

After the Second World War the country moved towards independence, with the first elections being held in 1948. A party which favoured union with Egypt won the second elections, in 1952, but the republican revolution in Egypt changed Sudanese opinions, and the legislature opted for independence, which came in 1956. With 18 months there was a military coup. The military government handed power back to civilians in 1964, but there was another coup in 1969, which brought the durable radical dictator Gaafar Nimeiry to power.

The chronic problem of independent Sudan has been that the Christian/animist south has never accepted rule by the Moslem north, an issue aggravated by Nimeiry's attempt in 1983 to impose Shari'a law on the country. Insurrection in the south began in the late 1960s and has continued intermittently ever since.

Nimeiry's failure to defeat the insurrection in the south led to another coup in 1985, which brought a civilian government to power. Elections were held in 1986, but the government of Sadiq al Mahdi could find no solution to the southern problem. Another coup in 1989 brought the present military regime, dominated by militant Islamists, to power.

Sudan is for practical purposes a one-party state, dominated by President Bashir's National Congress Party, which provides a civilian facade for military rule and a vehicle for the regime's Islamist ideology. The imposition of Islamism has further alienated the south, but the southern secessionist movement is too weak and divided to make much headway against the regime.

Human Rights Watch's 2002 Report on Sudan noted: "In December 2001, the National Assembly, dominated by the ruling National Congress, approved the extension for another year of the state of emergency in effect since December 1999. It amended the constitution in May 2002, granting President Omar El Bashir greater executive powers and allowing for his indefinite rule, and additional powers to the security forces and police.

"Repression of opposition political activity remained the norm. The opposition Popular National Congress (PNC), founded by President Bashir's erstwhile Islamist ally, Dr Hassan Turabi, suffered a series of arrests and rearrests; by September some 150 activists throughout the country were in detention. Dr Turabi continued in prolonged arbitrary detention, mandated by presidential decree, contrary to a court decision in October 2000 ordering his release.

"Moderate students' protests at mass arrests and security and police attacks against them during October demonstrations led to Islamist student militia attacks against them, injuring many, and subsequent torture after the hospitalised were taken to security detention. The press was faced with intermittent increased repression: journalists and editors were detained and questioned about the publications' content; newspapers were fined heavily; and editions of many papers were confiscated because of articles the censors did not like, although all papers were subjected to prior censorship."