The power struggle within Sudan’s military government has seen combat between the regular army and members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Daily News24 brings you a country profile of Sudan.
Sudan, officially the Republic of Sudan is a country in Northeast Africa. It is bordered by the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Egypt to the north, Eritrea to the northeast, Ethiopia to the southeast, Libya to the northwest, South Sudan to the south and the Red Sea.
It has a population of 45.7 million people as of 2022 and occupies 1,886,068 square kilometres (728,215 square miles), making it Africa’s third-largest country by area, and the third-largest by area in the Arab League.
It was the largest country by area in Africa and the Arab League until the secession of South Sudan in 2011 when both titles have been held by Algeria. Its capital city is Khartoum and its most populous city is Omdurman.
Modern Sudan has long been beset by conflict and instability since independence, with two lengthy north-south civil wars and a protracted war in the western region of Darfur.
Country’s Leader
Lieutenant-General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan is the current military leader of Sudan. He took power after a military coup in April 2019 following months of protests against Omar al-Bashir’s government and his months of authoritarian rule.
A military and civilian Sovereign Council was established to jointly rule Sudan and prepare the country for a return to civilian rule and national elections.
The military dismissed the civilian ministers in a coup in October 2021, but restored Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok following a month of protests. Most civilian parties refused to support the new power-sharing deal.
Country-wide protests against Hamdok’s cooperation with the military-led Hamdok to step down permanently in 2022. Al-Burhan has since pledged to establish a technocratic government and dismissed the five civilian members of the council.
Lt-Gen Burhan has been accused of involvement in atrocities during military operations against non-Arab civilians in Darfur in 2003 when he was chief of ground forces.
End of al-Bashir Era
On 19 December 2018, massive protests began after a government decision to triple the price of goods at a time when the country was suffering an acute shortage of foreign currency and inflation of 70 per cent.
In addition, President al-Bashir, who had been in power for more than 30 years, refused to step down, resulting in the convergence of opposition groups to form a united coalition.
The protests continued after the overthrow of his government on 11 April 2019 after a massive sit-in in front of the Sudanese Armed Forces main headquarters, after which the chiefs of staff decided to intervene and they ordered the arrest of President al-Bashir and declared a three-month state of emergency.
Sudan’s controversies
- Sudan also has a territorial dispute with Egypt over the Hala’ib Triangle.
- Since 2003, foreign relations in Sudan had centred on the support for ending the Second Sudanese Civil War and condemnation of government support for militias in the war in Darfur.
- In June 2019, Sudan was suspended from the African Union over the lack of progress towards the establishment of a civilian-led transitional authority since its initial meeting following the coup d’état of 11 April 2019.
- On 14 December the U.S. Government removed Sudan from its State Sponsor of Terrorism list; as part of the deal, Sudan agreed to pay $335 million in compensation to victims of the 1998 embassy bombings.
- The dispute between Sudan and Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam escalated in 2021.
- Because of the secession of South Sudan, which contained about 75 percent of Sudan’s oilfields, Sudan entered a phase of stagflation, GDP growth slowed to 3.4 percent in 2014, 3.1 percent in 2015 and was projected to recover slowly to 3.7 percent in 2016 while inflation remained as high as 21.8% as of 2015.
- Sudan’s GDP fell from US$123.053 billion in 2017 to US$40.852 billion in 2018.
Other facts about Sudan
Official languages – Arabic English
Ethnic groups – 70% Sudanese Arab, 5.5% Beja, 2.5% Nuba. 2% Fur, 1.2% Egyptian, 1% Hausa, 0.5% Fulani, 17.3% others.
Religion – 91.7% Islam, 4.5% Christianity, 2.8% Traditional Faiths, 1.0% Others
Demonym(s) – Sudanese
Currency – Sudanese pound (SDG)
