Quick Fact File

| 2009-02-13 | More about Sudan > | The country

(Those of you already involved in Sudan, please send us facts you feel may be important for “new Sudan friends” visiting our website. Our intention is to provide individuals, organizations and churches interested in ministry in/for Sudan with relevant, though not exhaustive facts on the country)

Geography

Sudan is a vast, diverse country both in terms of geography and culture. At present it is the largest country in Africa (2,505,810 sq km or 967,499 sq miles). Travelling from the south to the north will keep you on the road for 2,192 km or 1,362 miles and crossing the country from east to west will do the same for 1,880 km or 1,168 miles. These roads are often very rough and during the rainy season the challenges increase dramatically.

Capital Cities

Khartoum is the capital city and it consists of three parts, namely Khartoum proper, Khartoum North and Omdurman. It is here that the White Nile and Blue Nile become one , flowing north to Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. Juba is the capital of South Sudan.

Population

According to estimates from July 2008 there are about 40,218,456 people in Sudan. Read more...

Gurtong is a handy website initiated and managed by Southern Sudanese. The website contains a wealth of information on South Sudan and the section on community profiles will provide readers with helpful information on this topic. There are also regional maps of southern Sudan with information on size, population, politics, economics and so forth added to each map.

Neighbouring Countries

Nine countries (Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Chad and Libya!) share borders with Sudan, making the country a major gateway to North and Central Africa.

History

Sudan, like many African countries, consists of numerous ethnic groups. Unlike most states, however, Sudan has two distinct divisions: the north, which is largely Arab and Muslim, and the south, which consists predominantly of black Nilotic peoples, some of whom are members of indigenous faiths and others who are Christians.

British policy during the Anglo-Egyptian condominium (1899-1955) intensified the rift because Britain established separate administrations for the two areas and forbade northerners to enter the south. In the 1990s, many southerners continued to fear being ruled by northerners, who lacked familiarity with their beliefs and ethnic traditions and sought to impose northern institutions on them. Read more...

Other websites you may like to visit on this topic (in alphabetical order):

Politics

Southern Sudan

Past: Except for a ten-year period, 1972 – 1982, the people of South Sudan have known nothing but war until a comprehensive peace agreement was signed on January 9, 2005.

South Sudan has been shattered both physically and psychologically to the extent that the people of the region are developing a new culture of hatred and distrust. This holds particularly true for those in the Diaspora who reflect and intensify any existing small conflicts back home.

Hope for the Future The Gurtong Peace Trust Project has reason to be optimistic about future unity of the people of South Sudan. When launched in 2002, Gurtong's main objective was to provide the South Sudanese in exile with a forum that would enable them to exchange news and opinions in a respectful manner, and to publish unbiased information, not only on political but also on legal, social and cultural matters. Read More on Gurtong Trust

North Sudan

In 2008, Sudan continued to cope with the countrywide effects of conflict, displacement, and insecurity. During more than 20 years of conflict between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), violence, famine, and disease killed more than 2 million people, forced an estimated 600,000 people to seek refuge in neighboring countries, and displaced approximately 4 million others within Sudan, creating the world's largest population of internally displaced people.

Since the 2005 signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which officially ended the north-south conflict, the UN estimates that nearly 2 million displaced people have returned to southern Sudan and the three areas of Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile, and Abyei. Read More

The politics of Sudan takes place in the framework of an authoritarian democratic in which all effective political power is in the hands of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Bashir and his party have controlled the government since he led the military coup on 30 June 1989. Read More

Published in: More about Sudan > The country