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Republic of the Sudan: Difference between revisions

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==== Kush ====
==== Kush ====
[[File:Map of ancient and medieval sub-Saharan African states.jpg|alt=A map of Africa depicting several of the major ancient and medieval states of Sub-Saharan Africa, including their approximate locations and dates of their peak.|thumb|A map depicting several of the major ancient and medieval states in sub-Saharan Africa, including Kush, Nobatia/Faras, Dongola, and Alodia.]]
The area around Kush was inhabited circa 8000 BCE. The city of Kerma was established in Kush by circa 2400 BCE. Kerma traded in ivory, gold, bronze, ebony, and slaves with neighboring states and along the Red Sea. Around 1500 BCE, Egypt conquered Kerma, with Egyptian rule prevailing in Kush until the 11th century BCE.<ref name=":3">{{Web citation|author=Isma'il Kushkush|newspaper=Smithsonian Magazine|title=In the Land of Kush|date=2020-09|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/sudan-land-kush-meroe-ancient-civilization-overlooked-180975498/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250823035007/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/sudan-land-kush-meroe-ancient-civilization-overlooked-180975498/|archive-date=2025-08-23}}</ref> The Kingdom of Kush rose to prominence between approximately 1069 BCE and 350 CE.<ref name=":4">{{Web citation|author=Joshua J. Mark|newspaper=World History Encyclopedia|title=The Kingdom of Kush|date=2018-02-26|url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Kush/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250717123919/https://www.worldhistory.org/Kush/|archive-date=2025-07-17}}</ref>
The area around Kush was inhabited circa 8000 BCE. The city of Kerma was established in Kush by circa 2400 BCE. Kerma traded in ivory, gold, bronze, ebony, and slaves with neighboring states and along the Red Sea. Around 1500 BCE, Egypt conquered Kerma, with Egyptian rule prevailing in Kush until the 11th century BCE.<ref name=":3">{{Web citation|author=Isma'il Kushkush|newspaper=Smithsonian Magazine|title=In the Land of Kush|date=2020-09|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/sudan-land-kush-meroe-ancient-civilization-overlooked-180975498/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250823035007/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/sudan-land-kush-meroe-ancient-civilization-overlooked-180975498/|archive-date=2025-08-23}}</ref> The Kingdom of Kush rose to prominence between approximately 1069 BCE and 350 CE.<ref name=":4">{{Web citation|author=Joshua J. Mark|newspaper=World History Encyclopedia|title=The Kingdom of Kush|date=2018-02-26|url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Kush/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250717123919/https://www.worldhistory.org/Kush/|archive-date=2025-07-17}}</ref>


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The [[Sultanate of Darfur (1603–1916)|Sultanate of Darfur]] arose in the mid-1600s.<ref name=":5">{{Web citation|author=Christopher Banks|newspaper=Liberation News|title=Survivors and Saviors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror (book review)|date=2009-06-09|url=https://liberationnews.org/09-06-09-survivors-saviors-darfur-polit-html/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250826072206/https://liberationnews.org/09-06-09-survivors-saviors-darfur-polit-html/|archive-date=2025-08-26}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=J. O. Hunwick (Editor)|year=1983|title=Land in Dār Fūr: charters and related documents from the Dār Fūr sultanate|title-url=https://archive.org/details/landindarfurchar0000unse/mode/1up|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> Its main trading centers were Kobbei and Al-Fashir.<ref name=":14" /> The Sultanate of Darfur remained an independent power until being annexed under Turco-Egyptian rule by 1874.<ref name=":13" /><ref>{{Citation|author=R.S. O'Fahey|year=1997|title=THE CONQUEST OF DARFUR, 1873 - 1882|title-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44947726|publisher=University of Khartoum|series=Sudan Notes and Records}}</ref>   
The [[Sultanate of Darfur (1603–1916)|Sultanate of Darfur]] arose in the mid-1600s.<ref name=":5">{{Web citation|author=Christopher Banks|newspaper=Liberation News|title=Survivors and Saviors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror (book review)|date=2009-06-09|url=https://liberationnews.org/09-06-09-survivors-saviors-darfur-polit-html/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250826072206/https://liberationnews.org/09-06-09-survivors-saviors-darfur-polit-html/|archive-date=2025-08-26}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=J. O. Hunwick (Editor)|year=1983|title=Land in Dār Fūr: charters and related documents from the Dār Fūr sultanate|title-url=https://archive.org/details/landindarfurchar0000unse/mode/1up|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> Its main trading centers were Kobbei and Al-Fashir.<ref name=":14" /> The Sultanate of Darfur remained an independent power until being annexed under Turco-Egyptian rule by 1874.<ref name=":13" /><ref>{{Citation|author=R.S. O'Fahey|year=1997|title=THE CONQUEST OF DARFUR, 1873 - 1882|title-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44947726|publisher=University of Khartoum|series=Sudan Notes and Records}}</ref>   


=== Turco-Egyptian rule ===
=== Turco-Egyptian rule (1820-1885) ===
The period of Turco-Egyptian rule in Sudan is also referred to as Turkiyyah (Arabic: التركية, ''at-Turkiyyah'').<ref name=":13" />
The period of Turco-Egyptian rule in Sudan is also referred to as Turkiyyah (Arabic: التركية, ''at-Turkiyyah'').<ref name=":13" />


In the 1860s, Egypt, a cotton producer, had taken out loans from [[Britain]] and [[France]], during a period in which international cotton prices had risen in part due to the [[Statesian Civil War|US Civil War]].<ref name=":15">{{Web citation|author=Eric Toussaint|newspaper=Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt|title=Debt as an instrument of the colonial conquest of Egypt|date=2016-06-06|url=https://www.cadtm.org/Debt-as-an-instrument-of-the|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250828152508/https://www.cadtm.org/Debt-as-an-instrument-of-the|archive-date=2025-08-28}}</ref> Egypt gained higher profits from cotton at this time, and took out loans, expecting to be able to repay its debts. However, cotton prices fell when the US resumed exporting cotton, and Egypt began to face difficulties with its debt repayments, with debt service consuming two-thirds of state revenues and half of export earnings by 1876.<ref name=":15" /> Egypt's increasing foreign debt led it to demand increased tax revenues from administrators in Sudan.<ref name=":16">{{Citation|author=Carole Collins|year=1976|title=Colonialism and Class Struggle in Sudan|title-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3010898|publisher=MERIP Reports|doi=10.2307/3010898|volume=No. 46}}</ref> British and French creditors imposed economic restrictions on Egypt in the 1870s, establishing British and French [[dual control]] in Egyptian governance and the [[Caisse de la Dette Publique|Public Debt Comission]] (French: ''Caisse de la Dette Publique''), increasingly eroding Egypt's sovereignty.<ref name=":15" /><ref name=":16" /> Over time, Turco-Egyptian control over Sudan weakened as military garrisons began to be reduced in size and several military units disbanded, while taxation was increased. Some unemployed Sudanese soldiers who had been forced out of the Egyptian army due to budget restrictions then joined with the Mahdist movement.<ref name=":16" />
In the 1860s, Egypt, a cotton producer, had taken out loans from [[Britain]] and [[France]], during a period in which international cotton prices had risen in part due to the [[Statesian Civil War|US Civil War]].<ref name=":15">{{Web citation|author=Eric Toussaint|newspaper=Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt|title=Debt as an instrument of the colonial conquest of Egypt|date=2016-06-06|url=https://www.cadtm.org/Debt-as-an-instrument-of-the|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250828152508/https://www.cadtm.org/Debt-as-an-instrument-of-the|archive-date=2025-08-28}}</ref> Egypt gained higher profits from cotton at this time, and took out loans, expecting to be able to repay its [[Debt|debts]]. However, cotton prices fell when the US resumed exporting cotton, and Egypt began to face difficulties with its debt repayments, with debt service consuming two-thirds of state revenues and half of export earnings by 1876.<ref name=":15" /> Egypt's increasing foreign debt led it to demand increased tax revenues from administrators in Sudan.<ref name=":16">{{Citation|author=Carole Collins|year=1976|title=Colonialism and Class Struggle in Sudan|title-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3010898|publisher=MERIP Reports|doi=10.2307/3010898|volume=No. 46}}</ref> British and French creditors imposed economic restrictions on Egypt in the 1870s, establishing British and French [[dual control]] in Egyptian governance and the [[Caisse de la Dette Publique|Public Debt Comission]] (French: ''Caisse de la Dette Publique''), increasingly eroding Egypt's sovereignty.<ref name=":15" /><ref name=":16" /> Over time, Turco-Egyptian control over Sudan weakened as military garrisons began to be reduced in size and several military units disbanded, while taxation was increased. Some unemployed Sudanese soldiers who had been forced out of the Egyptian army due to budget restrictions then joined with the Mahdist movement.<ref name=":16" />


=== Mahdist state ===
=== Mahdist state (1885-1899) ===
In 1885, Khartoum was captured by the armies of the [[Mahdist revolution]] against British and Turco-Egyptian forces, led by [[Muhammad Ahmad ibn Abdullah]], eventually defeated by the British in 1898.<ref name=":6">{{Web citation|author=Caelen Anacker|newspaper=Blackpast|title=Khartoum, Sudan (1821- )|date=2010-07-07|url=https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/khartoum-sudan-1821/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250422034016/https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/khartoum-sudan-1821/|archive-date=2025-04-22}}</ref><ref name=":5" />
In 1885, Khartoum was captured by the armies of the [[Mahdist revolution]] against British and Turco-Egyptian forces, led by [[Muhammad Ahmad ibn Abdullah]], eventually defeated by the British in 1898.<ref name=":6">{{Web citation|author=Caelen Anacker|newspaper=Blackpast|title=Khartoum, Sudan (1821- )|date=2010-07-07|url=https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/khartoum-sudan-1821/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250422034016/https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/khartoum-sudan-1821/|archive-date=2025-04-22}}</ref><ref name=":5" />


=== Anglo-Egyptian rule ===
=== Anglo-Egyptian rule (1899-1956) ===
Anglo-Egyptian rule in Sudan was a condominium of joint rule established by an agreement between Great Britain and Egypt under which the two countries would jointly administer Sudan.<ref name=":8">{{Web citation|author=David Zuber|newspaper=Blackpast|title=Ismail Al-Azhari (1900-1969)|date=2022-03-11|url=https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/ismail-al-azhari-1900-1969/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250710194240/https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/ismail-al-azhari-1900-1969/|archive-date=2025-07-10}}</ref>  
Anglo-Egyptian rule in Sudan was a condominium of joint rule established by an agreement between Great Britain and Egypt under which the two countries would jointly administer Sudan.<ref name=":8">{{Web citation|author=David Zuber|newspaper=Blackpast|title=Ismail Al-Azhari (1900-1969)|date=2022-03-11|url=https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/ismail-al-azhari-1900-1969/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250710194240/https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/ismail-al-azhari-1900-1969/|archive-date=2025-07-10}}</ref>  


Agriculture in the colonial period was primarily export-oriented, with the [[Gezira Scheme]] established to supply British industrial capital with cotton.<ref name=":9">{{Citation|author=Fatima Babiker Mahmoud|year=1981|title=Some Aspects of the Political Economy of the Sudan|title-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44947427|publisher=University of Khartoum|series=Sudan Notes and Records}}</ref>
On the subject of Anglo-Egyptian joint rule, author Carole Collins, in the paper "Colonialism and Class Struggle in Sudan" refers to this agreement as serving to "preserve the fiction" that Sudan was being jointly administered, while in reality the British were in control, with the joint rule agreement serving useful [[Geopolitics|geopolitical]] and economic purposes for the British. In Collins' analysis, the joint rule agreement was useful for deflecting the competition of other European powers as they competed for control of the Nile river, with British diplomats able to portray Britain as supposedly having no colonial ambitions in Sudan, able to claim they were only helping Egypt regain its "lost colony."<ref name=":16" /> Furthermore, the British were also able to use the joint rule agreement to push the costs of invading and further colonizing Sudan onto Egypt's treasury rather than Britain's.<ref name=":16" />


In 1943, [[Ismail al-Azhari]], future prime minster of independent Sudan, helped form the Ashiqqa Party, the first political party organized in Sudan.<ref name=":8" />
Analyzing the style of administration of this period, Fatima Babiker Mahmoud notes that the colonial government's objectives included the exploitation of "existing tribal, regional and ethnic reality in order to apply the cheapest administration in a vast country" and to ensure a congruence between tribal and administrative boundaries, which "disguised colonial expansion and portrayed it as a competition between the different tribes and ethnic and regional groups."<ref name=":9" />
 
Agriculture in the colonial condominium period was primarily export-oriented, with the [[Gezira Scheme]] established to supply British industrial capital with cotton.<ref name=":9">{{Citation|author=Fatima Babiker Mahmoud|year=1981|title=Some Aspects of the Political Economy of the Sudan|title-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44947427|publisher=University of Khartoum|series=Sudan Notes and Records}}</ref> Other major exports of this era were gum, livestock, and oilseeds (including sesame, groundnuts and cotton-seed).<ref name=":14" /> Subsistence agriculture became more and more integrated into the money economy while small-scale agriculture became more linked with the export market.<ref name=":9" /> Also during the colonial condominium period, production of handicrafts was halted in order to make way for foreign manufactured imports, mainly from Britain.<ref name=":9" />
 
In 1928 and 1931, students at Gordon College organized strikes.<ref name=":14" /> During the 1930s, Sudanese nationalists formed study groups in Khartoum and Omdurman to discuss independence.<ref name=":16" /> In 1938, a Graduates' Congress was formed, which would come to have chapters in several cities and small towns and reach almost 2000 members and required at least a high school education,<ref name=":16" /> while in 1941 the Gordon College students' union was formed, whose activities would grow more overtly political throughout the 1940s with influence from the Graduates' Congress.<ref name=":14" /> In 1943, [[Ismail al-Azhari]], future prime minster of independent Sudan, helped form the Ashiqqa Party, the first political party organized in Sudan.<ref name=":8" /> In 1945, the Umma Party was formed.<ref name=":16" /> In 1946, Sudanese workers formed the Worker's Affairs Association (WAA), Sudan's first trade union, which was focused mainly on rail workers as the railway department was the single largest employer in Sudan with 20,000 railway workers.<ref name=":16" /> The Sudanese Movement for National Liberation (SMNL), later to become the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP), founded a branch at Gordon College in 1946.<ref name=":14" />


=== Independence ===
=== Independence ===

Revision as of 09:59, 4 September 2025

Republic of the Sudan
جمهورية السودان
Flag of Republic of the Sudan
Flag
Coat of arms of Republic of the Sudan
Coat of arms
Location of Republic of the Sudan
Capital
and largest city
Khartoum
Official languagesArabic
English
Dominant mode of productionCapitalism
GovernmentFederal Bourgeois Provisional Government
Area
• Total
1,886,068 km²
Population
• 2022 estimate
45,709,353


Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northern Africa bordered by Egypt, Libya, Chad, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea with a coastline on the Red Sea to the east. Sudan's capital is Khartoum, located where the two major tributaries of the Nile River merge together.[1] Sudan is Africa's third largest country by area. Prior to the secession of South Sudan in 2011, Sudan was the largest country in Africa by area.[2]

In 2023, a civil war broke out in Sudan following a series of mass protests by a coalition of civilian groups which gained momentum in 2018, and a succession of military takeovers and transitional governing structures following the 2019 military ousting of Omar al-Bashir, who had been Sudan's prior head of state for 30 years.[3][4] Major warring factions consist of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary, factions which had previously composed a Transitional Military Council formed after a military takeover of Sudan's short-lived transitional government which itself had been formed after the 2019 ousting of Bashir.[3][4] The civilian protests against Bashir and also against the successive transitional governments have included people's Resistance Committees and the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP), among other groups such as the Sudanese Professional Association.[3][4]

The SAF is headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (also known as Hemedti).[4] Earlier in his career, al-Burhan was posted in Darfur in the 2000s and coordinated joint actions with Hemedti's paramilitary group. In 2015, al-Burhan oversaw Sudanese troops fighting in Yemen on behalf of the Saudi-backed faction.[5][6] Hemedti was formerly a commander of the Janjaweed militia group[7] and is one of the wealthiest people in Sudan,[5] he and his family being involved in the gold mining industry.[5][8] The United Arab Emirates, the leading destination of smuggled gold from Sudan, has been accused of financing and arming the RSF.[9]

After the outbreak of fighting between the SAF and RSF forces in 2023, the Sudanese Communist Party issued a statement which characterized the events as "a continuation of the struggle over power and the country's wealth, encouraged by some foreign powers, and being carried out by armed groups subservient to these foreign powers."[10] In another statement, issued in 2025, the SCP described the warring parties as "two sides of the same coin" stating that both regional and international forces led by the United States have been seeking "to secure a partnership between the military and select civilian factions in order to protect their entrenched interests from the threat of radical change."[11] The SCP statement emphasized the need to engage with the masses and construct "grassroots instruments of struggle [...] far removed from the machinations of elite politics."[11] As of 2025, it has been estimated that at least 150,000 people have been killed and at least 13 million people displaced since the outbreak of the war.[4][12]

History

Ancient history

See main articles: Kingdom of Kush, Nobadia

The area which comprises modern Sudan has been known by different names and varying political and cultural groupings in different periods. The region historically known as Nubia is located in what is today northern Sudan and southern Egypt. The cataracts of the Nile river have in some contexts served as a way of conceptualizing boundaries in the region, with the cataract at Aswan often considered the traditional boundary between Egypt in the north and Nubia in the south. Over millennia, the region of Nubia gave rise to a number of cultures and kingdoms.[13][14][15] Some of these include Kush, Makuria, Nobadia, and Alodia.[16][13]

Kush

A map of Africa depicting several of the major ancient and medieval states of Sub-Saharan Africa, including their approximate locations and dates of their peak.
A map depicting several of the major ancient and medieval states in sub-Saharan Africa, including Kush, Nobatia/Faras, Dongola, and Alodia.

The area around Kush was inhabited circa 8000 BCE. The city of Kerma was established in Kush by circa 2400 BCE. Kerma traded in ivory, gold, bronze, ebony, and slaves with neighboring states and along the Red Sea. Around 1500 BCE, Egypt conquered Kerma, with Egyptian rule prevailing in Kush until the 11th century BCE.[17] The Kingdom of Kush rose to prominence between approximately 1069 BCE and 350 CE.[18]

Over time, as Egypt's New Kingdom declined (circa 1069 BCE) the Kushite city of Napata grew stronger as a political entity independent of Egypt.[18] Over time, a dynasty of kings from Napata arose, with the third king of Napata, Piankhi (also called Piye), defeating a coalition of Egyptian princes and establishing the 25th Dynasty of Egypt.[17]

Beginning in the 6th century BCE, the capital of Kush was gradually moved south to Meroë, a junction of several important trade routes in a region which was rich with iron and precious metals[17] as well as agricultural production exporting grains and cereals.[18] Kush continued with Meroë as its capital until an invasion by Axumites circa 330 CE, which destroyed the city, with the Kingdom of Kush itself coming to an end circa 350 CE.[18]

Medieval history

By the sixth century CE there were three Nubian kingdoms, namely Nobadia, Makuria, and Alodia.[16] These kingdoms converted to Christianity in the sixth century.[16] In the seventh century, Nobadia was incorporated into Makuria.[16]

Mentions of the Funj Sultanate, also called the Sultanate of Sennar, appear in historical records by approximately 1504.[19][16] The Funj Sultanate was located in central Sudan.[20] Major exports of the Funj Sultanate included gold, slaves, gum arabic, ivory, rhinoceros horn, civet, ostrich feathers and perfumes.[21]

The Sultanate of Darfur arose in the mid-1600s.[22][23] Its main trading centers were Kobbei and Al-Fashir.[21] The Sultanate of Darfur remained an independent power until being annexed under Turco-Egyptian rule by 1874.[20][24]

Turco-Egyptian rule (1820-1885)

The period of Turco-Egyptian rule in Sudan is also referred to as Turkiyyah (Arabic: التركية, at-Turkiyyah).[20]

In the 1860s, Egypt, a cotton producer, had taken out loans from Britain and France, during a period in which international cotton prices had risen in part due to the US Civil War.[25] Egypt gained higher profits from cotton at this time, and took out loans, expecting to be able to repay its debts. However, cotton prices fell when the US resumed exporting cotton, and Egypt began to face difficulties with its debt repayments, with debt service consuming two-thirds of state revenues and half of export earnings by 1876.[25] Egypt's increasing foreign debt led it to demand increased tax revenues from administrators in Sudan.[26] British and French creditors imposed economic restrictions on Egypt in the 1870s, establishing British and French dual control in Egyptian governance and the Public Debt Comission (French: Caisse de la Dette Publique), increasingly eroding Egypt's sovereignty.[25][26] Over time, Turco-Egyptian control over Sudan weakened as military garrisons began to be reduced in size and several military units disbanded, while taxation was increased. Some unemployed Sudanese soldiers who had been forced out of the Egyptian army due to budget restrictions then joined with the Mahdist movement.[26]

Mahdist state (1885-1899)

In 1885, Khartoum was captured by the armies of the Mahdist revolution against British and Turco-Egyptian forces, led by Muhammad Ahmad ibn Abdullah, eventually defeated by the British in 1898.[1][22]

Anglo-Egyptian rule (1899-1956)

Anglo-Egyptian rule in Sudan was a condominium of joint rule established by an agreement between Great Britain and Egypt under which the two countries would jointly administer Sudan.[27]

On the subject of Anglo-Egyptian joint rule, author Carole Collins, in the paper "Colonialism and Class Struggle in Sudan" refers to this agreement as serving to "preserve the fiction" that Sudan was being jointly administered, while in reality the British were in control, with the joint rule agreement serving useful geopolitical and economic purposes for the British. In Collins' analysis, the joint rule agreement was useful for deflecting the competition of other European powers as they competed for control of the Nile river, with British diplomats able to portray Britain as supposedly having no colonial ambitions in Sudan, able to claim they were only helping Egypt regain its "lost colony."[26] Furthermore, the British were also able to use the joint rule agreement to push the costs of invading and further colonizing Sudan onto Egypt's treasury rather than Britain's.[26]

Analyzing the style of administration of this period, Fatima Babiker Mahmoud notes that the colonial government's objectives included the exploitation of "existing tribal, regional and ethnic reality in order to apply the cheapest administration in a vast country" and to ensure a congruence between tribal and administrative boundaries, which "disguised colonial expansion and portrayed it as a competition between the different tribes and ethnic and regional groups."[28]

Agriculture in the colonial condominium period was primarily export-oriented, with the Gezira Scheme established to supply British industrial capital with cotton.[28] Other major exports of this era were gum, livestock, and oilseeds (including sesame, groundnuts and cotton-seed).[21] Subsistence agriculture became more and more integrated into the money economy while small-scale agriculture became more linked with the export market.[28] Also during the colonial condominium period, production of handicrafts was halted in order to make way for foreign manufactured imports, mainly from Britain.[28]

In 1928 and 1931, students at Gordon College organized strikes.[21] During the 1930s, Sudanese nationalists formed study groups in Khartoum and Omdurman to discuss independence.[26] In 1938, a Graduates' Congress was formed, which would come to have chapters in several cities and small towns and reach almost 2000 members and required at least a high school education,[26] while in 1941 the Gordon College students' union was formed, whose activities would grow more overtly political throughout the 1940s with influence from the Graduates' Congress.[21] In 1943, Ismail al-Azhari, future prime minster of independent Sudan, helped form the Ashiqqa Party, the first political party organized in Sudan.[27] In 1945, the Umma Party was formed.[26] In 1946, Sudanese workers formed the Worker's Affairs Association (WAA), Sudan's first trade union, which was focused mainly on rail workers as the railway department was the single largest employer in Sudan with 20,000 railway workers.[26] The Sudanese Movement for National Liberation (SMNL), later to become the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP), founded a branch at Gordon College in 1946.[21]

Independence

On January 1, 1956, Sudan gained formal independence, with Ismail al-Azhari elected as first prime minister.[16][27]

In the analysis of Fatima Babiker Mahmoud, a lecturer of political economy at the University of Khartoum in the 1980s,[29] after independence in 1956, the nature of the state which had previously been constructed to support colonial rule did not change significantly after independence. In Mahmoud's view, the main difference was a shift from British colonial policy to a neo-colonial configuration.[28]

Sudan was under a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1969, when Jaafar Nimeiry overthrew the corrupt junta with support from the Sudanese Communist Party. Nimeiry banned all political parties except the SCP. In 1970, he began an attack on Sadiq al-Mahdi's reactionary Umma Party before cracking down on the SCP.[30]

In 1978, Nimeiry signed the first of several stabilization programs with the International Monetary Fund. This resulted in the creation of a typical IMF/World Bank program which consisted of measures such as currency devaluation, trade liberalization, social spending cuts, layoffs, removal of food subsidies, and a shift to privatization and an export-oriented economy, particularly focusing on the export of cotton. The export-led growth model led to smallholders being pushed off of their lands while giving an advantage to already large land owners and agribusiness, as well as to a decline in the production of food for local consumption and a rise in dependence on imports of wheat via US taxpayer-subsidized commodity aid programs.[31]

In 1985, mass protests removed Nimeiry from power, but Omar Hassan al-Bashir established another dictatorship in 1989. U.S. president Bill Clinton ordered the destruction of Sudan's only pharmaceutical plant in 1988, removing 90% of Sudan's access to medicine.[32] Sudan lost all access from anti-malaria drugs.[33] The US labeled Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1993.[34][35] South Sudan broke away from Sudan in 2011.

In 2019, the military overthrew Bashir, and Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf briefly took power before being replaced by Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan, an ally of the Saudi and UAE monarchies.[32] In October 2021, the army staged a coup and took full control of the state. In 2023, fighting broke out between Abdel Fattah's government and the Rapid Support Forces led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (also known as Hemedti).[3][4]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Caelen Anacker (2010-07-07). "Khartoum, Sudan (1821- )" Blackpast. Archived from the original on 2025-04-22.
  2. ↑ Embassy Of The Republic Of Sudan. "In Brief: Sudan" Embassy of Sudan in Washington D.C.. Archived from the original on 2025-08-29.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "PSL Statement — Sudan: In the face of civil war, the people demand the end of military rule" (2023-04-18). Liberation News. Retrieved 2023-04-18.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Vijay Prashad (2025-05-15). "A Language of Blood Has Gripped Our World: The Twentieth Newsletter (2025)" The Tricontinental. Archived from the original on 2025-06-18.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Ahmed Kaballo (2024-12-18). "African Stream's CEO Sits Down With His Father To Discuss Sudan's War | Pan-African Attitude Ep. 17". YouTube.
  6. ↑ David Zuber (2022-04-19). "Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (1960- )" Blackpast. Archived from the original on 2025-08-28.
  7. ↑ Alex De Waal (2023-04-17). "Sudan conflict: Hemedti – the warlord who built a paramilitary force more powerful than the state" The Conversation. Archived from the original on 2025-08-15.
  8. ↑ Khalid Abdelaziz, Michael Georgy and Maha El Dahan (2019-11-26). "Exclusive: Sudan militia leader grew rich by selling gold" Reuters.
  9. ↑ Mohammad Khansa (2025-07-27). "Five reasons why the UAE is fixated on Sudan" Peoples Dispatch. Archived from the original on 2025-08-29.
  10. ↑ Sudanese Communist Party (2023-04-17). "Sudanese CP, Statement of the Central Committee on the latest developments in Sudan" SolidNet. Archived from the original on 2025-08-28.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Sudanese Communist Party (2025-04-22). "Sudanese CP, Political Paper on the Current Situation in Sudan" SolidNet. Archived from the original on 2025-08-28.
  12. ↑ Center for Preventive Action (2025-04-15). "Civil War in Sudan" Council on Foreign Relations. Archived from the original on 2025-08-25.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Mark Cartwright (2019-04-04). "Old Dongola" World History Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 2025-05-15.
  14. ↑ "Nubia" (2025-08-15). Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2025-08-27. Retrieved 2025-08-27.
  15. ↑ Janice Kamrin and Adela Oppenheim (2018-02-02). "The Land of Nubia" Metropolitan Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 2025-07-05.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 "History of Sudan". Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan. Archived from the original on 2025-08-27.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Isma'il Kushkush (2020-09). "In the Land of Kush" Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on 2025-08-23.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 Joshua J. Mark (2018-02-26). "The Kingdom of Kush" World History Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 2025-07-17.
  19. ↑ A.C.S. Peacock (2012). The Ottomans and the Funj sultanate in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Mahmood Mamdani (2009). Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror. Verso.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 21.5 Tim Niblock (1987). Class and Power in Sudan: The Dynamics of Sudanese Politics, 1898-1985. State University of New York Press.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Christopher Banks (2009-06-09). "Survivors and Saviors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror (book review)" Liberation News. Archived from the original on 2025-08-26.
  23. ↑ J. O. Hunwick (Editor) (1983). Land in Dār Fūr: charters and related documents from the Dār Fūr sultanate. Cambridge University Press.
  24. ↑ R.S. O'Fahey (1997). THE CONQUEST OF DARFUR, 1873 - 1882. Sudan Notes and Records. University of Khartoum.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 Eric Toussaint (2016-06-06). "Debt as an instrument of the colonial conquest of Egypt" Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt. Archived from the original on 2025-08-28.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 26.4 26.5 26.6 26.7 26.8 Carole Collins (1976). Colonialism and Class Struggle in Sudan, vol. No. 46. MERIP Reports. doi: 10.2307/3010898 [HUB]
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 David Zuber (2022-03-11). "Ismail Al-Azhari (1900-1969)" Blackpast. Archived from the original on 2025-07-10.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 28.3 28.4 Fatima Babiker Mahmoud (1981). Some Aspects of the Political Economy of the Sudan. Sudan Notes and Records. University of Khartoum.
  29. ↑ Cindi Katz (1985). "Mahmoud, The Sudanese Bourgeoisie" Middle East Research and Information Project. Archived from the original on 2025-07-06.
  30. ↑ Vijay Prashad (2008). The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World: 'Bali' (pp. 159–61). [PDF] The New Press. ISBN 9781595583420 [LG]
  31. ↑ John Prendergast (1989). Blood Money for Sudan: World Bank and IMF to the "Rescue", vol. Vol. 36, No. 3/4. Africa Today.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 Luwezi Kinshasa (2019-06-10). "The fall of Omar Hassan al-Bachir" The Burning Spear. Archived from the original on 2020-11-09. Retrieved 2022-08-13.
  33. ↑ Sara Flounders (2023-04-12). "Ramsey Clark, human rights fighter – 1927-2021" Workers World. Archived from the original on 2023-01-31. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
  34. ↑ "Brief Timeline of Key Sanctions Events in Sudan (adapted and updated from Hufbauer et al.)" (2011-10-06). Center for Global Development. Archived from the original on 2025-08-22.
  35. ↑ Samy Magdy (2020-06-05). "IMF says initial deal reached with Sudan to reform economy" AP News.
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