Political Overview
Since gaining independence from Anglo-Egyptian rule on January 1, 1956, Sudan has endured recurring cycles of military rule, with the armed forces seizing power in coups in 1958, 1969, and again in 1989 under Omar al-Bashir. Bashir’s National Congress Party dominated Sudanese politics for three decades until mass protests led to his ouster in April 2019; a Transitional Sovereignty Council then governed under a 2019 constitutional declaration, but this civilian-military arrangement collapsed when the military dissolved civilian bodies in October 2021. In April 2023, fierce infighting erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, triggering one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises displacing over 13 million people and devastating key institutions in Khartoum and beyond.
Cultural Heritage and Identity
Sudan’s population is remarkably diverse, encompassing more than a dozen major ethnic groups Sudanese Arabs (≈70 %), Nubians, Beja, Fur, Zaghawa, Nuba peoples, and others each contributing distinct customs, languages, and social structures to the national fabric. The country recognizes two official languages, Modern Standard Arabic and English, alongside an estimated 114 indigenous tongues (over 400 dialects), including Nubian, Ta Bedawie (Beja), and Fula, reflecting millennia of interaction among Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, and Niger-Kordofanian language families. Sudan’s tangible heritage spans from the pyramids of the ancient Kingdom of Kush at Meroë guarded today by a lone caretaker amid conflict to the collections of the National Museum in Khartoum, which houses artifacts from the Paleolithic through Islamic periods; UNESCO’s efforts to inventory intangible traditions (music, oral literature, festivals) underscore the country’s rich cultural legacy and its vital role in social cohesion.
Geographical Landscape, Area, and Climate
Covering approximately 1 861 484 km², Sudan is the third-largest country in Africa, bounded by Egypt, Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea, and featuring an 853 km coastline along the Red Sea. The terrain ranges from the parched Nubian and Libyan deserts in the north, through the Nile Valley’s narrow fertile strip, to the clay plains of central Sudan and the savanna-woodlands of the south; notable highlands include the Marrah Mountains (Deriba Caldera, 3042 m) and the Red Sea Hills. Sudan’s climate shifts from hyper-arid in the north with mean annual rainfall under 25 mm to tropical wet-and-dry in the south, where rainfall can reach 700 mm; the rainy season lasts about four months in northern regions (June–September) and up to six months farther south (May–October), while sandstorms (haboob) frequently sweep the semi-deserts.
