National Flag and Emblem Locator Map TEXT HIGHLIGHTS
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SUDAN National Flag and Emblem Locator Map TEXT HIGHLIGHTS: Diaries updates, key events, brief analysis and relating news articles in timeline Overview & Diary Refreshes Sudan entered the Twentieth Century ruled as an Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, a unique constitutional status dating from 1899. After the First World War, Sudanese nationalist sentiment grew drawing inspiration from Egyptian nationalism. The Mahdist Movement The Mahdi, his real name was Mohammad Ahmad Ibn El Sayed Abdullah, was born in Dongola, in Northern Sudan, in 1844. He followed the true tradition of the warrior/religious leaders of Islam. Like desert sand storm he appeared suddenly and inexplicably out of nowhere, and, by some strange process of attraction, generated an ever-increasing force as he moved along. A larger contingent of Sudanese and Egyptian troops of about ten thousand men, under the Command of Colonel Willi...am Hicks Pasha, was dispatched to crash Mahdism. Like Abu Saud’ s force, the Hicks column was totally destroyed. At this point the British Government urged the Nubar Cabinet to completely evacuate the Sudan and the Egyptian Government reluctantly agreed. The British Government appointed General Sir Charles Gordon Pasha (1833-1885) (4), an ex Governor of the Sudan better known as Ghardoon Pasha, to carry on the mission of evacuating the Egyptian troops and their families. The Mahdists besieged Gordon in Khartoum (5) and, after a heroic defense, the city fell to the rebels on January 26, 1885. Gordon was killed defending the Governor General mansion and his dead body was decapitated and paraded in the streets of the fallen city. The Mahdi did not live long enough to savor his victory; he died in Omdourman five months after the fall of Khartoum. However, it was only much later, following the 1952 July Revolution in Egypt, that Sudan gained independence. The 1953 Anglo-Egyptian Agreement provided for a three-year transitional period before self-rule. Sudan became independent on 1 January 1956, but political infighting and economic incompetence soon extinguished popular optimism. In November 1958, Major-General Ibrahim Abboud led the army to power in a bloodless coup, determined to end the short, flawed rule of the politicians. Six years later faced with popular disillusionment, Abboud's regime collapsed and new parliamentary elections were held in 1965. Once more, parliamentary democracy brought weak, unstable governance and, in 1969, Colonel Jaafar Nimeiri seized power. Meanwhile, southern Sudan was suffering from escalating conflict between Government forces and rebels. In 1972 Nimeiri signed a peace agreement with the South Sudan Liberation Movement. During the 1970s, the regime's pledges gradually unravelled and by 1983, when Nimeiri proclaimed the application of Islamic law (Shari'a) throughout the country, southern resistance forces were re-mobilising into what became the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M). Majour-General Mohammed Nimeiri was little more popular in the North, but challenges to his rule were met with bloody purges. Widening anger eventually sparked a military take-over in April 1985 and the following year elections were held. Parliamentary rule was to last less than four years, a period in which five governments were formed, each under the premiership of veteran politician Sadiq al-Mahdi. Peace talks with southerners and the poor state of the economy strengthened dissent in the north. On 30 June 1989, the army overthrew the democratically elected government of Sadiq al-Mahdi and installed a Revolutionary Command Council, chaired by General Omar al-Bashir. Bashir ruled by decree at the head of the Revolutionary Command Council and banned all political parties except his own National Islamic Front (NIF), renamed the National Congress Party (NCP) in 1998. In 1996 Bashir was elected President and a National Assembly was elected in a flawed election which was boycotted by the opposition. Bashir was re-elected (with 86% of the vote) in 2000. Again a number of key opposition parties boycotted the election, claiming it was flawed and unfair. The elections did nothing to resolve the ongoing north-south civil war in Sudan. The NCP continued to pursue war in the south, conscripting northerners through the call to jihad. And through Hassan al-Turabi, who served as National Assembly speaker in the 90s, it welcomed an array of militants from the wider Arab and Islamic worlds – including Usama Bin Laden, who lived in Sudan from 1992 to 1996. After 9/11, the NCP began to work with the West on counter-terrorism issues, leading to the lifting of sanctions imposed after the assassination attempt on Egyptian President Mubarak just weeks after the attacks in New York. This rehabilitation, the ongoing deadlock in the North/South civil war, and President Bush’s move away from the Clinton-era policy of isolating Khartoum led to the beginning of peace talks between the NCP and SPLM/A, brokered by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). In 2003 and 2004 peace talks were held between the Khartoum government and the SPLM. Significant international attention was focused on the talks, including from the UK as part of the “Troika”, along with the US and Norway. The outcome was the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed on 15 January 2005. This detailed agreement set the terms for an internationally monitored ceasefire, allowing the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) into Sudan, and set out a power sharing agreement, including an SPLM/A Vice-President, and made provision for national elections in five years time. Crucially, it granted southern Sudan significant autonomy for six years, to be followed by a referendum on their independence in 2011. In January 2011, the people of South Sudan voted in a referendum to decide whether to break away from Sudan and become an independent state. An overwhelming majority - 99.83% of voters - voted for secession. On 9 July 2011 the southern region became independent with the name of the Republic of South Sudan. Many of the issues that should have been resolved as part of the CPA, however, remain the subject of negotiation between Sudan and South Sudan, including how oil revenues should be shared, citizenship, and the disputed region of Abyei. Formerly known as : Anglo-Egyptian Sudan Achieved independence in 1st January, 1956 Headship since independence; Head of instrumental self-administration Sudan went through two prolonged civil wars most of the 20th century. Sudan’s dispute with Egypt over Halayeb: Regarding the dispute with Egypt over Halayeb triangle, al-Sadig said Khartoum has documents clearly proving that the area is a Sudanese territory. He pointed that Sudan has not engaged in meetings with the Egyptian side on Halayeb, saying the issue could be referred to international arbitration as was the case during the dispute between Egypt and Israel over Taba area. “We don’t oppose [referral of the case to the] international arbitration to resolve the issue particularly as Sudan has maps as well as legal and historical documents proving that Halayeb and Shalateen are part of the Sudanese territory,” he said. The Halayeb triangle overlooks the Red Sea and has been a contentious issue between Egypt and Sudan since 1958, shortly after Sudan gained independence from British-Egyptian rule. The contested border area has been under de facto Egyptian administration since the mid-1990s, but both countries have jockeyed for its control for over a century. Egypt brushed aside Sudan’s repeated calls for referring the dispute to international arbitration. Earlier Sudan’s top diplomat told a group of Egyptian politicians in Cairo that the dispute over Halayeb area can’t be resolved by “imposing a fait accompli” but through dialogue or by referring the case to the concerned international institutions. Origins of name: Derived from the Arabic phrase, "Bilad as-Sudan" Arabic meaning meaning for, "land of the blacks" The triggers were mostly to do with the domination of largely non-Muslim, non-Arab southern Sudanese. North/South Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed in January 2005 offering the southerners autonomy for six years. And a referendum to determine independence of North and South or unity conducted in January 2011, Southern Sudanese voters opted for secession. In 2003, a conflict broke out in Darfur. Sudan's government has been fighting rebels in Darfur since 2003. This left between 200,000 and 400,000 people dead and displaced about 2 million people. The ICC says Mr. Bashir orchestrated a campaign of murder, rape, and other crimes against civilians in the region. The U.N. says fighting and related violence in Darfur have killed an estimated 300,000 people and displaced some 2.7 million others. But, Sudan does not recognize the authority of the International Criminal Court, and Mr. Bashir has flouted the arrest warrants by repeatedly traveling abroad, though mostly to countries that are not ICC members. A Republic in northeastern Africa on the Red Sea. According to Arab historians, The Sudan is where Arabia meets Africa, a geography enshrined in the place's name: "Bilad Al-Sudan" is an Arabic meaning for "land of the blacks". It had been the biggest country in Africa in it's geographical position until recently. The Sudan's arid-north regions had a long history of attachment with Egypt, Islam, and it's home mainly to Arabic-speaking muslims, ruled under the Otoman empire and Otoman- Egyptian rule from 1820 until 1885. In the mid-nineteenth century, Egypt and present day Sudan were indeed one under the Egyptian Khedive Ismael. And the northern Sudan and Egypt have shared a common past for stretched durations even before the ascendance of Islam in the region. A pro-Muslim ruler called Mohammed Ahmed, raised as the founder of a Dervish-Mahdist movement, ruled the Sudan from 1870 until an Anglo- Egyptian joint rule was made in 1899.