officially Republic of the Sudan
Country, North Africa.
Area: 966,757 sq mi (2,503,890 sq km). Population (2002 est.): 37,090,000. Capital: Khartoum . Muslim Arab ethnic groups live in the northern and central two-thirds of the country, while Dinka, Nuer, and Zande peoples live in the south. Languages: Arabic (official), Beja, Zande, Dinka. Religions: Islam (official), traditional religions, Christianity. Currency: Sudanese dinar. The largest country in Africa, The Sudan encompasses an immense plain with the Sahara Desert in the north, sand dunes in the west, semiarid shrub lands in the south-central belt, and enormous swamps and tropical rainforests in the south. The Nile River flows the entire length of the country. Wildlife includes lions, leopards, elephants, giraffes, and zebras. It has a developing mixed economy based largely on agriculture. One of the largest irrigation projects in the world provides water to farms between the White and the Blue Nile. Chief cash crops are cotton, peanuts, and sesame; livestock is also important. Major industries include food processing and cotton ginning. The country is ruled by an Islamic military regime. Evidence of inhabitation dates back tens of thousands of years. From the end of the 4th millennium BC, Nubia (now northern Sudan) periodically came under Egyptian rule, and it was part of the kingdom of Cush from the 11th century BC to the 4th century AD. Christian missionaries converted the Sudan's three principal kingdoms during the 6th century AD; these black Christian kingdoms coexisted with their Muslim Arab neighbours in Egypt for centuries, until the influx of Arab immigrants brought about their collapse in the 13th–15th centuries. Egypt had conquered all of the Sudan by 1874 and encouraged British interference in the region; this aroused Muslim opposition and led to the revolt of al- Mahdī , who captured Khartoum in 1885 and established a Muslim theocracy in the Sudan that lasted until 1898, when his forces were defeated by the British. The British ruled, generally in partnership with Egypt, until the region achieved independence as The Sudan in 1956. Since then the country has fluctuated between ineffective parliamentary government and unstable military rule. The non-Muslim population of the south has engaged in ongoing rebellion against the Muslim-controlled government of the north, leading to famines and the displacement of some four million people.