Civil Wars in Sudan
Sudan
(formerly known as "the Sudan" until 1975) is Africa's vastest country-
it is almost 22 times the size of Cuba; is more than 10 times the area
of the United Kingdom; is nearly as large as Argentina; and roughly
one-third the size of the continental United States It has a population
of some 40 million. Arabic-speaking Muslims (most of them of mixed
Arab-African descent) live in the northern and central areas of the
country, and constitute some 40 percent of the entire population.
General John
Garang fought for 25 years but died a few months after the becoming President
of Southern Sudan
The River Nile is the life-line of the country, because except for the
southern region, the rest of the country is part of the Sahara desert.
Cotton, the country's number one foreign exchange earner and main
source of income, is grown under irrigation using the River Nile. The
south, an area of vast forests, swamps and virgin lands, is rich in
natural resources that if wisely exploited could transform the entire
country into a rich state - especially through petroleum which has
recently been discovered there and is being processed.
The country, one of the world's poorest, has accumulated a huge foreign
debt and experiences perennial foreign trade deficits; and runaway
internal inflation complicates the predicament. Sudan depends
tremendously on foreign aid mainly from the International Monetary
Fund, the Arab Monetary Fund and Saudi Arabia. Its economic problems
are further compounded by the burden of over 600,000 refugees who fled
there from neighbouring Uganda, Ethiopia, Chad and Zaire - giving rise
to one of the highest concentrations of refugees on earth. The
situation has changed of recent.
National Movements and New States in Africa