Civil War Starts & Independence is Granted
A
former condominium of Britain and Egypt, Sudan was granted internal
self-rule in 1953 and full independence in 1956. During the
pre-independence constitutional talks, the south had expressed its
desire for separate development from the Muslim north; but the British
administrators simply ignored such wishes. Arabic had even been forced
through as the language of education in the south! In 1955, a few
months before independence, the southern army staged a rebellion and
massacred many northerners living in the south.
The government countered by unleashing the northern army against the
southern civilians who perished in thousands. Most of the survivors
escaped as refugees into the neighbouring, countries. Thus, the
Sudanese civil war started.
When independence came in 1956, almost all administrative jobs
throughout the country fell in the hands of the educated and more
advanced Muslim northerners. Southerners had no political party of
their own. The first post-independence government a de facto northern
government-was a two-party coalition led by Brig. Abdaljah Khalil (a
retired army officer) as Prime Minister. Two years later, the coalition
got strained. The other party in the coalition started accusing the
Prime Minister and his party of being too pro-Western, of economic
mismanagement, and of not having backed Egypt sufficiently during the
1956 Suez Canal 'Crisis (involving France and Britain against Egypt).
Squabbling and intrigue almost paralysed the government, and made a
mockery of independence itself.
National Movements and New States in Africa