A Short History of Sudan

Sudan has its darkest years in history during its two civil wars starting after it gained independence from Egypt and United Kingdom in 1956 up to 1972, and from 1983 to 2005, and the Darfur rebellion in 2003 two years before the second civil war was to be resolved. The first civil war that is more than 16 years involved ethnic, religious and economic conflicts between the Northern Sudanese people of Arab and Nubian origins and the Christians and animist Nilotes of Southern Sudan. The first war left thousands of innocent civilians either killed or wounded. The 21-year second civil war attended by violence, famine and disease killed more than two million people, displaced four million others, and forced 600,000 to seek refuge in immediate neighbor countries.

The armed conflict in Darfur in the Western region is led by two rebel groups—the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM)—and has killed 70,000 civilians, has displaced two million people and forced 250,000 more to flee to refugee camps in Chad. Sudan President Omar al-Bashir has been accused of war crimes and masterminding genocide in both the 21-year civil strife and the Darfur violence but which he has denied. He has a standing arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in July 2008 in connection with the deadly incidents. A self-appointed President since leading a successful coup in 1989, he won two presidential elections in 1996 and 2010, with the last election being questioned by activists and an international crisis group for intimidation and gerrymandering activities by his ruling party.