Geography of Sudan: Introduction
Geography of Sudan: Introduction Last updated on Saturday 24th April 2010
The name of the country comes from the bilad assudan (land of the blacks). Arabic is the official language in the country and Islam is the official religion of the state. However, there is a large non-Muslim and non-Arabic speaking population.
The Sudan is located in northeastern Africa. It is the largest country of the African continent, bounded on the north by Egypt, on the east by the Red Sea, Eritrea, and Ethiopia, on the south by Kenya, Uganda, and Democratic Republic of the Congo and on the west by the Central African Republic, Chad and Libya. The total area of the Sudan is 2,505,800 sq km (967,490 sq mi).
The country consists of several ethnic groups. The British policy during the Anglo-Egyptian condominium (1899-1955) intensified the divide between the north and the south because Britain established separate administrations for the two parts and ban northerners to enter the south according the so-called Closed Districts Law.
The British colonial policies were some of many factors which led to the eruption of civil war in the south in 1955. The civil war ended in 1972 as a result of Addis Ababa Agreement, but started again in 1983 and intensified following the National Islamic Front military coup in June 1989. The civil war extended to the east . Oil deposits were developed during the 1990’s and by late September 1999 150,000 barrels of oil were produced daily. This figure was planned to increase to 250,000 b/p/d. The investment by foreign oil companies is considerably large, therefore the country will not be able to benefit from its revenues before the year 2004. However, war and famine still haunt the country.