Sudan (US: n/ (listen), UK: n/;[9][10]Arabic: السودان as-Sūdān), officially the Republic of the Sudan[11] (Arabic: جمهورية السودان Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, and Libya to the northwest. It houses 37 million people (2017)[12] and occupies a total area of 1,861,484 square kilometres (718,722 square miles), making it the third-largest country in Africa.[13] Sudan's predominant religion is Islam,[14] and its official languages are Arabic and English. The capital is Khartoum, located at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile.
The history of Sudan goes back to the Pharaonic period, witnessing the kingdom of Kerma (c. 2500 BC-1500 BC), the subsequent rule of the Egyptian New Kingdom (c. 1500 BC-1070 BC) and the rise of the kingdom of Kush (c. 785 BC–350 AD), which would in turn control Egypt itself for nearly a century. After the fall of Kush the Nubians formed the three Christian kingdoms of Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia, with the latter two lasting until around 1500. Since the 7th century eastern Sudan was settled by Muslim Arabs, who would eventually push into the Nile Valley and the regions west of it in the 14th and 15th centuries. From the 16th–19th centuries, central and eastern Sudan were dominated by the Funj sultanate, while Darfur ruled the west and the Ottomans the far north. This period saw extensive Islamization and Arabization.
The 20th century saw the growth of Sudanese nationalism and in 1953 Britain granted Sudan self-government. Independence was proclaimed on January 1, 1956. Since independence, Sudan has been ruled by a series of unstable parliamentary governments and military regimes. Under Gaafar Nimeiry, Sudan instituted fundamentalist Islamic law in 1983.[15] This exacerbated the rift between the Arab north, the seat of the government and the black African animists and Christians in the south. Differences in language, religion, ethnicity and political power erupted in a civil war between government forces, strongly influenced by the National Islamic Front (NIF) and the southern rebels, whose most influential faction was the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), eventually concluding in the independence of South Sudan in 2011. Before the Sudanese Civil War, South Sudan was part of Sudan, but it became independent in 2011.[16] Since 2011 Sudan's government is engaged in a war with the Sudan Revolutionary Front. Human rights violations, religious persecution and allegations that Sudan had been a safe haven for terrorists isolated the country from most of the international community. In 1995, the United Nations (UN) imposed sanctions against it.
The country's place nameSudan is a name given to a geographical region to the south of the Sahara, stretching from Western Africa to eastern Central Africa. The name derives from the Arabic bilād as-sūdān (بلاد السودان), or "the lands of the Blacks".[17] The name is one of several toponyms sharing similar etymologies, ultimately meaning "land of the blacks" or similar meanings, in reference to the dark skin of the inhabitants. Initially, the term "Sudanese" had a negative connotation in the Arabized Sudan due to its association with black African slaves. The idea of "Sudanese" nationalism goes back to the 1930s and 1940s, when it was popularized by young intellectuals.[18]
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