Background
The introduction of Islam to Sudan, the largest country in Africa and the 10th largest in the world by area, in the 15th century gradually changed Sudanese society, leading to its division into northern and southern halves, one Arab, the other African.
The country was under Egyptian rule in the earlier part of the 19th century before becoming a British colony. During this period Egypt conquered and annexed the Darfur.
Annual raids for slaves were common, resulting in the capture of thousands of black Sudanese, the destruction of the region's stability and economy and a deep hatred of Arabs among southerners. The British terminated Darfur's independence in 1916.
From 1924 until independence in 1956, the British ran the Sudan as two separate colonies, the south and the north, the separation emphasising the divisions between the colonies.
Fifty years after independence, the country's conflicts are rooted in northern economic, political and social domination of largely non-Muslim, non-Arab southern Sudanese.
Peace and security
Sudan has experienced several civil wars, with the first, the North-South civil war, ending after 17 years with the signing of the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement. The agreement gave southern Sudan considerable autonomy.
After ten years of peace, there was a second civil war in 1983 after President Gaafar Nimeiry's decision to include states in southern Sudan in a federal government and his implementation of Shari’a law.
This also led to the formation of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the main opposition, under Col. John Garang, further exacerbating the crisis, which lasted 21 years and claimed at least two million lives.
There was hope for lasting peace in the country with the signing of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the government and the SPLA in 2005, granting southern Sudan autonomy for six years, after which a referendum for independence is to be held.
However, a separate conflict, the Darfur crisis, began in early 2003, pitting government forces and Janjawid militia against the rebel forces of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality Movement in the western region of Darfur.
An upsurge of attacks has continued in the region, including targeted attacks on aid workers. According to the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland, four million people in Darfur are in need of humanitarian aid.
Children
The country is home to 1.3 million orphans (0-17 years) according to UNICEF. Child protection issues in Sudan include low birth weight, stunting, child labour and female genital cutting.
IDPs/Refugees
According to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), there are at least 170,000 refugees, including asylum seekers, mostly from Eritrea and Ethiopia, living in Sudan. UNHCR is shifting its focus from the provision of assistance to improved livelihoods and self-reliance for the refugee groups staying in the country.
The more than two-decades-long second civil war in Sudan and famine-related effects also resulted in the displacement of at least four million people.
Democracy and governance
Sudan is governed by a government of national unity with the President, Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, chief of state and head of government. There are also two vice-presidents; First Vice-President, Gen. Salva Kiir, representing the southern region, and Ali Osman Taha.
There will be elections at national, regional, state and local levels after four years, with the government expected to allocate half its oil revenues from southern Sudan to the southern regional government under Kiir, according to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. In the interim, Shari’a law will not apply to non-Muslim southerners according to the agreement.
Media
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) describes the press climate in Sudan as having deteriorated against a backdrop of insecurity, growing political unrest and protests over price rises.
There is increasing censorship of opposition and independent newspapers in Sudan against the country's promise to the international community to adopt democratic reforms.
Sudanese broadcasting is also highly restricted, with state-run radio and TV being under state control to reflect government policy.
Internet use is increasing, with a ratio of 32.1 for every 1,000 people having internet access in 2004 from 0.9 in 2000.
Economy
Sudan has significant natural resources in agriculture, forestry, fishing and oil but is constrained by civil war, debt and mismanagement. In 2003, oil production constituted more than 80 percent of export earnings.
Agriculture is the most important sector, contributing 40 percent to the Gross Domestic Product.
The country's Human Development Index was 0.512 in 2003, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP), with a Gross National Income of US$23.3 billion.
Debt service as a percentage of exports of goods and services in 1990 was 4 percent.
Population
Sudan has a population of 36.2 million, according to the World Bank with the annual growth rate according to UN estimates being 2.8 percent.
Most social and demographic statistics are based on dated/incomplete information. The most recent population survey in 1993 omitted the southern region due to insecurity.
The major ethnic groups are African - 50 percent, Arabs - 40 percent, Beja - 4 percent and others. Arabic is the official language and is the primary language in northern and central Sudan.
More than half the population is Muslim. Other major religions include Christianity and African religions.
Development indicators
About 90 percent of the country’s population of 36.2 million people survives on less than $1 per day, with at least 40 percent of the population living in urban areas by 2004, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
The infant mortality rate is 77.0 per 1,000 live births, while life expectancy for men is 54.1 years and 57.1 for women.
Sudan is ranked number 141 out of 177 countries and territories on the 2005 Human Development Index.
Education
Education is free and compulsory for children between the ages of six and 13, with the primary school enrolment ratio by percentage of 60.1.
The adult literacy rate is 60.9 percent, according to the World Bank Development Indicators Database for 2006. In 2000, the figure was 58 percent (69 percent for males, 46 percent for females).
Schools are mainly concentrated in urban areas, with many in the south and west destroyed or damaged by conflict.
Health
The health status of the population has suffered because prolonged civil war has made it difficult to access healthcare. However, immunisation rates for most childhood diseases such as diphtheria, polio, measles, pertussis and tetanus are more than 50 percent. Sudan's last polio case was reported in 2005.
In 2002, 78 percent of the urban population was using improved drinking water sources compared with 64 percent in the rural areas, according to Unicef.
Major infectious diseases in the Sudan include food/water-borne diseases such as bacterial and protozoal diarrhoea, Hepatitis A and typhoid fever; vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and sleeping sickness, and water-contact diseases such as Schistosomiasis.
Total health expenditure as a percentage of GDP (2003) was 4.3, while health spending per capita was $54, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The density of physicians per 1,000 people is 0.22 according to World Health Statistics 2006 and the World Health Report, 2006 Edition.
HIV/AIDS
The adult HIV/AIDS prevalence rate (15-49 years), at the end of 2003 was estimated at 2.3, according to Unicef, with about 400,000 people estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS.
The estimated number of people (0-49) needing anti-retroviral therapy in 2005 was estimated at 62,000 with a target of 20,000 set for the end of 2005, according to the WHO.
Most of the infections are acquired via heterosexual transmission due to low levels of HIV/AIDS awareness, according to the National AIDS Control Program HIV surveillance system.
Food security
The conflict in the south has left more than 1.5 million people dead and four million displaced. It has also wrecked the infrastructure and economy with food production being hampered by fighting and displacement, as well as by recurrent droughts according to the World Food Programme (WFP).
At least 2.7 million people require food assistance in the greater Darfur region with the ongoing conflict expected to not only hit regional cereal production but also severely reduce food commodity flows from normally surplus-to-deficit areas.
Sudan is categorised by the UN as a low-income, food-deficit country.
Gender issues
A number of constraints continue to challenge the implementation of women's rights, including patriarchal customs and continuous conflict between written law and customary/religious laws, according to the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).
In the ongoing Darfur crisis, women and girls remain vulnerable to sexual attacks in remote areas when they go out to fetch water or take their wares to the market, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Regarding the protection of women’s rights, Sudan has not ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
Humanitarian right
According to Human Rights Watch, the signing of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 between the government and rebels that ended 21 years of war has brought little improvement in human rights in the country.
Attacks on civilians, killings, rape, torture, looting, arbitrary arrests and harassment of human-rights activists continue to be witnessed in Darfur and other parts of Sudan.
Humanitarian needs
Sudan requires aid for the provision of protection and other humanitarian assistance for its citizens against widespread armed conflict in the Darfur region. There is inadequate funding to cope with the large refugee population from neighbouring countries, mainly Eritrea and Ethiopia, and thousands of Sudanese returnees.