Republic of the Sudan
The 3rd Largest Country in Africa
Political History
Sudan gained independence from Britain in 1956 without a permanent constitution. Instead, the Constituent Assembly adopted a document known as the Transitional Constitution that replaced the Governor General as head of state with a five-member Supreme Commission, elected by a Parliament composed of an indirectly elected Senate and a popularly elected House of Representatives. The Transitional Constitution also allocated executive power to the Prime Minister, who was nominated by the House of Representatives and confirmed in office by the Supreme Commission.
Since Sudan has achieved its independence, it has fluctuated between civilian and military government, the latest of which was the National Salvation regime led by Umar Al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for thirty years (1989-2019).
His regime was overthrown by the military on 11 April 2019, after
several months of unprecedented pro-democracy demonstrations, which was
considered as the largest peaceful revolution the region has witnessed in
recent modern history.
Following negotiations between the military leaders and opposition groups, a transitional government led by a “sovereign council” composed of military and civilian members replaced the military council in August 2019 and a Council of Ministers led by Prime Minster Dr. Abdallah Hamdok.
It has been agreed that the transitional government will run the country for four years until a democratically elected government has been established.
Demographics
Population
Sudan has 43 million people (2020 World Bank estimates), with annual population growth rate of 2.3%. Sudan’s population is equivalent to 0.56% of the total world population and ranks number 34 in the
list of countries by population. Roughly two-thirds of the population lives
within 300–500 kilometers of Khartoum, with concentration in the Khartoum area. In 2020 between 35%-40% of the population lived in urban centres.
Languages
Sudan is among the most ethnically and linguistically diverse nations in the world. Its people speak more than 400 languages and dialects. Arabic is the official national language, but English is also widely spoken.
Education
The education hierarchy in Sudan was originally comprised of six (6) years for elementary school, three (3) years for secondary school, and three (3) years at high secondary school. In the early 1990s, the Al-Bashir regime significantly reorganized primary and secondary education. The education ladder thereafter consisted of eight years of basic (primary) education, and three years of secondary instruction. Arabic continues as the language of instruction in Sudan.
Economy
Sudan has an abundance of natural and human resources, but even so, Sudan is a poor country despite its considerable natural resources. Economic mismanagement and the disruption of years of civil war prevented economic development for many years. Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy, but the civil war interfered with it, causing farmers to leave their land and disrupting the flow of inputs and the marketing of products. Although, the economy is based on agriculture sector, the development of the oil industry changed the structure of the economy since 1999 which has led to a large increase in national income and complete negligence to the agricultural sector.The oil sector had driven much of Sudan’s GDP growth since 1999.
For nearly a decade, the economy boomed on the back of rising oil production, high oil prices, and significant inflows of foreign direct investment. Unfortunately, the oil wealth was not funneled into the productive economy – particularly agricultural renewal. Rather it went into short-term rent seeking activities such as urban construction, the expansion of commercial
activities and unprecedented government corruption. In addition, the new wealth went largely to the security apparatus, the government created ruling party and ethnic and regional friends.
Since the economic shock of South Sudan’s secession in 2011 which resulted in the loss of three quarters of its oil production, Sudan has struggled to stabilize its economy and make up for the loss of foreign exchange earnings. In addition, the ongoing conflicts in Southern Kordofan, Darfur, and the Blue Nile states, a limited transportation network, lack of foreign investment, lack of basic infrastructure in large areas, and reliance by much of the population on subsistence agriculture, has kept close to half of the population at or below the poverty line.
Sudan introduced a new currency following South Sudan’s secession in 2011, still called the Sudanese pound, but the value of the currency has fallen and continues to fall since its introduction. Sudan formally devalued the currency in 2012, when it passed austerity measures that included gradually repealing fuel subsidies. Sudan also faces high inflation, which reached 47% on an annual basis in November 2012, fell to about 35% per year in 2017, and rose to 57% in 2019 and 166% in July 2020.
Geography
Sudan’s total land area amounts to some 1,886,068 km², with 18,630 km² of irrigated land.
Topography
Sudan is a land of plateaus and plains. Low mountains are found behind the Red Sea coast, in the south, and in the far west. The only interior highlands of consequence are the Nuba Mountains west of the White Nile.
Climate
Rainfall ranges from rare and occasional to relatively abundant and frequent rainy seasons in the northern, western and south regions of Sudan. Dust storms, often accompanying the arrival of the annual southwesterly rains in May–July, are common in central and parts of northern Sudan, reducing visibility and causing much discomfort. Mean temperatures and daily maximums are generally high; desert temperatures can be quite cool at night. Desertification, deforestation, and land degradation are among severe environmental problems.
Religion
Islam, Christianity, and traditional African practices are all found in Sudan. Islam is the predominant religion in Sudan, and according to the government statistics, approximately 91 percent of the population is Muslim, following the separation of South Sudan in 2011. It is unclear whether government estimates include South Sudanese (predominantly Christian or animist) who did not leave after the 2011 split or returned after conflict erupted in South Sudan in 2013, or other non-South Sudanese, non-Muslim groups. The government statistics also indicate less than 1 percent of the population, primarily in Blue Nile and South Kordofan States, adheres to traditional African religious beliefs. The government reports the presence of 36 Christian denominations in the country. Christians reside throughout the country, primarily in major cities, such as Khartoum, Port Sudan, Kassala, Gedaref, El Obeid, and El Fasher. Christians also are concentrated in some parts of the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile State. Denominations include Orthodox Christians, Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, and Evangelicals.
Health
Currently the available health care is far below what is needed. There is a great disparity in health care between urban areas and the countryside. The best care is available in Khartoum, with little or none in rural centres. Malnutrition is widespread, and rates of infant and maternal mortality were among the highest in the region. UN estimates the current infant mortality rate for Sudan in 2020 is 40.935 deaths per 1000 live births, a 2.3% decline from 2019. Diseases prevail in Sudan include malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid, measles, schistosomiasis, and cholera. The UN estimated HIV/AIDS prevalence among adults in 2013 at 0.2 percent to 0.3 percent in Sudan.
Development Plan and Debt
The government of Sudan drew up its first economic development plan in 1960, followed by many others over the succeeding years. Budget deficits and debt-service obligations were relatively insignificant in the early years, but from 1974 to 1977, large-scale borrowing occurred and new commitments were made. As the economy began to deteriorate in the late 1970s, the government began a series of reform efforts, although the first reforms covering 1978–84 were not fully implemented.
In 1978 Sudan failed to meet all of its debt-service obligations.
In 1979 public and publicly guaranteed long-term debt increased to more than US$2.5 billion, requiring Sudan to seek relief from its creditors, as it was apparent that once again it would not meet its obligations. Acting through the Paris Club, a group of industrialized creditor countries that included the United States, Japan, and nine West European states, Sudan rescheduled an estimated US$400 million to US$500 million of the debt guaranteed by Western export-credit agencies. The agreed payments were to be made over a seven-year period, with an initial three-year grace period. In 1981 Sudan rescheduled another US$600 million in loans and interest, as its debt burden had increased to US$4 billion. Despite repeated rescheduling of Sudan’s debt burden, both arrears and debt-service payments continued to increase.
Sudan’s economy steadily weakened, as did its relations with the IMF and the Paris Club. In 1989 Sudan repaid the IMF only a token US$15 million and continued to resist IMF demands for further economic austerity measures. By mid-1990, total foreign debt had risen to US$13 billion, and debt arrears to the IMF totaled more than US$1.1 billion.
The IMF adopted a “Declaration of Non-Cooperation” in September 1990, as a prelude to expulsion of Sudan from the fund, citing continuing problems with the arrears of its external debt payments since 1984. In May 1991, an IMF delegation arrived in Khartoum for discussions with the government. Despite declarations by the Sudanese government that it was determined to cooperate with international lending organizations, Sudan was declared ineligible for debt relief by the international financial community because of its inability to service its debt. In 1993 the IMF withdrew Sudan’s voting rights. In 1995 the country continued to struggle with a huge foreign debt as well as with high inflation, a serious shortage of foreign exchange, and declining foreign aid.
Since the early years of the National Salvation regime, the government made multiple efforts throughout the years and put in place many economic reform plans that were credited with re-establishing long-term economic growth. These included measures to reduce inflation; liberalize trade; strengthen the country’s external accounts by removing import and export restrictions, reduce customs tariffs, and rationalize the tariff structure; reduce the size of the public sector and increase privatization and deregulation; reform the banking sector; and revise investment and foreign-exchange controls. It removed price subsidies and eliminated trade and non-trade barriers with commitment to paying its debt gradually, but the regime never respected its commitments and as a result the debt continued to rise rather than decline. By the end of 2009, it had reached US$35.7 billion, an amount that the IMF described as unsustainable. The country now has close to $56 billion in foreign debt.
The current Sudan’s transitional government, which took office in September 2019, is negotiating with creditors to ease Sudan’s foreign debt, which amounts to $56 billion.
Agriculture
Agriculture and raising livestock were the main sources of livelihood for an estimated 80 percent of Sudan’s population in the early 2000s. Agricultural products accounted for upwards of 95 percent of exports until oil exports came on line in 1999, which changed the structure of the economy. Of an estimated 84 million hectares of arable land, the area under permanent
cultivation was estimated at 16 to 17 million hectares as of 2002. Agriculture consists of a modern market-oriented sector of irrigated and mechanized
rain-fed farming concentrated in the central part of the country and a traditional sector engaged in subsistence activities in the far west, east and northern regions, where water resources permit cultivation. Principal
modern-sector crops are cotton, peanuts, sesame, sorghum, sugarcane, and wheat. Subsistence cultivators produce mostly sorghum and millet, and also peanuts and sesame.
The world’s largest exporter of Arabic gum , Sudan produces 75-80% of the world’s total output. Agriculture continues to employ 80% of the work force, with main products including cotton, groundnuts (peanuts), sorghum, millet, wheat, Arabic gum, sugarcane, cassava (manioc, tapioca), mangoes, papaya, bananas, sweet potatoes, sesame seeds; animal feed, sheep and other livestock.
Natural resources
Energy:
Sudan’s chief sources of energy are wood, charcoal, hydroelectric power, and oil. Expanded use of charcoal and wood for fuel as the population has grown has contributed to deforestation and desertification. Sudan depends heavily on hydropower from dams on the Nile and its tributaries for electricity production. Steady expansion since then, especially of the 300-megawatt Kajbar Dam and the 1,250-megawatt Merowe Dam, both on the northern Nile, has led to generating more capacity.
Livestock:
Sudan is a rural economy with the livestock sector contributing to around 47% of the agricultural value added. Sudan has the second largest livestock inventories in Africa, next to Ethiopia. Sudan’s livestock consists of 39 million head of cattle, 48 million head of sheep, 42 million head of goats, 3 million head of camels, and 38 million poultry bird and accounts for 25% of national GDP.
Water Resources:
Sudan has around one million hectares of surface water, the most important of which is a 2,000km-long stretch of the Nile and tributaries. Wetlands cover 10% of the country, whereas forests cover 4%.
There are many seasonal water courses (khors) that run during the short rainy season. Their discharge volumes, flow durations and water quality have never been gauged. The most important of these are the Gash, Baraka and Khor Arbaat rivers in the east, Wadi Azoom and Galol as well as many others in Darfur, and Khor Abu Habil, which drains the Nuba Mountains of Southern Kordofan.
Sudan’s share of the water from the Nile is 20.5BCM (1959 Nile Agreement). Additional water resources include available water from Wadis and ground water which mounts between 4-9 BCM.
Notwithstanding this abundant resource in Sudan, access to safe and
adequate water supply in both rural and urban areas has been a major challenge
for decades and continues to be a challenge.
Transportation
Roads:
Sudan remains heavily dependent on railroads, but the road network has
played an increasingly important role since 1980. Estimates of the road network
in 2009 ranged upwards from 55,000 kilometers, but it is an inadequate network
for the size of the country. Asphalted all-weather roads, excluding paved
streets in cities and towns, amounted to roughly 3,600 kilometers, of which the
Khartoum–Port Sudan road, the most important highway, accounted for almost
1,200 kilometers. There were about 3,740 kilometers of gravel roads and an
estimated 45,000 kilometers of mainly seasonal earth roads and sand tracks,
about half of which were classified as feeder roads.
There are a few well-developed internal corridors, but rural connectivity is almost nonexistent. Road density is exceedingly low and traffic along most roads is sparse. Poor-quality roads drastically undermine the efficiency of transport services. The roads are generally in poor condition but usable all year round, although travel to and from different regions might be interrupted at times during the rainy season.
Railroads:
The government-owned Sudan Railways Corporation operates 4,578 kilometers of 1.07-gauge single track connecting most of the country’s production and consumption centers. The main line runs from Wadi Halfa and Port Sudan in the north via Khartoum to Al-Obeid and Nyala in the center and west, with short extensions to Sinnar and Kuraymah. An eastern segment connects Kassala and Al-Damazin with Sinnir, and a spur runs from Sinnar to al-Gadaref. A 716-kilometer light rail system serves the Gezira agricultural area southeast of Khartoum.
Sudan once had the largest railway network in the region, with most of the trains obtained from the United States. But decades of negligence, economic troubles, political corruption and U.S. sanctions have made the railway reliant on Chinese-made trains and parts that it can hardly afford. As a result, the railway fell apart through mismanagement and a fear of organized labor’s influence on the economy and politics.
Other Resources
Manufacturing:
Large-scale manufacturing is dominated by publicly owned enterprises. Sugar and textiles were the main products before expansion of the oil sector. Petroleum exports in the late 1990s provided funds for investment and import of equipment. Telecommunications and the growing processing of sugar greatly benefited from this investment, but textile production has remained far below capacity. In addition, small-scale enterprises produce pharmaceuticals, cement, electrical goods, paints, and textiles.
Minerals:
Significant minerals that are being mined include gold, chrome, limestone, marble, manganese, mica, iron ore, and uranium ores.
Imports:
In 2013 Sudan’s imports amounted to US$9.9 billion. In 2008 Sudan’s import bill came to US$8.9 billion, largely machinery, transport equipment, and capital goods. The largest suppliers were China, Saudi Arabia, India, and Egypt. In 2018 Sudan was the number 114 in total imports.
Exports:
n 2013 Sudan’s exports were US$7.0 billion. In 2008 exports amounted to US$12.4 billion, US$11.6 billion of it crude oil or petroleum-based products destined for China and Japan. Since 2000 such products have contributed 80 to 90 percent or more of export revenue, far surpassing the value of agricultural exports that formerly constituted the whole of Sudan’s exports.
In 2018, Sudan was the number 118 in total exports, and exported $4.08B and imported $7.47B, resulting in a negative trade balance of -$3.39B. In 2018, Sudan’s exports per capita were $97.6 and its imports per capita were $179. (https://oec.world/en/profile/country/afsdn).
Inland Waterways:
Sudan has 4,068 kilometers of navigable rivers, but only 1,723 kilometers are open throughout the year. The backbone of the system is formed by the White Nile, Blue Nile, and Nile River. Cataracts, shallows, a growing number of dams, and seasonal variation in water levels limit river traffic.
Civil Aviation:
Sudan Airways provides domestic service from Khartoum to 15 domestic airports and international service from three airports to the Middle East and Africa.
Marine Ports and Shipping:
Port Sudan and Sawakin on the Red Sea are the major commercial ports; the port of Bashayir handles most oil exports. The national merchant marine called Sudan Shipping Line had 19 vessels in the early 2000s that sailed mainly between the Red Sea ports in the Mediterranean and Europe. Sudan Shipping Line has been dismantled by Al- Bashir’s regime and currently Sudan does not own any vessels.
Pipelines:
Sudan has two major pipelines that carry oil from the oil fields to the Red Sea for export. A 1,610-kilometer line runs from the Bashayir terminal near Port Sudan to the Bentiu fields in Unity State (South Sudan) via Khartoum and the Al-Jayli refinery. The second line is 1,500 kilometers long and runs from Port Sudan to the Melut Basin in Upper Nile State (South Sudan). Extensions connect outlying fields to the major lines. Capacity exceeds 1 million barrels per day, but refining capacity and other factors have constrained this potential.
Telecommunications:
Sudan has a relatively well-equipped telecommunications infrastructure by regional standards, including a national fibre optic backbone and international fibre connections. Sudan’s telecommunications network has greatly expanded in recent years, albeit from a very low base. In 2008 there were only 356,000 landlines, fewer than five lines per 1,000 residents, and 11.2 million mobile-phone subscriptions, but large parts of the country were not covered by mobile-phone networks. Internet users numbered 4.2 million; cyber cafés in larger towns and cities provided most internet service.
Petroleum:
Oil was first discovered in the late 1970s, but exploration is currently underway in the North. Further exploration and drilling were hampered and/or suspended by civil war and by lack of infrastructure to transport and process petroleum. Production resumed in the late 1990s and was followed by construction of two export pipelines and terminals on the Red Sea. Consortia formed by foreign oil companies played a large role in these developments. Proven reserves are 5 billion barrels of oil and 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Major refineries are Al-Jayli near Khartoum and another at Port Sudan with a joint capacity of ca. 170,000 barrels/day. Under the 2005 peace agreement, oil revenues were split between North and South, but South Sudan possessed 70% of the oil production with less than 30% of the oil production could be produced in Sudan.