The Rule of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium

How did the British and Egyptian colonial period set the stage for later Sudanese conflicts after independence? The British and Egyptian rule continued and accelerated the discontinuities of nineteenth-century development in Sudan. The disparity between the development of the Nile River Valley and the neglect...

The Third Darfur Rebellion Continued

How did the Darfuri rebels arm themselves? To understand the complexity of the third Darfur rebellion we must now review the four sources of weapons that supported rebel combat operations. First, the rebels captured weapons, vehicles, and military equipment during their victories over the SAF...

The Three Rebellions of Darfur

What caused the rebellions in Darfur? The three successive Darfur rebellions beginning in 1987 had deep roots in the Sudanese past. The British colonial rulers broke the military power of the Fur sultanate in one last great battle in 1916, in which Ali Dinar, the...

Fourth Period (Continued): The Second Civil War and the Turabist State

Why and how did the Second Civil War start in the South? Southerners hoping for an immediate peace dividend following the Addis Ababa Agreement were disappointed. Some of this disappointment stemmed from wildly unrealistic expectations. Even under the most favorable circumstances, development is a long,...

The Bashir-Turabi Coup of 1989, the Rise and Fall of Hassan Al-Turabi, and U.S. Policy Toward Sudan

How did Omar al-Bashir and Hassan al-Turabi take power? On June 30, 1989, just as Sadiq was about to leave for Addis Ababa, a group of midranking army officers led by Brigadier Omar al-Bashir staged a coup orchestrated by Hassan al-Turabi and NIF. They sought...

The Place and Significance of Sudan

Why should anyone care about Sudan? For more than two centuries, Sudan has attracted an unusual level of attention beyond its own borders. This international interest converged in the last decade of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century as four...

The Future of North and South Sudan

How has the NCP remained in power for two decades? Since 1998, the NCP has used rising oil revenues to ensure its survival. Khartoum has built a domestic munitions industry, producing tanks, Kalashnikov machine guns, ammunition, and small arms to provision the SAF, should international...

Fourth Period of Modern Sudan (1956–2005)

How did the first North–South civil war begin? Between October 18 and 21, 1954, southern leaders organized a second Juba Conference, this time with no northern sanction or delegates present to guide the results. The conference voted for independence from Egypt (which affirmed the National...

The Birth of Modern Sudan

How has Sudan’s early history affected its current problems? To answer this question, we need to follow Sudan’s history, principally that of the last two centuries. European fascination with Sudan dates from attempts in the eighteenth century to find the source of the Nile, one...

The Darfur Peace Process

Given the success of the CPA, why hasn’t a similar agreement been negotiated for Darfur? As we’ve seen, the situation in Sudan is complicated because the second civil war—North versus South—occurred while rebellions were taking place in other regions of the country—in the Nuba Mountains,...