Sudan 2018

Sudan is located in the northeastern part of Africa with an estimated population of 43.8 million people. The economy is largely based on oil and agriculture, with the main exports being livestock, cotton and gum arabic. In terms of foreign relations, Sudan is a member of the United Nations and other international organizations such as the African Union, Arab League and World Trade Organization. According to extrareference, Sudan is a federal presidential republic with an elected president who serves as head of state while the prime minister serves as head of government. In 2018, Omar al-Bashir was elected to serve another term in office as President of Sudan.

Yearbook 2018

Sudan. According to Countryaah.com, Khartoum is the capital city of Sudan, a country located in Northern Africa. Sudan struggled with a continuing economic crisis in 2018. The country’s currency fell 85% against the US dollar and inflation was close to 70% in September.

The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) nominated President Omar al-Bashir as its presidential candidate in the same month in 2020, despite the fact that the Constitution only allows two terms of office. al-Bashir was re-elected in 2015. Just before the NCP congress, the government was reformed. Moutaz Moussa was named new prime minister and also got the post of finance minister. In October, the Sudanese pound was devalued and fell closer to the black market. Moussa talked about releasing the exchange rate. Among other things, it has recommended the International Monetary Fund.

• According to Abbreviationfinder: SD is an three letter acronym for Sudan.

Sudan’s hopes of being removed from a list of countries that the United States believes are devoted to state-sponsored terrorism rose at the end of the year. The US Foreign Ministry announced that Khartoum was cooperating. A decision is required for Sudan to be able to raise international loans again.

At the beginning of the year, security forces turned down protests in, among other things, Khartoum aimed at sharply increased bread prices since government subsidies on flour declined. The protests flared up again around December 19. Claims were also made that al-Bashir would resign. For five days, 37 people were killed in various cities according to the human rights group Amnesty International. The government stated that 19 were killed. The UN and the EU called for restraint.

The government announced in May that Sudan lacked fuel reserves. Saudi Arabia later promised to sell oil at a bargain price for five years. The Minister of Oil will be replaced in April. Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour was also allowed to go. One reason is believed to have been that Ghandour talked about how wages for diplomats and embassy rents lagged for months.

Sudan tried to drive the peace process in neighboring South Sudan and in June signed an agreement to monitor oil facilities in northern South Sudan. Sudan receives important revenue through transit fees on South Sudan’s oil exports.

In July, the government extended a unilateral ceasefire in the Blue Nile and South Kurdufan provinces and said it was willing to allow relief. The split was within the rebel movement SPLM-North (Sudanese people’s liberation movement).

In July, the UN Security Council decided to halve its peacekeeping operation in Darfur. The UNAMID joint force established by the UN and the African Union (AU) would be reduced to around 4,000 soldiers in June 2019. Violence has generally subsided in Darfur, but just over 2 million people are still on the run.

The wars in Darfur and South Sudan

While there was peace in 2005 as a result of a negotiated agreement in South Sudan, the war in Darfur broke out in 2003. As a result of these two wars, Sudan has the largest number of internally displaced persons in the world, approx. 4–6 million in 2008, in addition to over half a million refugees in neighboring countries, most from Darfur to Chad. The largest proportion of internally displaced people have fled from the war in South Sudan, while the figure from Darfur was estimated at around 2 million. In 2008, more than 1 million had returned to their homes in the south following the peace peace in 2005.

The war in South Sudan is estimated to have cost about 2 million lives; in Darfur approx. 300,000 (2008). 50,000 to 100,000 were also displaced as a result of fighting between forces from the Sudanese and South Sudanese armed forces in the city of Abyei in central Sudan in May 2008 – a result of continued disagreement between governments in the south and north about where the border should go.

Abyei is located in the state of South Kordofan, between North and South Sudan and on the border with Darfur, in an area with significant oil deposits. The state, created as a result of the peace agreement in 2005, is ethnically and religiously complex – with the Nuba -People as the largest, and threatened by further conflict.

President Bashir and South Sudan President Salva Kiir agreed to allow the border issue to go to international arbitration. Norway contributed to the agreement that barred the conflict over Abyei. The border dispute in 2007 was a major reason why the SPLM withdrew from the Sudanese government for a time, creating fears that the 2005 peace agreement would end. Like the Abyei region, the disputed Nuba Mountains were included in South Kordofan as a result of the 2005 peace agreement. monitored with international assistance, including from Norway. As a result of the 2005 peace agreement, solutions for power distribution between NIC and SPLM were entered into in several disputed areas, including The Blue Nile and Nuba.

Al-Bashir is charged with war crimes

In 2008, President al-Bashir was charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, for war crimes and crimes against humanity, linked to his responsibility for abuses against the civilian population during the war in Darfur. Arrest warrant was issued in March 2009.

In 2010, the charge was expanded to include genocide. The Sudanese government condemned the charges and refused to extradite the president, inter alia by expelling Darfur international aid organizations. In April 2010, Bashir was re-elected as president, in the first elections with several candidates since 1986. At the same time, it was pointed out that political freedom was further squashed in Sudan, including arrests of oppositionists, and that more power was centralized around Bashir.

Despite several peace processes and ceasefires, especially for South Sudan, armed conflicts continued in several parts of the country, especially in Darfur, but also in the provinces of the Blue Nile and South Kordofan, as well as in the border area of ​​Abyei. Clashes between government forces and militia also took place in the east of the country.