Sudan

Sudan is a country in Northeast Africa on the Red Sea, bordered by Egypt, Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea. Its 1,886,068 km2 (728,215 sq mi) are mostly flat plains, and at Khartoum the Blue Nile and White Nile meet to form the Nile.

Khartoum is the capital and largest city, and Arabic and English are the official languages among some 70 native ones. The Kingdom of Kerma flourished from about 2500 to 1500 BC, and the Kingdom of Kush, centered first at Napata and later at Meroë, lasted from about 785 BC to 350 AD; its kings ruled Egypt for nearly a century as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. After Kush the Nubians formed the Christian kingdoms of Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia, and from the 16th century the Funj Sultanate held the center and east while the sultans of Darfur ruled the west. Egypt took the region in the 19th century, and from 1899 Britain and Egypt governed it jointly as a condominium. Sudan became independent on 1 January 1956, and South Sudan separated in 2011.

Under the Constitutional Declaration of August 2019 a joint military and civilian Sovereignty Council acts as head of state during a transition. Farming has long employed most people, and oil was the main export before 2011; Port Sudan on the Red Sea also ships oil from South Sudan by pipeline. The country mines gold and holds copper, chromite, iron, manganese and other minerals. The Sennar and Roseires dams stand on the Blue Nile and the Jebel Aulia Dam on the White Nile, and the Deriba Caldera in the Marrah Mountains is the highest point at 3,042 m (9,980 ft).

Between 800 BC and 100 AD the Kushites built the Nubian pyramids at El-Kurru, Gebel Barkal, Nuri and Meroë. Sudanese culture brings together about 578 ethnic groups, from the deserts of the north to the forests of the south. Many men wear the jalabiya, a long loose robe, with a turban and scarf, and military bands once added the bagpipes to local music. The Sudan Football Association, founded in 1936, is one of the oldest in Africa, and a national league for women's clubs began in 2019.