A former colony of both the United Kingdom and Egypt, the Sudan is a North African nation bordering the Red Sea between Egypt and Eritrea. Since independence from the British in 1956, the Sudan has struggled through several military regimes favoring Islamic based government. From 1972 to 1982, the Sudan faced civil war taking the lives of more than two million people and displacing four million others.
The Sudanese are a diverse peoples: 57% are black, 39% are Arab, 6% are Beja and the remaining are foreigners and other tribal ethnicities. The official language enforced by ruling parties is Arabic. Other languages in use include Nubian, Ta Bedawie, diverse dialects of Nilotic, Nilo-Hamitic, Sudanic languages and English.
With its capital city in Khartoum, the Sudan is comprised of 26 states. The nation is governed by an authoritarian regime that took power in 1989, an alliance of the military and the National Congress Party, formerly the National Islamic Front, which espouses an Islamist platform.
