• The Republic of Sudan is a country in the northeastern region of Africa, with a small portion of coastline on the Red Sea. It is the largest country in Africa, and the 10th largest in the world.

  A conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan between regional militias and the Sudanese government has killed hundreds of thousands of people since 2003.

• 1. Official name: The Republic of Sudan
  2. Name derives from the Arabic phrase, "Bilad-al-sudan," or "land of the blacks"BBC NEWS: Country profile: Sudan
  3. Capital: Khartoum
  4. Type of government: Constitutional democracy
  5. Current head of state: Omar al-Bashir
  6. Population (2007): 39.4 millionU.S. Department of State: Background Note: Sudan
  7. Currency: Sudanese Dinar
  8. Official languages: Arabic
  9. Other languages: English and tribal languages
  10. Area: 2.5 million square kilometers (967,500 square miles)U.S. Department of State: Background Note: Sudan
  11. Declared independence from Great Britain on January 1, 1956
  12. Home to the Darfur region, where armed conflict has been named a genocide by the United States governmentBBC NEWS: US House calls Darfur 'genocide' (July 23, 2004)
  13. Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, was charged with 10 counts of war crimes, including genocide, on July 14, 2008 by the International Criminal Court

• First Sudanese Civil War

  The First Sudanese Civil War lasted from 1955 to 1972, and was fought between the predominantly Arabic Muslim citizens of Northern Sudan and the Christian and Animist Africans of the South. The 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement put an end to the fighting until 1983.

• Second Sudanese Civil War

  Hostilities were reignited in 1983 when then President Gaafar Nimeri violated the Addis Ababa Agreement by granting a degree of autonomy to Southern Sudanese tribes. Fighting continued until 2005.

• Darfur Conflict

  Darfur is a region in northwestern Sudan which has been the scene of intense fighting between Omar al-Bashir's government and rebel groups like the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Janjaweed militia. These opposition groups have been accused of mass murder. The United States government has declared the killings a policy of genocide.BBC NEWS: US House calls Darfur 'genocide' (July 23, 2004)

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