Sudan

REGION: East Africa
CAPITAL CITY: Khartoum
POPULATION: 35,523,000
LAND AREA: One-quarter the size of the United States

Sudan has experienced continual civil war since the mid-20th century. Ethnically rooted, the conflicts have been between the mainly Muslim, Arab sector of the population, who live primarily in the north and control the national government, and the largely Christian and Animist, non-Arab southern Sudanese. The first conflict ended in 1972. But fighting broke out again in 1983, ending with the North/South Comprehensive Peace Agreement of January 2005, which granted the southern Sudanese autonomy for six years and promised a referendum for independence thereafter. In 2003, a separate conflict — but along the same ethnic lines — broke out in the Darfur region of western Sudan and continues to the present day. "One of the worst nightmares in recent history," according to U.N. officials, the Darfur conflict has displaced nearly two million people and claimed the lives of 200,000 to 400,000 people. Spillover violence has affected neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic. Although Sudan has become a significant oil exporter, the country's chronic instability combined with recurrent drought and a decimated infrastructure have left most Sudanese, who are farmers, trapped at or below the international poverty line. Sudan has the largest land area of any country in Africa.