Sudan

Major Geographic and Historic Features

The Republic of Sudan, located in the northeastern Africa, is the largest nation in the continent. Roughly a quarter the size of the United States of America, Sudan is surrounded by the nations of Egypt, Libya, Chad, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. The tropical land in the southern portion of the country gives way to deserts in the north as it follows the flow of the White and Blue and their confluence as the rivers travel north toward Egypt. The land is mostly flat with mountains appearing in the Nuba Mountain region and in the southern portion of the Republic. While the nation is 2,376,000 Sq. Km., only 840,000 sq. km. are considered arable land.

The area of Sudan has been home to various people groups for thousands of years, with the land being referenced under many names within ancient texts. The Jewish Scriptures and ancient Assyrian text refer to the region as the land of “Kosh/Kush” and the name “Sudan” was given to the region by the Greeks. The ancient kingdom of Nubia existed in the northern portion of the current Republic of Sudan and the Kingdom of Meroe appeared, but was conquered by the Egyptians and the later by the Ethiopians. The region of Sudan would continue to see states develop during a period of Christian influence. During the next few centuries, with the introduction to Islam and under the leadership of Muslim Arabs, Sudan became more Islamized in the northern portion of the region. During this time, less is known about the developments in the southern portion of the region as many of the residents remained in semi-nomadic groups. During these centuries, the independent Sultanate of Darfur also developed in the western portion of the region. In 1820, the region of the Sudan was conquered by and incorporated into the Ottoman Empire by the Egyptian leader Mohammed Ali, with leadership of the area held by foreign Turkish and Egyptian leaders. During the 1870s, British missionaries entered the southern portion of Sudan from Kenya and converted many of the southern tribes to Christianity.

Direct Ottoman leadership would last only half a century until 1881. A leader by the name of Muhammed ibn Adalla lead a nationalist revolt, claiming to be the Mahdi, the Islamic Redeemer, and assembled a force called “the Ansars” or “the followers” culminating in the siege of Khartoum on the 26th of January, 1885, resulting in the death of 50,000 people in the city. In 1898, the British and Egyptian forces arrived and claimed the Sudan to be a British condominium under Anglo-Egyptian control. In 1916, the Sultanate of Darfur was incorporated into the Sudan for fear that the Sultanate would fall under the influence of the Ottoman Empire. In the middle of the 1950s, the United Kingdom and Egypt ended the condominium on the Sudan and began the transition to a self-governing Sudan. The first parliament was elected in 1954 and official independence was granted on the 1st of January, 1956. One of the promises that had been made to the southern region of Sudan by the Arab government in Khartoum was that the new nation would have a federal style, when this promise was not fulfilled a seventeen year civil war (1955-1974) erupted. During this time, the Arab-led parliamentary government in Khartoum experienced a bloodless coup under the leadership of the Chief of Staff Lt. General Ibrahim Abboud, who would rule the county until 1964, when a civilian government was re-established from 1965-1969. A second coup occurred in 1969 under Col. Gaafar Nimeiry and would last until a third coup occurred in 1971 by the Sudanese Communist Party. In 1972, the Addis Ababa Peace Agreement brought an end to the seventeen-year First Sudanese Civil War, granting the southern portion of the country some level of autonomy. During the next ten years, oil fields would be discovered in the region Bentiu region in the southern part of the country. In 1983, President Numayri declared the introduction of Sharia (Islamic) Law in order to turn all of the Republic Sudan into a Muslim Arab state. This and other similar policies for Islamization of the southern portion of the country ignited the Second Sudanese Civil War. The conflict would later be stated as a conflict between “Christian and animist South and the Muslim, Arab-speaking North” and identified as a struggle upon ethnic and religious lines as well as a struggle for control of the southern oil fields. 1983 would also see the formation of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), a southern military force. The Second Sudanese Civil War would continue for 22 years with human rights violations reported on both sides of the conflict. The conflicts resolution would come on the 9th of January, 2005, with the signing of the Naivasha Agreement, known as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, establishing a more democratic structure across the country; a sharing of the revenues from the southern oil fields. As part of the Naivasha Agreement, the states in Southern Sudan and the regions of Aybei will be allowed to take a referendum vote by the conclusion of March 2011 to determine whether the populations of Southern Sudan and Aybei region wish to remain united with Northern Sudan or separate as an independent nation. The Southern Sudanese government briefly left the Naivasha agreements in 2007 stating that the terms of the agreement were not being upheld by the Khartoum government, especially the removal of the Northern troops from the southern region. The SPLA would rejoin the agreement in late 2007 and the Northern troops were removed in January 2008. After a rise in conflict over the oil fields in the Aybei region, Arbitration Tribunal of Sudan in July 2009 awarded the oil fields to the Northern Sudanese party in the conflict and the water portions of the region to the Southern Sudanese party.

During the period following the Naivasha Agreement, a new strictly ethnic conflict would develop in the western region of Darfur. The conflict, genocide and international crisis in Darfur is to be discussed in a subsequent Darfur-specific brief.

Demographics

The current estimated population of the Republic of Sudan as of July, 2008, is 40,218,456, with 41.1% of this population estimate being 0-14 years old, 54.6% being 15-64 and 2.5% of the remaining population in the 65+ age range. The population is experiencing a 2.134% increase rate as estimated by 2008. According to the United Nations, the average life expectancy of a Sudanese man is a 57 years and a Sudanese woman is 60 years. The broad ethnic breakdown of the population of the Republic of Sudan is African (52%), Arab (39%), Beja (6%), Foreigners (2%), and Other (1%). In the Republic as a whole, the population who reside in urban centers is 43%. The current infant mortality rate in The Sudan is 86.89 per 1000. UNICEF report that the reason for this high infant mortality and the many challenges facing children are “Disease, malnutrition and disruptions in essential services like water and education are also leaving their mark.” The United States Department of States reports the 2008 estimates of the GDP per capita as 2,200 USD. For more statistical information concerning demographics, please visit the UNICEF Sudan Statistics and the CountryWatch Sudan Report cited in the reference section below.

During the course of the civil wars between Northern and Southern Sudan, an estimated 2 million in Southern Sudan were killed and 4 million people were internally and externally displaced by the conflict. With about half of these refugees returning back to their homes since the Naivasha Agreement of 2005, Sudan is seeing not only internally displaced peoples, but thousands of externally displaced Sudanese in surrounding nations returning to their home regions in short periods of time. The UNHCR cites the example of the 20,000 Sudanese refugees having left the nation of Ethiopia in the last three years, with roughly 1,500 leaving Ethiopia per week through just three corridors. It is estimated that a combined total of 55,000 refugees returning from Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Uganda, Egypt, and Ethiopia with the help of the UNHCR and 137,000 refugees have returning to Sudan by their own efforts. With all of these returning Sudanese, Refugee International warns that “the scale of need in south Sudan is immense, and communities are vulnerable to a new humanitarian crisis and outbreaks of conflict if gaps in basic services and professional policing go unaddressed. Returning Sudanese, as well as recipient communities, must gain greater access to water, medical assistance, education, and sustainable livelihoods. Local women’s groups must be assisted to enable their participation in the reintegration of returnees”.

The plight of Sudanese orphans has been well known with the story of the Sudanese “Lost Boys”, a group of 16,000 young orphan boys and girls who had to flee their villages in 1987, who traveled across Sudan and into Ethiopia and, for some, were forced to flee to Kenya. The World Children’s Fund notes that “The children have suffered the most — thousands have been orphaned… many were forced to watch as their parents were murdered. Other children were separated from their mother and father during the chaos following a surprise attack on their village by marauders. As they frantically fled into the night to the sounds of gunshots and screaming, they never found their parents. Still others were left alone when their parents died of AIDS.” Within the large movement of internally and externally displaced people within the Republic of Sudan exist 1.8 million orphans from ages 0-17 according to the UNICEF in 2004, who have been orphaned by the civil wars and the Darfurian genocide, disease, poverty, and other cause. These orphans are in many of the same needs as other returning internally and externally displaced peoples, including access to healthcare and education.

Languages

Standard Arabic was the only official language of the Republic of Sudan according to the 1998 Constitution of the Republic of Sudan, but English has since been added as a second official language within the 2005 The Interim National Constitution of The Republic of The Sudan. In total, 134 recognized languages are spoken within the borders, while it is speculated that the actual total of languages are closer to 400. The tribal languages of Dinka and Nuer are widely spoken in the southern part of the country and other major languages (100,000+ speakers) include Bari, Bedawiyet, Fur, Jur Modo, Kenuzi-Dongola, Nobiin, Otuho, Shilluk, Toposa, and Zande. Article 8 of the 2005 Interim Constitution recognizes the presence and usage of these other languages in the following paragraphs:

1. All indigenous languages of the Sudan are national languages
and shall be respected, developed and promoted.

2. Arabic is a widely spoken national language in the Sudan.

3. Arabic, as a major language at the national level, and English
shall be the official working languages of the national
government and the languages of instruction for higher
education.

4. In addition to Arabic and English, the legislature of any subnational
level of government may adopt any other national
language as an additional official working language at its level.

5. There shall be no discrimination against the use of either
Arabic or English at any level of government or stage of
education.

Education

According to a report released on 7th July, 2009 from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) “The region {of Southern Sudan} has the lowest school enrollment in the world” and, “is considered one of the regions that are seriously off-track in as far as attainment of the Millennium Development Goals is concerned as well as that of attaining universal primary completion.” The First and Second Sudanese Civil War are cited as being a strong factor to low numbers of students in the southern portion of the Sudan who complete primary school. Current figures estimate that the number of students who do finish primary school in the whole of the Republic of Sudan is no greater than 20%. Current estimated literacy rate for the nation is 61.1%, but a distinct separation in genders appears as the estimated literacy rate for males is 71.8% and among females is 50.5%. Southern Sudan has a deficiency of teachers and many of the primary schools were destroyed during the civil wars. The Republic of Sudan, as a whole, spends 6% of the 88.85 billion GDP on education. For more individual statistics on education levels, please consult the UNICEF Sudan Statistics and the CountryWatch Sudan Report cited in the reference section below.

On 9 April, 2009, the Government of Southern Sudan issued the first Child Act for South Sudan which was heralded by Director of Operations for UNICEF’s Southern Sudan Area Programme, Peter Crowley, as a “major milestone in creating a protective environment in which children can enjoy their rights to health, education and other basic services, to access information, to express their views, and to be protected from abuse, neglect, exploitation and harm.” This is a welcome step in response to many of the barriers that children in Southern Sudan experience that limits there access to academic education. UNICEF’s joint final report of November, 2008 with the Government of South Sudan Ministry of Education, Science and Technology cites many of these barriers to education in Southern Sudan including, but not limited to: the financial challenge of school fees or levies and the impact both have on the family of the student, the cost of uniforms, the low rate of girls in schooling due to younger marriages and pregnancies, the social expectation of girls to fulfill household duties, and the decrease in the national budget allocated to education. The complete UNICEF and Government of South Sudan Ministry of Education, Science and Technology joint final report can be viewed at UNICEF website (please see citation at the conclusion of this portion of the report). Another challenge cited by this report and many other sources concerns the shortage of teachers and the training for teachers in Southern Sudan. UNICEF estimates that “available statistics show that only 7 percent are trained while the rest have either received some in-service training (48 percent) or are completely untrained (45 percent).” The UNICEF/GOSS Ministry of Education report continues, “Tellingly, female teachers constitute only 7 percent of all the teachers. Besides acute shortage of trained teachers, they are poorly equipped with teaching facilities and teacher’s guide books.”

Due to the cost of education, many of the externally displaced Southern Sudanese in the United Nations Kakuma Refugee Camp voiced their desire to stay in Kenya, where education is free through secondary school. One family interviewed by a future United States of Hope staff member in 2007 voiced this desire so strongly that should they be repatriated by the United Nations to Southern Sudan, they stated “we would begin walking right back here, even if we get less food, our children get to go to school”. The family, from the Nuba Mountain area, also recognized that the lack of teachers was one of their chief concerns. Now, this opportunity to seek education in Kenya may no longer be an option. As of June 2008, the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) has announced that they will no longer be enrolling new students in the schools in the United Nations Kakuma Refugee Camp because, according to the UNHCR spokesman Emmanuel Nyabera, “the move is to encourage Sudanese refugees to return home”

While this information may seem disheartening, the UNHCR reports education enrollment has been increasing steadily from the time of the Naivasha Accords since the “gross enrolment rose by about 23 percent in 2003 and by 35 percent in 2008, and is projected to rise by 55 percent in 2011.” The UNHCR report of October 2008 continues by stating that since “the launch of the Go-To-School initiative on 1 April 2006, enrollment has risen from the wartime estimate of 343,000 to 850,000 by December 2006, and to over 1.3 million by December 2007.” The UNHCR, however, concludes with the UNICEF reports that much of this development has still not increased the number of girls and women in education. While there are positive developments in the primary education of Sudanese, the gross rate of students in the Republic as a whole who attend secondary school is 35% for males and 33% for females, while the net rate is only 17% for males and 22% for females. For more statistical information concerning education, please visit the UNICEF Sudan Statistics source cited in the reference section below.

USOH Actions in Southern Sudan

As of July 2009, the United States of Hope entered into a partnership with a developing NGO administered by Southern Sudanese individuals called Jubilee Corp. International (JCI) out of Washington D.C. to help with the a multistage project to serve in the region of Southern Sudan and help the humanitarian effort among orphans and returning Sudanese. Due to JCI’s established connections to the region and to key Southern Sudanese officials in government and education both in Southern Sudan and in the United States of America, USoH sees strong potential in this partnership and this project. The following is the multistage program for the project with conditions at present; please understand that goals and priorities may change in response to renewed conflict, natural disasters, or other circumstances. The United States of Hope recognizes that this action will not solve nor heal all of the challenges facing Southern Sudan, but feels that action, even in the smallest ways, must be taken to help the people of Southern Sudan.

Stage One: Center of Operation in Southern Sudan

The United States of Hope and Jubilee Corp. International will work together to have infrastructure development in Sothern Sudan through the building of a humanitarian center in Juba, Sudan to function as a staging area for future efforts by USoH, JCI, and other NGOs and IGOs into the more rural areas of Southern Sudan. Stage Two of the project would begin following the completion of the center.

Stage Two: Establishment of Six Orphanages

Working in partnership with faith communities in Southern Sudan, United States of Hope and Jubilee Corp. International will build a series of six orphanages across Southern Sudan with additional orphanages planned for Southern Sudan and Northern Uganda. Both stage one and stage two of this project will utilize paid local residents to serve in the building so as to stimulate the local economy through infrastructure development rather than the giving of funds. JCI, due to the founder being from the Southern Sudan, has been handling the acquisition of land and the development of contacts within the Southern Sudan for this project. JCI and the USoH will work with U.S. faith and civic communities to ensure financial support to each of the orphanages, with U.S. communities selecting one of the orphanages to sponsor.

Stage Three: Development of Educational Programs

The United States of Hope will be aiding Jubilee Corp. International in these initial phases. Upon completion of the orphanages; USoH will begin development educational programs and the supplying of educational materials to these areas. Recognizing that one of the greatest needs that Southern Sudan faces is for trained teachers, the USoH will be paying particular attention to the training of current and future teachers for not only the orphanages but surrounding villages as well by providing a similar program to that just conducted by the United States Agency for International Development – Sudan (USAID – Sudan) from October 2006-September 2009 within the Aybei and Southern Blue Nile region under the Health, Education, and Reconciliation (HEAR) Program. Using JCI’s current relationship with the University of Juba and USoH’s current and developing relationships with American universities, a long-term plan would be set to have U.S. and Sudanese teams of university students studying education to travel to the orphanage areas to provide two-week training sessions for teachers and/or education to adults in the university student’s specialized area of study. It would also be the goal of USoH to provide each one of these orphanages with a small children’s library of books in English, Arabic, and local languages (if these specific books are accessible). Within the center in Juba, a larger donated library of reference books, written teaching materials, and textbooks would be made available for temporary use by any visiting NGOs, IGOs, education teams, or local teachers.

Stage Four: Development of Additional Programs within Southern Sudan

Following the completion of the first three stages, Jubilee Corp. International and The United States of Hope would begin further development of additional orphanages. During this stage there would be exploration into additional necessary programs such as health, adult educational and work training programs in association with other NGOs and IGOs, and the possible development of an infrastructure-based microloan program (ie. livestock or grain-seed loan instead of monetary funds).

References

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British Broadcasting Corporation, Timeline: Sudan, 4 March 2009, available at
Coleman, Denise Youngblood Ph.D.(Ed.), Sudan: Country Review 2009, CountryWatch Review
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Wafula, Evans, UNHCR stops enrollment in Kakuma, AfricaNews