EI GlobalSudanSudan Stats 
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Background: Military regimes favoring Islamic-oriented governments have dominated national politics since independence from the UK in 1956. Sudan was embroiled in two prolonged civil wars during most of the remainder of the 20th century. These conflicts were rooted in northern economic, political, and social domination of largely non-Muslim, non-Arab southern Sudanese. The first civil war ended in 1972 but broke out again in 1983. The second war and famine-related effects resulted in more than 4 million people displaced and, according to rebel estimates, more than 2 million deaths over a period of two decades. Peace talks gained momentum in 2002-04 with the signing of several accords. The final North/South Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed in January 2005, granted the southern rebels autonomy for six years. After which, a referendum for independence is scheduled to be held. A separate conflict, which broke out in the western region of Darfur in 2003, has displaced nearly 2 million people and caused an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 deaths. As of late 2006, peacekeeping troops were struggling to stabilize the situation, which has become increasingly regional in scope, and has brought instability to eastern Chad, and Sudanese incursions into the Central African Republic. Sudan also has faced large refugee influxes from neighboring countries, primarily Ethiopia and Chad. Armed conflict, poor transport infrastructure, and lack of government support have chronically obstructed the provision of humanitarian assistance to affected populations.
Geography
Location: Northern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Egypt and Eritrea
Area: total: 2,505,810 sq km, water: 129,810 sq km, land: 2.376 million sq km
Land boundaries: total: 7,687 km, border countries: Central African Republic 1,165 km, Chad 1,360 km, Democratic Republic of the Congo 628 km, Egypt 1,273 km, Eritrea 605 km, Ethiopia 1,606 km, Kenya 232 km, Libya 383 km, Uganda 435 km
Coastline: 853 km
Climate: tropical in south; arid desert in north; rainy season varies by region (April to November)
Terrain: generally flat, featureless plain; mountains in far south, northeast and west; desert dominates the north
Natural resources: petroleum; small reserves of iron ore, copper, chromium ore, zinc, tungsten, mica, silver, gold, hydropower
People
Population: 39,379,358 (2007 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 41.6% (male 8,371,628/female 8,016,880), 15-64 years: 56% (male 11,080,025/female 10,956,458), 65 years and over: 2.4% (male 504,957/female 449,410) (2007 est.)
Median age: total: 18.7 years, male: 18.6 years, female: 18.9 years (2007 est.)
Population Growth Rate: 2.082% (2007 est.)
Birth rate: 34.86 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Death rate: 14.39 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 91.78 deaths/1,000 live births (2007 est.)
Life expectancy at birth: total population: 49.11 years, male: 48.24 years, female: 50.03 years (2007 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 2.3% (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 400,000 (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths: 23,000 (2003 est.)
Ethnic groups: black 52%, Arab 39%, Beja 6%, foreigners 2%, other 1%
Languages: Arabic (official), Nubian, Ta Bedawie, diverse dialects of Nilotic, Nilo-Hamitic, Sudanic languages, English
note: program of "Arabization" in process
Literacy (definition: age 15 and over can read and write): total population: 61.1%, male: 71.8%, female: 50.5% (2003 est.)
Government
Official Name: Republic of the Sudan
Government type: Government of National Unity (GNU) - the National Congress Party (NCP) and Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) formed a power-sharing government under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA); the NCP, which came to power by military coup in 1989, is the majority partner; the agreement stipulates national elections for the 2008 - 2009 timeframe.
Capital: Khartoum
Independence (from Egypt and UK): January 1, 1956
Economy
Overview: Sudan has turned around a struggling economy with sound economic policies and infrastructure investments, but it still faces formidable economic problems starting from its low level of per capita output. From 1997 to date, Sudan has been implementing IMF macroeconomic reforms. In 1999, Sudan began exporting crude oil and in the last quarter of 1999 recorded its first trade surplus, which, along with monetary policy, has stabilized the exchange rate. Increased oil production, high oil prices, revived light industry, and expanded export processing zones helped sustain GDP growth at about 10% in 2006. Agricultural production remains Sudan's most important sector, employing 80% of the work force and contributing 35% of GDP, but most farms remain rain-fed and susceptible to drought. Chronic instability - resulting from the long-standing North/South civil war as well as the Darfur conflict, adverse weather, and weak world agricultural prices - ensure that much of the population will remain at or below the poverty line for years. In late 2006, the government announced its intention to introduce a new currency, the Sudan Pound, from January 2007 at an exchange rate of $1.00 equals 2 Sudanese Pounds.
Annual GDP: $97.47 billion (2006 est.)
GDP - per capita: $2,400 (2006 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 35.5%, industry: 24.8%, services: 39.7% (2006 est.)
Labor force: 7.415 million (1996 est.)
Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 80%, industry 7%, services 13% (1998 est.)
Industries: oil, cotton ginning, textiles, cement, edible oils, sugar, soap distilling, shoes, petroleum refining, pharmaceuticals, armaments, automobile/light truck assembly
Agriculture - products: cotton, groundnuts (peanuts), sorghum, millet, wheat, gum arabic, sugarcane, cassava (tapioca), mangos, papaya, bananas, sweet potatoes, sesame; sheep, livestock
Exports - commodities: oil and petroleum products; cotton, sesame, livestock, groundnuts, gum arabic, sugar
Communications
Telephone Lines in use: 636,900 (2006)
Cellular Phones: 4.683 million (2006)
Television Broadcast Stations: 3 (1997)
Internet Users: 3.5 million (2006)
Transportation
Railways: total: 5,978 km (2006 est.)
Highways: total: 11,900 km, paved: 4,320 km, unpaved: 7,580 km (1999)
Airports - with paved runways: 15
Airports - with unpaved runways: 73
Transnational Issues
Disputes - International: the effects of Sudan's almost constant ethnic and rebel militia fighting since the mid-20th century have penetrated all of the neighboring states; as of 2006, Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Uganda provided shelter for over half a million Sudanese refugees, which includes 240,000 Darfur residents driven from their homes by Janjawid armed militia and the Sudanese military forces; Sudan, in turn, hosted about 116,000 Eritreans, 20,000 Chadians, and smaller numbers of Ethiopians, Ugandans, Central Africans, and Congolese as refugees; in February 2006, Sudan and DROC signed an agreement to repatriate 13,300 Sudanese and 6,800 Congolese; Sudan accuses Eritrea of supporting Sudanese rebel groups; efforts to demarcate the porous boundary with Ethiopia proceed slowly due to civil and ethnic fighting in eastern Sudan; the boundary that separates Kenya and Sudan's sovereignty is unclear in the "Ilemi Triangle," which Kenya has administered since colonial times; while Sudan claims to administer the Hala'ib Triangle north of the 1899 Treaty boundary along the 22nd Parallel; both states withdrew their military presence in the 1990s, and Egypt has invested in and effectively administers the area; periodic violent skirmishes with Sudanese residents over water and grazing rights persist among related pastoral populations along the border with the Central African Republic.
Refugees & Internally Displaced Persons (IDP): refugees (country of origin): 116,746 (Eritrea), 20,000 (Chad), 14,633 (Ethiopia), 7,895 (Uganda), 5,023 (Central African Republic)
IDPs: 5,300,000 - 6,200,000 (internal conflict since 1980s; ongoing genocide in Darfur region, IDP registration for return to South Sudan started in 2005) (2006)
Trafficking in Persons: current situation: Sudan is a source country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation; Sudan may also be a transit and destination country for Ethiopian women trafficked for domestic servitude; boys are trafficked to the Middle East, particularly Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, for use as camel jockeys; small numbers of girls are reportedly trafficked within Sudan for domestic servitude as well as for commercial sexual exploitation in small brothels in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps; the terrorist rebel organization "Lord's Resistance Army" (LRA) continues to abduct and forcibly conscript small numbers of children in Southern Sudan for use as cooks, porters, and combatants in its ongoing war against Uganda; some of these children are then trafficked across borders into Uganda or possibly the Democratic Republic of the Congo; children are utilized by rebel groups and the Sudanese Armed Forces and associated militias in the ongoing conflict in Darfur; during the decades of civil war, thousands of Dinka women and children were enslaved by members of Baggara tribes and subjected to various forms of forced labor without remuneration as well as physical and sexual abuse; with the cessation of the North-South conflict and the ongoing peace process, there were no known new abductions of Dinka by Baggara tribes during 2005; however, inter-tribal abductions of a different nature continue in Southern Sudan and warrant further investigation.
Tier rating: Tier 3 - Sudan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.
Information from the CIA World Factbook 2007
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/su.html
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