Sudan

The largest country in Africa until it split, and the place where a colonial administrative decision produced half a century of war. Nubia and the kingdom of Kush ruled Egypt as its twenty-fifth dynasty and left pyramids at Meroe more numerous than Egypt's own. Islam and Arabic spread from the fourteenth century in the north while the south remained distinct. The Mahdist state defeated an Anglo-Egyptian force and killed Gordon at Khartoum in 1885 before Kitchener destroyed it at Omdurman in 1898. The Anglo-Egyptian condominium then governed north and south as separate countries under the Southern Policy, reversing it only in 1946 and leaving the south nine years to prepare for a state it had been excluded from building. Independence came in 1956 with a southern mutiny already under way, and civil war ran, with one interval, until 2005. Darfur's conflict from 2003 brought genocide charges against President Bashir at the International Criminal Court. He was overthrown by protests and the army in 2019, and the army and the Rapid Support Forces turned on each other in 2023, producing the world's largest displacement crisis. Khartoum sits where the Blue and White Niles meet. The country has about forty-eight million people. Arabic and English are both official. Meroe's pyramids are a World Heritage site. The Nile runs the length of the country. Gum arabic from Sudanese acacia is used in a large share of the world's soft drinks. Sudan has more pyramids than Egypt, though they are smaller and steeper, with over two hundred at Meroe alone.

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