Sudan is the largest
country in Africa with 480 kilometers of coastline along the Red Sea. The country is
predominately rural and sparsely populated with a population of about 29 million. A former
Anglo-Egyptian condominium, Sudan became independent as a multiparty state in 1956, but
this has been interrupted by long periods of military rule. The southerners' armed
rebellion against the Muslim rulers in Khartoum has been the most enduring in Africa.
Agriculture forms the main
production base of the economy accounting approximately for 78% of the total force and 40%
of the gross domestic product. The Nile river and its tributaries are the livelihood of
the population as they are vastly used for irrigation schemes. Cotton is by far the most
important export product, followed by sesame seed, sorghum, groundnuts and gum Arabic.
Livestock and livestock products are also important foreign exchange earners. Sudan has
started to exploit its large oil reserves in the south. Accordingly, the country is
expected to reach self-sufficiency in oil by the end of 1999, and to export a modest
amount by the year 2000. The war in the south between the rebel movement which favours a
secular and federal Sudan, and the Sudanese government which is committed to enforce
Islamic law throughout the country, remains the major obstacle to a peaceful settlement of
the conflict.
Sudan has witnessed a
breakthrough in the telecommunications with the liberalisation of the sector in 1993.
This has been reflected by the sharp increase of connected telephone lines from
64,000 in 1993 to 251,400 in 1999, resulting in a telephone density of 0.87 per hundred
people.
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