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SUDAN - Country Profile & Chronology.

Article Excerpt
Sudan is the largest and one of the most diverse countries in Africa, home to deserts, mountain ranges, swamps and rain forests. It has emerged from a 21-year civil war between the Arab and mainly Muslim north and the African Animist and Christian south, which has cost the lives of more than 2m people. Southern rebels said they were battling oppression and marginalisation.

After two years of hard bargaining, the Khartoum government and the southern rebels - the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) - signed a Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) on Jan. 9, 2005. But since then, there have been numerous crises between Khartoum and the Government of South Sudan (GoSS).

The current civil war in Sudan's vast western province of Darfur is seen as one of the worst nightmares in recent history. Sudan has allowed a small African Union (AU) peace-keeping force in Darfur and, until July 2007, has refused to accept a large-scale UN deployment. But a July 2007 UNSC resolution to send such a UN force was eventually accepted by Khartoum.

Despite numerous north-south crises, however, President Umar al-Bashir has managed to keep a unity government formed after the CPA was signed in early 2005. Under the CPA, an independence referendum in the south was to follow a six-year period of autonomy. The referendum in 2011 will decide whether the south will stay within Sudan or secede; and most indications so far are that the southerners will secede.

The CPA provides for a high degree of autonomy for the south. The region was to share...

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