In 1998, Sudan was a nation located in the northeastern part of Africa with a population of around 30 million people. The official languages were Arabic and English and the currency was the Sudanese pound. The government was a dictatorship headed by President Omar al-Bashir, who had been in office since 1989. Sudan’s economy in 1998 relied heavily on agriculture, with its main exports being cotton, groundnuts, and sesame. Tourism also played an important role; Sudan had many ancient attractions such as pyramids and mosques which attracted visitors from all over the world. Education was highly valued in Sudan; literacy rates were higher than average for African countries at around 65%. Despite economic difficulties due to its small size and limited resources, Sudan had managed to maintain its unique culture and traditions which provided hope for a brighter future. See dentistrymyth for Sudan in the year of 2015.
Yearbook 1998
Sudan. Another famine hit southern Sudan during the summer, mainly Bahr al-Ghazal province. According to Countryaah, the capital of Sudan is Khartoum. The famine was caused not only by drought but also by the war, which has increasingly developed into settlements between factions that broke out of the SPLA guerrilla. Large damage caused a faction leader’s attack at the beginning of the year against Bahr al-Ghazal’s main location Waw, which drove large crowds of people on the run.
Economy
Inflation rate | 32.40% |
Unemployment rate | 19.6% |
Gross domestic product (GDP) | $ 177,400,000,000 |
GDP growth rate | 1.40% |
GDP per capita | 4,300 USD |
GDP by sector | |
Agriculture | 39.60% |
Industry | 2.60% |
Service | 57.80% |
State budget | |
Revenue | 7.227 billion |
Expenditure | 8.865 billion |
Proportion of the population below the national poverty line | 46.5% |
Distribution of household income | |
Top 10% | 26.7 |
Lower 10% | 2.7 |
Industrial production growth rate | 2.50% |
Investment volume | 20.7% of GDP |
National debt | 121.60% of GDP |
Foreign exchange reserves | $ 504,900,000 |
Tourism | 2014 |
Number of visitors | 684,000 |
Revenue | $ 967,000,000 |
- Abbreviationfinder: What does SD stand for in geography? Here, this 3 letter acronym refers to the country of Sudan.
Major international efforts were made for the hungry, but a significant portion of the supplies were considered to end up in the fighting groups. In July, SPLA announced a ceasefire in Bahr al-Ghazal to facilitate aid shipments, and the government responded with a ceasefire throughout southern Sudan. However, fighting continued throughout the year throughout the country.
Disagreement over the definition of “southern Sudan” caused new peace talks in August between SPLA and the government to be stranded. An earlier agreement in May on a future referendum on independence for southern Sudan also became meaningless as SPLA wants to include areas much further north than the government agrees. The question of the application of Islamic law in non-Muslim areas also remains a seemingly insoluble issue.
A new constitution was adopted in a referendum in May. The Constitution should make it possible to re-establish political organizations in Sudan. The voluntary opposition rejected the law by saying that its real purpose is to consolidate the Islamic National Congress’s power monopoly behind a democratic facade.
In August, American robots destroyed a factory in al-Shifa in the province of Khartoum, which according to the government and several Western sources was the country’s most important pharmaceutical industry. According to the US, there were produced components in cooperation with the terrorist suspected Saudi Usama bin Laden for the poison gas VX. The factory was destroyed as revenge for the terrorist attacks on US embassies in Nairobi (Kenya) and Dar es-Salaam (Tanzania), which Usama bin Ladin is suspected to be behind.
Israeli aircraft bombed Yarmouk plant at the end of October 2012 on the outskirts of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum. Israel would neither deny nor deny the attack, but characterized the plant as an “Iran-funded weapons factory” and characterized Sudan as a “terrorist state.” Now it was probably not Sudan bombing Israel, but Israel bombing Sudan. The attack on the Khartoum plant, 1600km from Israel, was considered by international observers as a drill operation prior to a possible Israeli air strike on Iran. Israel last bombed Sudan in February 2009. In 1998, the United States bombed an alleged weapons factory in Khartoum, which subsequently turned out to be a medicine factory.
There were several clashes across the border between Sudan and South Sudan during 2012. In February, South Sudan had to suspend its oil production due to disagreement with Sudan about payment for the oil transported through Sudan. In September, numerous agreements were signed between the two countries on trade, oil, security and citizenship, but despite the agreements, these were not implemented in concrete initiatives. In the southern part of the country, the armed conflict between the military and the SPLM-N continued. In agust, the two parties entered into an agreement, but the content of the agreement was not realized.
In protest of the 24th anniversary of Bashir’s coup on June 29, 2013, 10,000 people staged a protest demonstration in Khartoum’s sister city of Omdurman during the parole: “Skid Bashir”. The demonstration was monitored by police, however, who failed to attack it.
Bashir removed the fuel subsidies on September 23, 2013, prompting more than a doubling of gasoline prices. It sparked spontaneous protests all over the country, where people burned down gas stations, police stations and offices of the ruling party. Security forces responded again with tear gas, rubber bullets and later sharp shots. The following weeks, around 175 protesters were killed by police bullets and several thousands arrested. The government did not change its policy, but the protests were so severe that the government was transformed and Bashir replaced his vice-president with Bakri Hassan Saleh.