Sudan

Overview

Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa with a long coastline on the Red Sea. Its capital, Khartoum, stands near the meeting of the Blue and White Nile rivers; Port Sudan is its principal maritime outlet. Since independence in 1956, Sudan’s history has included prolonged conflict between northern and southern political centers, military rule, the secession of Sudan’s south as South Sudan in 2011, the War in Darfur and a new nationwide war beginning in 2023. These conflicts have repeatedly displaced civilians and weakened state institutions. [1][8][15]

Sudan also occupies an important place in the history of Israel’s regional relations. It declared war against Israel in 1967, then hosted the Arab League summit that rejected peace, recognition and negotiations. Decades later, Sudanese leaders announced normalization with Israel in October 2020 and signed an Abraham Accords declaration in January 2021. Those steps marked a diplomatic reversal, but divided civilian and military leadership, a 2021 coup and civil war prevented the conclusion and implementation of a comprehensive bilateral peace treaty. [2][11][16]

Geography

Sudan connects the Nile basin to the Red Sea and borders Egypt and Libya as well as countries of the Sahel and Horn of Africa. Its eastern coast gives Port Sudan commercial and military importance. Before southern secession, Sudan’s principal oil reserves lay in the south, while refineries and transport infrastructure lay in the north, including Khartoum and Port Sudan. Southern oil had no foreseeable export route to the Red Sea except through northern infrastructure. These geographic divisions made oil revenue, transit arrangements and control of pipelines central questions before the 2011 independence referendum. [8]

Port Sudan’s position has also attracted foreign naval interest. Sudan suspended an agreement for a Russian naval facility in spring 2021 and sought removal of equipment already installed for the project. After his October 2021 coup, military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan expressed qualified support for reviving the arrangement. Sudan’s foreign minister announced in February 2025 that a final deal granting Russia a naval base had been reached. Following restoration of Sudan–Iran diplomatic ties in December 2023, the Iranian regime supplied weapons to Sudan’s army while pursuing naval access at Port Sudan. An announced agreement and pursuit of access do not establish that either proposed base began operating. [15]

History

Sudan became independent from joint British and Egyptian rule on January 1, 1956. Relations between northern governments and the south remained troubled by political exclusion, religious and cultural divisions, and disputes over power and resources. Decades of civil war preceded the January 2011 referendum on southern independence. At the time, southern oil production supplied about 98 percent of the southern government’s income and about 65 percent of Khartoum’s government income, while oil accounted for about 95 percent of Sudan’s export revenue. Secession therefore threatened both governments’ finances even as each remained dependent on the other for production or transport. South Sudan became independent in 2011. [8]

Violence did not end with partition. In June 2011, Sudanese tanks and artillery advanced in the Nuba Mountains as hundreds of thousands of Nuba fled their homes. United Nations officials and eyewitnesses reported executions by Sudan’s army and bombing that destroyed churches and homes. These events showed how questions of political inclusion and the treatment of communities outside Khartoum persisted after the south’s departure. A 2020 constitutional agreement between civilian Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North provided for a secular Sudanese state, but Sudan’s subsequent political breakdown obstructed a stable settlement. [8]

Omar al-Bashir ruled Sudan for three decades after taking power in 1989. His dictatorship combined military control, political Islam and coercion against opponents. Economic hardship intensified before the uprising: Bashir devalued the Sudanese pound and established a committee to float its exchange rate. Protests that began in December 2018 grew into a nationwide movement and led the military to remove him in April 2019. On April 27, protesters and the Transitional Military Council agreed to form a joint civilian–military body. The council and the Forces of Freedom and Change later reached an agreement on a civilian-led government. Sudan’s Revolutionary Front, Democratic Unionist Party, Sudanese Congress Party and Sudanese Professionals Association were among the civilian political forces active during the transition. [3]

The transition was marked by lethal repression. On June 3, 2019, security forces attacked a protest gathering in Khartoum; one estimate put the dead at 118. Two days later, the ruling military junta imposed a near-total internet blackout. Authorities had already blocked social media during the protests. The shutdown obstructed demonstrators’ ability to organize and communicate evidence of violence, while imposing severe economic costs on a country already in crisis. Bashir’s removal thus did not by itself end military power or secure civilian rule. [4]

Jewish history

Sudan’s Jewish community was small, numbering no more than about 1,000 people at its height. Jews faced forced conversion to Islam and compelled marriage in 1882. A community reemerged under British rule in the late nineteenth century. Before independence, figures in Sudan’s opposition Umma Party secretly sought Israeli diplomatic and possible economic assistance as they resisted political union with Egypt. Independence and Sudan’s entry into the Arab League in 1956 preceded the community’s dissolution. About 500 Sudanese Jews made aliyah to Israel; others settled elsewhere. [1]

Sudan later became a transit route in Israel’s rescue of Ethiopian Jews. Under Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Mossad used a Red Sea diving resort as cover for Operation Brothers, moving Ethiopian Jews through Sudan toward Israel. Operation Moses followed in 1984. Israel used $30 million donated by the American Joint Distribution Committee to secure Sudanese leaders’ cooperation in that operation. After Operation Brothers was exposed in 1984, United States Vice President George H. W. Bush arranged for its agents to leave Sudan in boxes marked “U.S. Diplomatic Mail.” The rescue missions depended on secrecy because Sudan and Israel remained formally hostile. [1]

Government and politics

Sudan’s central government has repeatedly been dominated by military leaders. Bashir’s regime faced international condemnation for its campaign in Darfur. The International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest in 2009 over atrocities there. Weeks later, the Arab League welcomed him to its summit in Qatar. During the Darfur crisis, the League expressed solidarity with Sudan without addressing humanitarian and human-rights abuses at one annual meeting. In August 2006, it supported Sudan’s refusal to admit United Nations peacekeepers, reversing an earlier appeal by its secretary-general to allow them. [1][12]

Following Bashir’s overthrow, Hamdok led a civilian component of Sudan’s transitional government while al-Burhan headed its military leadership. Their divided authority affected major decisions, including relations with Israel. Civilian leaders questioned whether a transitional administration could decide normalization before a legislative body existed. In August 2020, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirmed talks with Israel, but the foreign minister contradicted him and the ministry dismissed the spokesperson. Al-Burhan and Hemedti, commander of the Rapid Support Forces, then led an October 25, 2021 coup against the transition. Al-Burhan’s role in opening relations with Israel belongs alongside his role in ending civilian-led rule. [2][16]

Darfur demonstrates the cost of coercive government beyond the capital. The Sudan Liberation Army and Justice and Equality Movement rebelled against Khartoum in February 2003, accusing it of systematic neglect. Sudanese forces and the government-backed Janjaweed responded with a scorched-earth campaign involving village destruction, torture, enforced disappearances, sexual violence and forced displacement. One estimate placed deaths from 2003 through 2008 at 400,000. Khartoum armed and used the Janjaweed, maintained links with the militia and failed to disarm it; responsibility for its genocidal atrocities cannot be assigned to the militia alone. The campaign targeted non-Arab communities, although Darfur’s political divisions did not place every Arab or non-Arab resident on the same side. [1][12]

A 2006 Darfur agreement committed the government to disarm the Janjaweed and punish ceasefire violators. On June 19, Bashir answered demands for disarmament by offering to send Sudan’s army to disarm all parties. A further agreement with a Justice and Equality Movement splinter group followed in 2013 under the Doha Document. International pressure included United States President George W. Bush’s April 2006 Executive Order 13400, which authorized sanctions against people and entities involved in violence against Darfur’s civilians. The U.S. Treasury also designated Azza Air Company for transporting weapons to the Janjaweed and Sudanese government forces. [12][14]

Military and security

In April 2023, fighting erupted between Sudan’s army, commanded by al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Hemedti. Their struggle for power expanded into the Sudanese civil war. The Rapid Support Forces’ stated support for democracy does not excuse their conduct against civilians, including killing, displacement, theft and rape. Ethnically motivated violence by the RSF and allied militias in Darfur prompted calls to cut off their weapons and other support. By 2025, estimates placed war deaths between 150,000 and 190,000, while about 12 million people had been forced from their homes. These figures are estimates amid an ongoing war. [15]

Foreign governments have sought influence over the conflict and Sudan’s Red Sea coast. Saudi Arabia has promoted mediation and has tended to identify with Sudan’s army. The United Arab Emirates has been perceived as supporting the rival RSF, directly or indirectly. Saudi Arabia and the United States launched the Jeddah Platform in May 2023 for indirect humanitarian negotiations between the warring parties. Before the war, Sudanese and Egyptian forces conducted joint exercises, including “Nile Eagles 2” in March 2021, while their governments coordinated over Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam. Sudan also supported militias in western Libya during the 2014–2015 phase of the Libyan civil war, alongside Turkey and Qatar. [15]

Jihadist organizations have treated Sudan’s instability as an opening. In 2022, al-Qaeda veteran Abu Hudhayfah al Sudani circulated an 83-page collection urging formation of a unified jihadist organization in Sudan. He had served alongside Osama bin Laden and was linked to a failed 2001 attack on an American aircraft at a Saudi air base. In 2025, the Islamic State renewed calls for armed jihad in Sudan and encouraged foreign fighters to travel there. Jihad can mean struggle or effort; these organizations explicitly advocated its armed form. Their appeals illustrate how nationwide war can create opportunities for transnational jihadist networks. [7][9]

Relations with Israel

Sudan declared war against Israel in 1967. That November, Khartoum hosted the Arab League summit whose “three no’s” rejected peace with Israel, recognition of Israel and negotiations with Israel. Sudanese passports subsequently carried language excluding Israel from their validity. The rejection became a defining reference point for later diplomacy, although Sudan was among the few Arab states that supported Egypt’s decision to make peace with Israel in 1979. [11]

Hostility also had a military dimension. Between 2009 and 2012, Israel struck munitions facilities in Sudan to disrupt shipments of weapons by the Iranian regime through Sudan to the terrorist organizations Hezbollah and Hamas. Sudan later cut diplomatic ties with Iran after a Saudi–Iranian rupture. Its restoration of ties in December 2023, followed by Iranian weapons supplies to Sudan’s army and pursuit of Port Sudan access, renewed Israeli security concerns because of Sudan’s earlier role as a route for arms bound for Gaza. [15]

A diplomatic opening developed under Sudan’s transitional government. Al-Burhan met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Kampala in February 2020, and the two agreed to open communication channels. United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Khartoum during the regional diplomacy that followed Israel’s normalization deal with the United Arab Emirates. Al-Burhan also traveled to the Emirates for U.S.-sponsored talks concerning Israel, Sudan’s removal from the American state sponsors of terrorism list and Emirati economic assistance. Sudan sought relief from roughly $60 billion in debt. In 2020 it transferred $335 million to compensate victims of its role in al-Qaeda’s 1998 attacks on United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole. [2][16]

On October 23, 2020, al-Burhan, Hamdok, Netanyahu and United States President Donald Trump announced normalization between Sudan and Israel. The announcement came days after Washington said it would remove Sudan from its terrorism list. It committed the leaders to begin economic and trade relations, initially centered on agriculture. The underlying joint statement was unsigned and nonbinding: it ended declared belligerence and set a direction for relations, but did not create a comprehensive peace treaty, exchange ambassadors or complete full diplomatic normalization. Hemedti supported normalization, while Hamdok insisted on public dialogue before further steps. Sudan’s Revolutionary Front, Democratic Unionist Party, Sudanese Congress Party and Sudanese Professionals Association also supported the opening. [2][11][16]

Sudan signed an Abraham Accords declaration in Khartoum in January 2021, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin representing Washington. During normalization’s first year, implementation consisted chiefly of repeal of Sudan’s Israel boycott law, security delegations and one ministerial meeting. An Israeli delegation led by Eli Cohen met al-Burhan and Defense Minister Yassin Ibrahim in 2021; Cohen and Ibrahim signed a security memorandum. Israeli intelligence officers visited Khartoum in January 2022, a Sudanese security delegation visited Tel Aviv the next month, and an Israeli security delegation returned in March. Al-Burhan said in February 2022 that intelligence exchanged with Israel had helped Sudan dismantle groups threatening regional security. [16]

Later talks considered cooperation in agriculture, energy, health, water, education and security. A proposed comprehensive agreement envisaged ambassadors and cooperation protocols, but depended on an interim civilian government, elections and parliamentary ratification. After meeting al-Burhan, Cohen said Sudan’s formal entry into the wider Abraham Accords framework would follow a transfer of power from military to civilian leadership. The distinction matters: Sudan had signed an Abraham Accords declaration in January 2021, while the contemplated bilateral treaty and fuller implementation remained pending. Fighting between al-Burhan’s army and Hemedti’s RSF from April 2023 disrupted that path. [16]

Economy

Oil shaped Sudan’s politics before and after southern secession. Production was concentrated in the south, but northern territory held the refineries, pipelines and Red Sea export route. Before the 2011 referendum, southern oil generated about 98 percent of the southern government’s income and about 65 percent of Khartoum’s, while oil supplied about 95 percent of Sudan’s export revenue. These figures explain why division required continued bargaining over transport and revenue despite the political desire for independence. Port Sudan’s facilities remained strategically valuable after the south became a separate country. [8]

Sudan’s transitional authorities pursued sanctions relief, debt reduction and foreign investment after Bashir’s overthrow. United States commitments accompanying normalization with Israel included steps toward restoring Sudan’s sovereign immunity and reducing its debt burden. The proposed Israel relationship offered practical cooperation in farming, water, health and energy, but political division limited implementation. War beginning in 2023 further disrupted commerce, administration and transport. Sudan’s oil, gold and other precious-metal resources also give foreign powers economic interests in the outcome of its conflict. [2][15][16]

Society and religion

Sudan is predominantly Muslim and contains diverse linguistic, ethnic and religious communities. Its history includes conflicts over whether national law and government should be shaped by political Islam, as well as demands for secular government and equal political participation. Northern efforts to impose Sharia, an Islamic legal and governing system extending beyond criminal law, were among the divisions preceding southern secession. The 2020 agreement with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North for a secular state reflected continuing demands to resolve those divisions. Political Islam as a governing program should be distinguished from Islam as a religion and from Sudanese Muslims as individuals. [8]

Restrictions on religious communities and women were documented under Bashir. In October 2010, police evicted Presbyterian church staff from an events and office site in Khartoum while assisting a businessman seeking the property. In June 2012, local-government bulldozers demolished a St. John Episcopal Church building; two church buildings were reported demolished that week after three Catholic schools were confiscated. In July 2009, journalist Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein campaigned against Sharia-based clothing rules after a police case drew international attention. Another woman faced 40 lashes over clothing described as indecent, while several others had already received 10 lashes each. On May 13, 2012, Sudan sentenced Intisar Sharif Abdalla, believed to have been 15 to 17 years old, to death after one hearing without legal representation. These cases form part of the country’s wider record of restricted civil rights and unequal protection under law. [10][12]