The rich and varied music of Sudan has traditional, rural, northeastern African roots and also shows Arabic, Western or other African influences, especially on the popular urban music from the early 20th century onwards. Since the establishment of big cities like Khartoum as melting pots for people of diverse backgrounds, their cultural heritage and tastes have shaped numerous forms of modern popular music. In the globalized world of today, the creation and consumption of music through satellite TV or on the Internet is a driving force for cultural change in Sudan, popular with local audiences as well as with Sudanese living abroad.
Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir is a Sudanese former military officer and politician who served as the seventh head of state of Sudan under various titles from 1989 until 2019, when he was deposed in a coup d'état. He was subsequently incarcerated, tried and convicted on multiple corruption charges. He came to power in 1989 when, as a brigadier general in the Sudanese Army, he led a group of officers in a military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi after it began negotiations with rebels in the south; he subsequently replaced President Ahmed al-Mirghani as head of state. He was elected three times as president in elections that have been under scrutiny for electoral fraud. In 1992, al-Bashir founded the National Congress Party, which remained the dominant political party in the country until 2019. In March 2009, al-Bashir became the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), for allegedly directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur. On 11 February 2020, the Sudanese government announced that it had agreed to hand over al-Bashir to the ICC for trial.
Abdel Karim al Kabli, sometimes spelled el Kably or al Kably, was a popular Sudanese singer-songwriter, poet, composer and humanitarian, known for his songs with themes of love, passion, nationalism, Sudanese culture and folklore.
Sudanese literature consists of both oral as well as written works of fiction and nonfiction that were created during the cultural history of today's Republic of the Sudan. This includes the territory of what was once Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, the independent country's history since 1956 as well as its changing geographical scope in the 21st century.
The War in Darfur, also nicknamed the Land Cruiser War, was a major armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel groups began fighting against the government of Sudan, which they accused of oppressing Darfur's non-Arab population. The government responded to attacks by carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Darfur's non-Arabs. This resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians and the indictment of Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.
Mostafa Sid Ahmed, also spelled Mustafa Sayyid Ahmad, was a popular Sudanese singer-songwriter and composer, active from the late 1970's onwards until his death in 1996. During his lifetime, he released more than a hundred songs. According to an article published during the Sudanese revolution of 2018/19, he was remembered "for performing a selective and expressive type of lyrics that touches upon the causes of ordinary and deprived people."
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, commonly known as Ali Kushayb, is a senior Janjaweed commander who supported the Sudanese government against Darfur rebel groups during the Omar al-Bashir presidency. He was indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes. He was known as aqid al oqada and was active in Wadi Salih, West Darfur.
The Darfur Peace Agreement may refer to one of three peace agreements that were signed by the Government of Sudan and Darfur-based rebel groups in 2006, 2011 and 2020 with the intention of ending the Darfur Conflict.
Bilateral relations between South Sudan and the Sudan were officially started on 9 July 2011 following South Sudan's independence. Sudan became the first country in the world to recognize the independence of South Sudan. However, relations between South Sudan and Sudan have still been poor, with both sides supporting rebel groups in the other's territory.
The Darfur genocide is the systematic killing of ethnic Darfuri people which has occurred during the ongoing conflict in Western Sudan. It has become known as the first genocide of the 21st century. The genocide, which is being carried out against the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups, has led the International Criminal Court (ICC) to indict several people for crimes against humanity, rape, forced transfer and torture. According to Eric Reeves, more than one million children have been "killed, raped, wounded, displaced, traumatized, or endured the loss of parents and families".
Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, generally referred to mononymously as Hemetti, Hemedti, Hemeti or Hemitte, is a Sudanese general from the Mehriya tribe of the Awlad Mansur sub clan in Darfur. Dagalo previously served as the Deputy Chairman of the Transitional Military Council (TMC) following the 2019 Sudanese coup d'état. On 21 August 2019, the TMC transferred power to the civilian–military Transitional Sovereignty Council, of which Hemetti is a member. Under Article 19 of the August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, Hemetti and the other Sovereignty Council members were to be ineligible to run in the 2022 Sudanese general election.
The 2019–2022 Sudanese protests were street protests in Sudan which began in mid-September 2019, during Sudan's transition to democracy, about issues which included the nomination of a new Chief Justice and Attorney General, the killing of civilians by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the toxic effects of cyanide and mercury from gold mining in Northern state and South Kordofan, opposition to a state governor in el-Gadarif and to show trials of Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) coordinators, and advocating the dismissal of previous-government officials in Red Sea, White Nile, and South Darfur. The protests follow the Sudanese Revolution's street protests and civil disobedience of the early September 2019 transfer of executive power to the country's Sovereignty Council, civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, and his cabinet of ministers. Hamdok described the 39-month transition period as defined by the aims of the revolution.
Sharhabil Ahmed, sometimes also Sharhabeel Ahmed, is a Sudanese popular musician, known for his distinctive style of singing, compositions, oud and guitar playing. Inspired by Western dance music like rock music and adding brass instruments to his electric lead guitar, he has been called "The King of Sudanese Jazz". He has composed numerous songs and performed all over Sudan, as well as in Europe, Africa and in the Gulf countries, where large communities of Sudanese in exile reside.
Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin is a Sudanese fiction writer with roots in Darfur in western Sudan, whose literary work was banned in Sudan in 2011. Since 2012, he has lived in exile in Austria. He is mostly known for his novels The Messiah of Darfur and The Jungo, translated from the original Arabic into French, English, Spanish and German.
Ayman al-Rubo - also spelled Al Rubaa - is a Sudanese musician from Omdurman, the most populated city in Sudan on the western banks of the River Nile, opposite the national capital Khartoum. Since the late 2000s, he has been considered to be the founder of Zenig as a new genre of the contemporary urban music of Sudan.
Al Balabil were a popular Sudanese vocal group of three sisters, mainly active from 1971 until 1988. Their popular songs and appearance as modern female performers on stage, as well as on Sudanese radio and television, earned them fame all over East Africa and beyond, and they were sometimes referred to as the "Sudanese Supremes". After both retiring from the stage and emigrating to the United States in 1988, they gave a revival concert in 2007 in New York City's Central Park, and later in Detroit and Chicago, as well as in their native Sudan.
Taghreed Elsanhouri is a British-Sudanese documentary filmmaker, film producer and author, based in London. She is mainly known for All about Darfur (2005), a film about the war in Darfur. For her 2012 documentary Our Beloved Sudan, she interviewed Sudanese politicians as well as a Sudanese citizen with parents from both the northern and southern parts of Sudan, presenting both political and individual stories before independence of South Sudan in 2011.
The battle of Nyala was a battle for control of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur in Sudan, between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and the Sudanese Armed Forces during the ongoing Darfur campaign. The battle occurred between 15 and 20 April 2023, during which hundreds were reported dead. A civilian-brokered ceasefire paused the fighting by April 20.
The battle of El Fasher is an ongoing battle for control of the town of El Fasher in North Darfur during the 2023 Sudan conflict. The first battle for the city took place between April 15 and April 20, and resulted in a ceasefire that held until May 12.
