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Communications

Railroads: 1,868 km total (1985); all 1.868-meter broad gauge; 102 km double track; no electrification; government owned

Highways: 66,176 km total (1985); 24,300 km paved (mostly bituminous treated), 28,916 km crushed stone or gravel, 12,960 km improved earth or unimproved earth; several thousand km of mostly unmotorable tracks

Inland waterways: 430 km; navigable by shallow-draft craft

Pipelines: crude and refined products, 62 km (1987)

Ports: Colombo, Trincomalee

Merchant marine: 40 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 258,923 GRT/334,702 DWT; includes 22 cargo, 8 refrigerated cargo, 4 container, 1 livestock carrier, 2 petroleum, oils, and lubricants (POL) tanker, 3 bulk

Civil air: 8 major transport (including 1 leased)

Airports: 14 total, 13 usable; 12 with permanent-surface runways; none with runways over 3,659 m; 1 with runways 2,440-3,659 m; 7 with runways 1, 220-2,439 m

Telecommunications: good international service; 109,900 telephones (1982); stations—12 AM, 5 FM, 1 TV; submarine cables extend to Indonesia, Djibouti, India; 2 Indian Ocean INTELSAT earth stations

Defense Forces

Branches: Army, Air Force, Navy, Police Force, Special Police Task Force, National Auxiliary Force

Military manpower: males 15-49, 4,568,648; 3,574,637 fit for military service; 177,610 reach military age (18) annually

Defense expenditures: 5% of GDP, or $300 million (1989 est.)  Sudan



Geography

Total area: 2,505,810 km²; land area: 2,376,000 km²

Comparative area: slightly more than one quarter the size of US

Land boundaries: 7,697 km total; Central African Republic 1,165 km, Chad 1,360 km, Egypt 1,273 km, Ethiopia 2,221 km, Kenya 232 km, Libya 383 km, Uganda 435 km, Zaire 628 km

Coastline: 853 km

Maritime claims:
 * Contiguous zone: 18 nm
 * Continental shelf: 200 meters or to depth of exploitation
 * Territorial sea: 12 nm

Disputes: international boundary and Administrative Boundary with Kenya; international boundary and Administrative Boundary with Egypt

Climate: tropical in south; arid desert in north; rainy season (April to October)

Terrain: generally flat, featureless plain; mountains in east and west

Natural resources: modest reserves of crude oil, iron ore, copper, chromium ore, zinc, tungsten, mica, silver, crude oil

Land use: 5% arable land; NEGL% permanent crops; 24% meadows and pastures; 20% forest and woodland; 51% other; includes 1% irrigated

Environment: dominated by the Nile and its tributaries; dust storms; desertification

Note: largest country in Africa

People

Population: 24,971,806 (July 1990), growth rate 2.9% (1990)

Birth rate: 44 births/1,000 population (1990)

Death rate: 14 deaths/1,000 population (1990)

Net migration rate: -2 migrants/1,000 population (1990)

Infant mortality rate: 107 deaths/1,000 live births (1990)

Life expectancy at birth: 51 years male, 55 years female (1990)

Total fertility rate: 6.5 children born/woman (1990)

Nationality: noun—Sudanese (sing. and pl.); adjective—Sudanese

Ethnic divisions: 52% black, 39% Arab, 6% Beja, 2% foreigners, 1% other

Religion: 70% Sunni Muslim (in north), 20% indigenous beliefs, 5% Christian (mostly in south and Khartoum)

Language: Arabic (official), Nubian, Ta Bedawie, diverse dialects of Nilotic, Nilo-Hamitic, and Sudanic languages, English; program of Arabization in process

Literacy: 31% (1986)

Labor force: 6,500,000; 80% agriculture, 10% industry and commerce, 6% government; labor shortages for almost all categories of skilled employment (1983 est.); 52% of population of working age (1985)

Organized labor: trade unions suspended following 30 June 1989 coup; now in process of being legalized anew

Government

Long-form name: Republic of the Sudan

Type: military; civilian government suspended and martial law imposed after 30 June 1989 coup

Capital: Khartoum

Administrative divisions: 9 regions (aqalīm, singular iqlīm); A‘ālī an Nīl, Al Awsaţ, Al Istiwā’ī, Al Kharţūm, Ash Shamālī, Ash Sharqī, Baḥr al Ghazāl, Dārfūr, Kurdufān

Independence: 1 January 1956 (from Egypt and UK; formerly Anglo-Egyptian Sudan)

Constitution: 12 April 1973, suspended following coup of 6 April 1985; interim constitution of 10 October 1985 suspended following coup of 30 June 1989

Legal system: based on English common law and Islamic law; in September 1983 then President Nimeiri declared the penal code would conform to Islamic law; some separate religious courts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

National holiday: Independence Day, 1 January (1956)

Executive branch: executive and legislative authority vested in a 15-member Revolutionary Command Council (RCC); chairman of the RCC acts as prime minister; in July 1989 RCC appointed a predominately civilian 22-member cabinet to function as advisers

Legislative branch: none

Judicial branch: Supreme Court, Special Revolutionary Courts  293