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Sudan
Africa
Once Africa's largest country before South Sudan's independence, Sudan has a long Nile River presence but struggles with political unrest and conflict.
47,000,000
Population
1,861,484
Area (km²)
Khartoum
Capital
42
Historical Events
Historical Timeline
2025 - Conflict persists with shifting front lines; regional mediators seek ceasefires; priorities are aid access, port and corridor security, currency stabilization, and protecting heritage sites; national football recalls its historic AFCON 1970 win as youth programs try to keep community life alive amid war.
2024 - El-Fasher siege and fighting across Darfur, Kordofan, and Gezira deepen crisis; famine and cholera risks rise; millions displaced; relief operations push air- and land-corridor wins where possible.
2023 - Wad Madani falls; displacement surges; cross-border aid routes via Chad and South Sudan scale up; many civilians die.
2023 - West Darfur governor Khamis Abbakar dies after being seized amid El Geneina violence;
2023 - War breaks out between SAF and RSF in Khartoum and across regions; looting, sieges, and ethnic killings;
2022 - Framework Agreement sketched with civilians; sequencing of security reforms proves contentious.
2021 - Coup by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan; nationwide protests; demonstrators die across months of rallies.
2020 - Former PM Sadiq al-Mahdi dies.
2020 - Juba Peace Agreement with several armed groups — inclusion win; later that year, Sudan is delisted from the US terror list; limited normalization with Israel announced.
2019 - Civilian–military power-sharing charter signed — transition win.
2019 - Khartoum sit-in dispersed; many civilians die;
2019 - Bashir ousted by the military;
2018 - Bread-price protests erupt, spreading nationwide.
2016 - Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi dies; era of ideological contestation closes.
2013 - Fuel-price protests; dozens die; repression hardens.
2011 - South Sudan votes for and wins independence; Republic of South Sudan secedes (Jul 9) — self-determination win for the south; border and debt issues remain for Sudan.
2011 - Meroe Island listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site — heritage win (after Gebel Barkal listing in 2003).
2009 - ICC issues arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir over Darfur.
2008 - JEM attack reaches Omdurman; urban warfare shocks the capital.
2005 - SPLM/A leader and First VP John Garang dies in a helicopter crash; national mourning.
2005 - Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) ends the north-south war — landmark peace win.
2003 - War in Darfur begins; villages burned and camps swell; mass atrocities; civilians die.
1998 - US sanctions; Al-Shifa factory struck by US missiles after regional embassy bombings; isolation deepens.
1989 - Omar al-Bashir coup; Islamist alliance entrenches security rule.
1986 - Sadiq al-Mahdi wins multiparty polls; coalition struggles amid war and crisis.
1985 - Uprising ousts Nimeiri; Transitional Military Council pledges elections.
1983 - Sharia ("September Laws") announced; southern autonomy revoked; SPLM/A forms; Second Civil War begins.
1972 - Addis Ababa Agreement ends the First Civil War; southern autonomy — peace win.
1969 - Jaafar Nimeiri coup; socialist-leaning regime begins.
1964 - October Revolution; mass protests force Abboud's exit — civic win; a transitional civilian government forms.
1958 - General Ibrahim Abboud coup; military rule resumes.
1956 - Independence of the Republic of the Sudan — sovereignty win.
1955 - Torit mutiny in the south; the First Civil War ignites.
1953 - Gradual Sudanization; 1953 elections deliver self-government (Ismail al-Azhari leads).
1924 - White Flag League uprising and mutinies in Khartoum; protesters and soldiers die; Britain tightens control.
1916 - Darfur annexed after wartime campaign; sultanate system ends.
1899 - Anglo-Egyptian Condominium established; dual colonial administration starts; railways and cash crops expand.
1898 - Battle of Omdurman; Anglo-Egyptian army reconquers the Nile Valley — decisive military win for the Condominium forces.
1885 - Khartoum falls; General Charles Gordon dies; Mahdist rule reaches its peak.
1881 - Mahdist revolt begins under Muhammad Ahmad; towns fall as a theocratic state forms.
1821 - Turco-Egyptian conquest under Muhammad Ali integrates Sudan into an Ottoman-Egyptian realm; taxation, slave raids, and military posts expand.
1821 - Sultanate of Sennar (Funj) dominates central/northern Sudan; Islamic scholarship, trade on the Nile, and provincial sultanates grow.