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Sudan
Country profile
At 2.4 million square kms, Sudan is the largest country in Africa, roughly the same size as the whole of western Europe.
The north, making up about two thirds of the country and the population, is mainly desert and its people follow the Arabic culture and language and the Islamic religion.
The south has a varied climate of swamp, rain forest and savanna land, and the people follow African culture and traditional religions, and Christianity.
However any such statement is simplistic, as there is a rich diversity of cultures and ethnic identities in both north and south. The total population is estimated at anything from 25 to 38 million.
January 2005:
The end of Africa's longest-running civil war
The first civil war in Sudan between the mainly Muslim north and the animist and Christian south began in 1955, the year before the country gained independence from Britain, and lasted until 1972, when a peace agreement was signed giving the south a great deal of autonomy, with its own parliament in Juba, and freedom of religion, language, and education.
The war began again in May 1983, which cost at least two million lives; however, it was concluded by a historic peace deal signed in January 2005.
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