Five facts about Sudan

LONDON, May 26 (Reuters) – Here are five facts about Sudan after the Khartoum government and southern rebels signed a deal in Kenya on Wednesday clearing major hurdles to a peace deal to end 21 years of civil war.

– * Sudan is Africa’s largest country with an area of 2.5 million sq km (967,500 sq miles). It straddles the middle reaches of the Nile and is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea, Ethiopia and Eritrea to the east, Kenya, Uganda and the Congo Democratic Republic to the south and the Central African Republic, Chad and Libya to the west.

– * About 70 per cent of the more than 32.5 million population are Muslims and 10 per cent Christians. The rest is made up by animists and small populations of other faiths. Arabic is the main language. English is also spoken with many local languages.

– * Egypt ruled the area that is now Sudan from 1821 until the Mahdist revolution in 1885. An independent Mahdist Islamic state survived until 1898, when an Anglo-Egyptian victory at Omdurman established Anglo-Egyptian rule until Sudan gained independence in 1956.

– * In 1983, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the main southern rebel group led by John Garang, launched a war against the northern-based government, partly sparked by the imposition of Islamic sharia law by the then government.

– * Oil exploration began in the 1970s, but operations were repeatedly interrupted by war, with southern rebels laying claim to oil fields that provided the government with vital revenue. Sizeable production began in the mid-1990s and today Sudan pumps some 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), earning it in excess of $2 billion a year.