Sudan

Sudan became independent from Egypt and Britain on 1 January 1956. After independence military regimes favouring Islamic government dominated.

Sudan was involved in two prolonged civil wars for most of the remainder of the century, between the Muslim, Arab north and the non-Arab, non-Muslim south. South Sudan gained independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011.

A separate conflict, which broke out in the western region of Darfur in 2003, and which has its origin in land disputes between semi-nomadic livestock herders and those who practice sedentary agriculture, as well as perceived Arab domination of non-Arab Sudanese, has been the subject of the Doha Peace Forum negotiations but remains unresolved.

Sudan has mixed legal system of Islamic law and English common law in the north, and primarily customary law in the south.

Sudan has an Interim National Constitution dating from July 2005.