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              General Information
            
            
              
                The British–Egyptian Rule (the
              
            
            
              
                Condominium)
              
            
            
              Various reasons, including the British fear of the es-
            
            
              tablishment of French influence over the Upper Nile
            
            
              area, led to the reconquest of Sudan, An Anglo–
            
            
              Egyptian force led by General Kitchener invaded
            
            
              Sudan between 1896 and 1898, and the invasion
            
            
              culminated in the battle of Omdurman. The Khalifa
            
            
              escaped, but died in battle later in 1899. The es-
            
            
              tablishment of a French outpost in Fashoda caused
            
            
              grave international tension, but the outpost was
            
            
              eventually withdrawn because of the heavy British
            
            
              pressure. The rule of the Mahdi was accompanied
            
            
              by considerable dislocation of Sudanese economic
            
            
              and tribal life; hence, a new administration had to
            
            
              be established. The old Turko–Egyptian system
            
            
              of provinces and districts was reintroduced, but
            
            
              with British officers in all key administrative posts.
            
            
              Kitchener was appointed the first governor-general.
            
            
              The structure for the form of governing Sudan was
            
            
              defined in the 1899 Condominium Agreement be-
            
            
              tween Britain and Egypt. This agreement enforced
            
            
              the separation of the administration of Sudan from
            
            
              that of Egypt, and Sudan was put under joint Anglo–
            
            
              Egyptian control.
            
            
              
                National Rule
              
            
            
              The political development of the country during
            
            
              the Condominium rule underwent three phases.
            
            
              From 1898 to 1938 civilians gradually substituted
            
            
              the military officers in the administration. After the
            
            
              First World War, Sudanese tribal leaders were en-
            
            
              couraged to take over subordinate local administra-
            
            
              tion. During 1938 to 1951 the Graduates General
            
            
              Congress was funded and there appeared to be
            
            
              an indigenous political movement among educated
            
            
              Sudanese. In 1944, the Sudanese were sitting on
            
            
              the province councils and the Advisory Council
            
            
              for Northern Sudan was founded, with Sudanese
            
            
              members. At about this time the Graduates Con-
            
            
              gress split into two parties, one favouring union
            
            
              with Egypt and the other demanding complete in-
            
            
              dependence for Sudan. In 1948, a party-elected
            
            
              Legislative Assembly with limited powers was set
            
            
              up. In February 1953 the British and the Egyptian
            
            
              governments signed an agreement. This provided
            
            
              a three-year period of self-Tombs-government un-
            
            
              der international supervision. This began immedi-
            
            
              ately, to foster the decision of the Sudanese people
            
            
              on the future of their country. Elections of the self-
            
            
              government parliament took place in November
            
            
              and December 1953.
            
            
              
                Independence
              
            
            
              The newly elected government went ahead with the
            
            
              process of Sudanisation of the state’s organs and
            
            
              bodies, with the help and supervision of an inter-
            
            
              national committee. In November 1955 it declared
            
            
              the intentions of the Sudanese people to exercise
            
            
              their right of independence. This was duly granted
            
            
              and on 1st January 1956 Sudan was formerly de-
            
            
              clared independent. In a special ceremony held at
            
            
              the People’s Palace, the British and Egyptian flags
            
            
              were brought down and the new Sudanese flag,
            
            
              composed of green, blue and yellow stripes, was
            
            
              hoisted high in the air.
            
            
              
                THE COUNTRY TODAY
              
            
            
              
                Post-Independence in Sudan
              
            
            
              After gaining independence, Sudan underwent sev-
            
            
              eral systems of national governments ranging be-
            
            
              tween military and civil rule. The first national gov-
            
            
              ernment was headed by Ismail El Azhari, followed
            
            
              by another under the leadership of Abdalla Khalil.
            
            
              This government stayed in power until 1958 when
            
            
              the armed forces staged a coup d’etat and a mili-
            
            
              tary government chaired by General Aboud ruled
            
            
              up to 1964. A popular uprising led to the demise
            
            
              of the military regime and after holding elections
            
            
              under a caretaking government, a national civilian-
            
            
              elected government took the reigns of power fol-
            
            
              lowed by two other governments until 1969. In May
            
            
              1969 the armed forces moved again and the May
            
            
              regime ruled for 16 years. In 1985 another upris-
            
            
              ing against the regime led to an interim government
            
            
              that held general elections, and subsequently an
            
            
              elected government led by Sadiq El Mahdi gov-
            
            
              erned till June 1989. Then, in a move by the army,
            
            
              the National Salvation Revolution was declared and
            
            
              a military government under the leadership of Gen-
            
            
              eral Omer Hassan Elbashir was established. From
            
            
              the 11th to the 15th of April 2010, the first elections
            
            
              in more than 20 years took place in the country to
            
            
              elect the President and the National Assembly of
            
            
              Sudan. The General Omer Hassan Elbashir from
            
            
              the National Congress party was officially declared
            
            
              as reelected on the 26th with more than 68% of the
            
            
              votes.