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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
As World War II approached, the SDF assumed the mission of
guarding Sudan's frontier with Italian East Africa (present-day
Ethiopia). During the summer of 1940, Italian forces invaded
Sudan at several points and captured Kassala. However, the SDF
prevented a further advance on Port Sudan. In January 1941, the
SDF, expanded to 20,000 troops, retook Kassala and participated
in the British offensive that routed the Italians in Eritrea and
liberated Ethiopia. Some Sudanese units later contributed to the
British Eighth Army's North Africa victory.
In the immediate postwar years, the condominium government
made a number of significant changes. In 1942 the Graduates'
General Conference, a quasi-nationalist movement formed by
educated Sudanese, presented the government with a memorandum
that demanded a pledge of self-determination after the war to be
preceded by abolition of the "closed door" ordinances, an end to
the separate curriculum in southern schools, and an increase in
the number of Sudanese in the civil service. The governor general
refused to accept the memorandum but agreed to a governmentsupervised transformation of indirect rule into a modernized
system of local government. Sir Douglas Newbold, governor of
Kurdufan Province in the 1930s and later the executive council's
civil secretary, advised the establishment of parliamentary
government and the administrative unification of north and south.
In 1948, over Egyptian objections, Britain authorized the
partially elected consultative Legislative Assembly representing
both regions to supersede the advisory executive council.
The pro-Egyptian NUP boycotted the 1948 Legislative Assembly
elections. As a result, pro-independence groups dominated the
Legislative Assembly. In 1952 leaders of the Umma-dominated
legislature negotiated the Self-Determination Agreement with
Britain. The legislators then enacted a constitution that
provided for a prime minister and council of ministers
responsible to a bicameral parliament. The new Sudanese
government would have responsibility in all areas except military
and foreign affairs, which remained in the British governor
general's hands. Cairo, which demanded recognition of Egyptian
sovereignty over Sudan, repudiated the condominium agreement in
protest and declared its reigning monarch, Faruk, king of Sudan.
After seizing power in Egypt and overthrowing the Faruk
monarchy in late 1952, Colonel Muhammad Naguib broke the deadlock
on the problem of Egyptian sovereignty over Sudan. Cairo
previously had linked discussions on Sudan's status to an
agreement on the evacuation of British troops from the Suez
Canal. Naguib separated the two issues and accepted the right of
Sudanese self-determination. In February 1953, London and Cairo
signed an Anglo-Egyptian accord, which allowed for a three-year
transition period from condominium rule to self-government.
During the transition phase, British and Egyptian troops would
withdraw from Sudan. At the end of this period, the Sudanese
would decide their future status in a plebiscite conducted under
international supervision. Naguib's concession seemed justified
when parliamentary elections held at the end of 1952 gave a
majority to the pro-Egyptian NUP, which had called for an
eventual union with Egypt. In January 1954, a new government
emerged under NUP leader Ismail al Azhari.
Data as of June 1991
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