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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
The civil war in the south had a devastating impact. Not only
were military operations in the south a great expense, but the
economy was disrupted by the fighting, and perhaps 3 million
persons were displaced from or within the war zones. Because of
secrecy restrictions dating from the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War,
no substantial information on the defense budget was released
publicly or provided to the People's Assembly, which however, had
been suspended in 1989. Various official and unofficial estimates
of the size of defense expenditures and the burden imposed on the
economy by the military establishment have differed widely. The
United States government agency estimated the defense budget at
US$610 million in 1989, representing 7.2 percent of gross
national product
(
GNP--see Glossary).
The Sudanese government has
estimated the cost of conducting the war at about US$1 million a
day.
Although the specific components of military spending were
not available, it was known that the principal category of the
defense budget was personnel-related costs. Most large purchases
of arms had been financed with credits from the supplying
countries. Financial assistance from other countries, principally
the Arab oil-producing states of the Persian Gulf, had made these
credit purchases possible. Arms imports had fallen since the
resumption of the civil war in 1983, as a result of the
unwillingness of Western countries to supply weapons that could
be used in the hostilities, and of subsequent cutbacks in
financial aid from the Middle East. The total amount of funds for
military procurements that was available through loans, grants,
direct purchases, and barter arrangements was not made public.
Data as of June 1991
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