Sudan - History
	Historically, sparsely-populated Sudan has served as the crossroads linking Black southern Africa with the Mediterranean areas and the southern Sahara with the Red Sea. In about 2000 B.C., Egypt colonized Nubia (now northeastern Sudan), from which it took slaves and soldiers, gold, ivory, and precious stones. Nubia controlled Egypt briefly around 750 B.C., and continued to dominate the middle Nile until A.D. 350, when it was colonized by the Ethiopia-based empire of Aksum. Ethiopia and Nubia accepted Christianity in the 6th century and remained Christian until colonized by Moslems in the 15th century. The Sudan (as the country was known before 1975) was ruled as an Anglo-Egyptian condominium from 1899 until achieving independence as a parliamentary republic on 1 January 1956. After a military coup in November 1958, a Supreme Council of the Armed Forces was established and ruled until October 1964, when it was overthrown in a civilian revolution. Subsequent governments failed to improve the economic situation or to deal with the problem of the insurgent southern provinces, and in May 1969 power was seized by a group of officers, led by Col Gaafar Mohammed Numeri, who assumed the rank of major-general. All existing political institutions and organizations were abolished, and the "Democratic Republic of the Sudan" was proclaimed, with supreme authority in the bands of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC). In October 1971 a referendum confirmed Gen. Numeri´s nomination as President. A new Government was formed, the RCC was dissolved, and the Sudanese Socialist Union was recognized as the only political party. An early problem facing the Numeri Government concerned the disputed status of the three southern provinces (Bahr al-Ghazal, Equatoria and Upper Nile), whose inhabitants are racially and culturally distinct from most of the country´s population. Rebellion against rule from the north had first broken out in 1955, and fighting continued until March 1972, when an agreement to give the three provinces a degree of autonomy was concluded in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, between members of the Sudan Government and representatives of the South Sudan Liberation Movement. A High Executive Council (HEC) for the Southern Region was established in April 1972, and Sudan´s permanent Constitution was endorsed in April 1973. Elections to the Regional People´s Assembly for southern Sudan took place in November 1973, followed by elections to the National People´s Assembly in April 1974. Following an unsuccessful coup attempt in 1976, Sudan severed diplomatic relations with Libya and established a mutual defence pact with Egypt. Diplomatic links between Sudan and Libya were restored in 1978, but relations became strained in 1981, during Libya´s occupation of Chad, and President Numeri frequently accused Libya of supporting plots against him. In 1990, after Lt-Gen. al-Bashir had visited Col Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, in Tripoli, Sudan and Libya signed a "declaration of integration" that envisaged the complete union of the two countries within four years. In 1995 Sudan, Libya and Chad were reported to be discussing integration after eventual legislative elections in Chad. At the end of January 1996 the USA announced the withdrawal of all of its diplomatic personnel from Sudan, owing to its doubts about the Government's ability to guarantee their safety. Prior to their withdrawl, the UN Security Council had unanimously adopted Resolution 1044, which accused Sudan of supporting terrorism and condemned its role in the attempted assassination of President Mubarak of Egypt.