EAST AFRICA'S FORGOTTEN WAR

Why Sudan has suffered seven decades of conflict and military coups

- LOUIS HARDIMAN

The Sudanese flag rose above the ornate arches of the People’s Palace in Khartoum on 1 January 1956. It replaced the British and Egyptian flags, symbolising that, after 57 years of colonial rule, the nation was finally free. But it wasn't long before optimism was replaced with bloodshed - the new Republic of Sudan's parliamentary system lasted just two years before General Ibrahim Abboud launched a military coup d'etat.

Since then Sudan has suffered as many as 20 coups, depending on how you count them. Every government has risen to and fallen from power through insurrection. At least three civil wars have come from this instability, each with a staggering human cost. The current Sudan Civil War started in 2023 and so far over 150,000 have died.

Sudan is “one of the most coup-prone countries on this earth,” says Hager Ali, a German political scientist specialising in conflict across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. “Everyone who comes to power in Sudan has a laundry list of things to deal with, like centralisation, decentralisation and governing a country with many ethnoreligious groups,” she tells