on includes more than 600 ethnic groups with no single group in the majority, although three predominate: more than 40 percent of its people are Sudanese Arabs, another 11 percent are Dinka, and 8 percent are Nuba. The balance of 41 percent is so diverse that it almost cannot be charted. Civil war has had a devastating effect on the population; in the 10 years between 1983 and 1993, the population in the south of the country has declined by more than 1.7 million, and the U.S. Committee for Refugees estimates than 1.3 million have been casualties of war. The Center for Disease Control reported on the death toll in three southern camps for 1992 through early 1993. Half of these deaths were from starvation. In addition, the severe undernourishment among children in the camps was "among the highest ever documented." Substantial population losses in the war are also the result of the displacement of refugees into northern Sudan and across the southern borders.
The largest single religious group in Sudan is Sunni Muslim. The balance is made up primarily of various traditional African religions (16 percent) and Christians (9 percent). Factions seeking control of Sudan have most often used religion as the rallying point for consolidating their efforts or for splintering opposition groups. The Transitional Military Council (TMC) which succeeded Jafar al-Numeiry to power in 1986 attempted to force the nation as a whole to follow Muslim practices. General Omer al Bashir's National Islamic Front (NIF), which took over in a 1989 coup, set its goal as converting Sudan into a totalitarian Muslim state. In the 1986 elections, the NIF had won less than 20 percent of the popular vote, yet this did not prevent the party from establishing a radical Islamic agenda. The government's goal is to rank all citizens by religion, sect, political affiliation, and sex and to base civil rights given or withheld on this ranking.
Oppositio...