liefs 25%, Christian
5% (mostly in south and Khartoum)

Languages: Arabic (official), Nubian, Ta Bedawie, diverse dialects
of Nilotic, Nilo-Hamitic, Sudanic languages, English note: program of
"Arabization" in process

Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write total
population: 46.1% male: 57.7% female: 34.6% (1995 est.)

Government Sudan

Country name: Republic of the Sudan conventional short form: former:
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan

Government type: authoritarian regime - ruling military junta took
power in 1989; government is run by an alliance of the military and the
National Congress Party (NCP), formerly the National Islamic Front (NIF),
which espouses an Islamist platform

Capital: Khartoum

Administrative divisions: 26 states (wilayat, singular - wilayah);
A'ali an Nil, Al Bahr al Ahmar, Al Buhayrat, Al Jazirah, Al Khartum,
Al Qadarif, Al Wahdah, An Nil al Abyad, An Nil al Azraq, Ash Shamaliyah,
Bahr al Jabal, Gharb al Istiwa'iyah, Gharb Bahr al Ghazal, Gharb Darfur,
Gharb Kurdufan, Janub Darfur, Janub Kurdufan, Junqali, Kassala, Nahr
an Nil, Shamal Bahr al Ghazal, Shamal Darfur, Shamal Kurdufan, Sharq al
Istiwa'iyah, Sinnar, Warab

Independence: 1 January 1956 (from Egypt and UK)

National holiday: Independence Day, 1 January (1956)

Constitution: 12 April 1973, suspended following coup of 6 April 1985;
interim constitution of 10 October 1985 suspended following coup of
30 June 1989; new constitution implemented on 30 June 1998 partially
suspended 12 December 1999 by President BASHIR

Legal system: based on English common law and Islamic law; as of 20
January 1991, the now defunct Revolutionary Command Council imposed
Islamic law in the northern states; Islamic law applies to all residents
of the northern states regardless of their religion; some separate
religious courts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage: 17 years of age; universal, but noncompulsory

Executive branch: chief of state: President Lt. Gen. Umar Hasan Ahmad
al-BASHIR (since 16 October 1993); First Vice President Ali Uthman
Muhammad TAHA (since 17 February 1998), Second Vice President Moses
MACHAR (since 12 February 2001); note - the president is both the chief
of state and head of government elections: president elected by popular
vote for a five-year term; election last held 13-23 December 2000 (next
to be held NA 2005) note: BASHIR assumed supreme executive power in 1989
and