About Sudan
Ever since the British occupation of Sudan from 1898 to 1955, there has been a division between the north and south. The British separated them with two different governments, and discouraged any kind of interaction between the two. The northern half was predominantly Muslim-Arab, while the southern half was mostly tribal cultures, many of whom were Christian. Under pressure from the north, in 1943 the British merged the two halves and allowed northerners to hold government offices in the south. When the British left in 1955, a civil war broke out between the north and the south. The war lasted until 1972, and about 500,000 people died over that time. The war ended with the Addis Ababa Agreement, which granted autonomy to southern Sudan. This agreement held until 1983 when Gaafar Nimeiry imposed Shari’a on the entire country, which meant that everything was based on Islamic principles. This sparked a renewal of the civil war, which lasted until 2005, when the south was again granted autonomy.
Since 1983, two million people have died as a result of Sudan’s tragic civil war. Now, even though a peace accord been formalized, there is still an acute crisis in Sudan. For example, in the western region of Darfur, Sudan, a million people are fleeing attacks by government-backed militia in what has been described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises in recent times; and the big problem in Werkok, located in southern Sudan, is that 99% of the population is using unclean water. Century old taps are not functioning properly at the present time and impeding on clean water supplies. Now is the time to bring changes to villagers’ lives.
