#Talk About Sudan : 

Sudan is the one of the  largest countires in Africa and bordered by 9 others, including Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Congo. Since independence from Egypt and Britain in 1956 military dictatorships favouring Islamic governments have dominated politics, and the country has been ravaged by civil war (since 1972) and wrought by strife. The people of Sudan have been experiencing persecution, famine, plagues, oppression and atrocious human rights violations for decades.

The religious struggle between the Islamic fundamentalists in the North against the diverse ethnic groups in the south (including many Christians) resulted in a genocidal campaign led by government militia leaving the country chronically unstable, both economically and politically, and rife with atrocities. Rape as organized onslaught is pervasive, and famine has been used as a weapon of power with international aid being withheld from the South by corrupt military leaders, resulting in widespread starvation. Since South Sudan’s independence in 2011 fighting between different factions has kept this country at war, devastating communities and leaving over 2 million people in humanitarian crisis by 2014. It is estimated that the war and famine-related effects have created more than 2 million deaths. Sudan is now one of the poorest countries in the world and has one of the lowest literacy rates.

In 1993 more than 5 million people fled the countryside, some into the towns in Sudan and many to neighbouring countries of Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Egypt. It is estimated that over a million of these people died in flight. Many refugees are from the minority ethnic groups in the South, some are political dissenters from the North who fled to escape forced conscription and the fundamentalist oppression. Sudanese began arriving in small groups to New Zealand from the late 1990s and continue to arrive as they flee the deteriorating humanitarian crisis. Most of the refugees who have been accepted into New Zealand come from the Nuer and Dinka tribes, and some from the Zande, Hadendowa (which includes the Beja), Nubs, Lwo and Fur tribes.

There are considerable differences between cultures from the North and South. Differences are highlighted throughout; otherwise the information applies to most Sudanese.