Sudan

The struggle

Sudan was governed as an Anglo-Egyptian condominium after the defeat of the Mahdist state in 1898, with Britain administering the south separately from the north. Graduate associations, trade unions and the 1924 White Flag League built the nationalist movement, and parliament voted for independence in December 1955. Sovereignty arrived on 1 January 1956 with the north–south divide already hardening into civil war.

Key people

• Ismail al-Azhari

  1900–1969

  First prime minister; declared independence

• Abdel Rahman al-Mahdi

  1885–1959

  Leader of the Umma movement

• Ali Abdel Latif

  1896–1948

  Founded the White Flag League in 1924