Sudan

Sudan is a North African state which has struggled with civil war and political and military conflicts for decades. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed in 2005 as an effort to resolve tensions in the country and eventually led to the secession of South Sudan in 2011. For this reason, Sudan is sometimes now called North Sudan. North Sudan is primarily Muslim while South Sudan is mainly Christian, which is the cause of some of the dispute in the country, as well as the fact that South Sudan holds the majority of the country’s oil reserves. Although Sudan is officially a democratic country, this is widely considered to be in name only and in actuality Sudan operates in a largely authoritarian system because of the extensive power the ruling government has over legislative branches.