In January of 1889, an Anglo-Egyptian agreement established a condominium (or joint authority) to be exercised by both nations over the territory south of Egypt below the 22nd parallel. This territory was formally known as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, but British colonial officials played the dominant role in governing the territory. The other borders of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan were somewhat ill-defined, with Ethiopia to the east, Chad to the west, and the Congo to the south.
Sudan became an independent state in 1956, and a parliamentary government was established at the capitol in Khartoum. What followed in the next few years was a series of unstable civilian governments interspersed by military coups.
A military government seized control in Sudan in 1958, but civilian control returned in 1964 after a series of strikes and disturbances. In May of 1969, a group of military officers led by Colonel Jaafar an Nimeiri seized control of the government. The coup was justified on the grounds that the civilian government had not been able to deal effectively with the country's economic and regional problems, particularly not being able to overcome the tensions and conflicts between the largely Muslim Arab north and the largely black Christian and animist south. Immediately, the coup leaders proclaimed a "democratic republic" dedicated to the advancement of socialism, the nationalization of industries, the abolition of all government institutions, and the banning of political parties.
Nimeiri was elected president in 1972, and he initially relied on the Soviet Union, Libya, and China for aid and support. At that time, the Silakh al Jawwiya as Sudaniya (Sudanese Air Force) was equipped mainly with Soviet and Chinese aircraft such as the MiG-17, the MiG-21, and the J-5 and J-6. However, a failed coup attempt in 1976 allegedly backed by Libya and local Communists led Nimeiri to consider turning to the West for military aid. Sudan attempted to purchase Mirage III fighters and Puma helicopters, from France but the deal fell through. Relations between Washington and the Sudan had been strained because of the murder of a couple of American diplomats by terrorists in Khartoum in 1973, but they began to improve when Nimeiri showed signs of tilting to the West. The USA at first rebuffed the Sudanese requests for arms, but after a pro-Soviet coup in neighboring Ethiopia, in 1978 it relented and offered 10 F-5Es and two F-5F. The deal was to be financed by funds provided by Saudi Arabia.
The Sudanese Air Force received two F-5Fs in 1982, with ten F-5Es following in 1984. The F-5 aircraft were operated from Khartoum. Sudan had wished to acquire more F-5s, but these fell through when the necessary funding could not be arranged. One of the Sudanese F-5Fs was sold to Jordan, but the Sudanese complement of F-5s was increased unexpectedly when a pair of Ethiopian F-5s defected during the Ogaden crisis.
In April of 1985, in the wake of rising tensions with Libya, protests against food price increases, and resistance in the south to the imposition of Islamic law, Nimeiri was overthrown by a military coup, and he fled to Egypt. A new coalition government headed by Sadiq al Mahdi was established in an election held the following year. However, Mahdi's government was itself overthrown in June of 1989 by a group headed by Colonel Umar Hassan Ahmad al Bashir. A state of emergency was imposed and Sudan was ruled by a 15-member Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation. The constitution of 1985 was suspended, the press was muzzled, and all political parties and trade unions were banned. The government was strongly backed by the National Islamic Front, an organization of Muslim clerics, and the new government inposed strict dress and behavior codes on women. Religious indoctrination was imposed in the schools, and the paramilitary Popular Defense Force was established to enforce Arabization and Islamization along narrow sectarian lines.
At that time, Washington terminated all economic assistance to Sudan in accordance with a law which disallowed any American aid to a country whose democratically-elected government was overthrown by the military. Khartoum's support for Iraq during the Persian Gulf War further strained Sudanese-American relations, and in February 1991 the United States withdrew its diplomatic personnel and closed its embassy in Khartoum.
Ever since the advent of Sudanese independence in the 1950s, there had been tension and conflict between the largely Islamic Arab north and the largely black animist and Christian south. In 1983, General Nimieri abrogated a regional autonomy pact which had at least temporarily eased the conflict and he imposed fundamentalist Islamic law on the Sudan. Full-scale civil war immediately broke out between government forces, strongly backed by the National Islamic Front, and the southern rebels, whose major faction was headed by the Sudanese People's Liberation Army. Neither side has been able to gain the upper hand in the conflict, and it is estimated that by now two million people (mainly civilians) have died as a result of the civil war. The role of the Sudanese F-5s in this war is uncertain, but it is probably unlikely that the F-5s have been able to participate very much in this conflict because of low serviceability caused by the unavailabiilty of spare parts.
In the meantime, relations between Sudan and the United States have gone from bad to worse. Under the Bashir government, Sudan has become a safe haven for several terrorists, and is now virtually a pariah among Western nations. In 1993, the Clinton administration added Sudan to a list of state sponsors of terrorism, and applied unilateral sanctions. Bashir's government was linked to a June 1995 failed assassination attempt against Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia. It is believed that Osama bin Laden had been given free rein to operate his terrorist ring inside Sudan, and suspicion of Sudanese involvement in the African embassy bombings of August 7, 1998 led to a Tomahawk cruise missile attack on August 20 against a pharmaceutical plant believed to have been used by bin Laden for the manufacture of chemical weapons. It has also been alleged that slavery is still being practiced in Sudan, with Arab raiders from the north kidnapping and selling thousands of southern blacks.
Sources:
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Northrop F-5/F-20, Jerry Scutts, Ian Allan Ltd, 1986.
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F-5: Warplane for the World, Robbie Shaw, Motorbooks, 1990
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Northrop F-5, Jon Lake and Robert Hewson, World Airpower Journal, Vol
25, 1996.
- Library of Congress Country Study--Sudan
