Sudan

SUDAN AT A GLANCE

Continent: Africa

Geographic Coordinates:
15 00 N, 30 00 E

Borders: Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan, Red Sea

Population: 35,482,233 (July 2014 est.)

Ethnic Groups: Sudanese Arab (approximately 70%), Fur, Beja, Nuba, Fallata

WHY PEOPLE WERE FORCED TO LEAVE THEIR HOMES:

Islamic-oriented military regimes have controlled Sudan since it became independent of Anglo-Egyptian co-rule in 1956, and political violence there has displaced millions of people in two prolonged civil wars. These conflicts were fueled by northern economic, political, and social domination of largely non-Muslim, non-Arab southern Sudanese. The Lost Boys of Sudan (displaced and/or orphaned during the second civil war) and the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur are well known to most Americans. Sudanese refugees were first resettled in Vermont in 1998.

SUDANESE IN VERMONT

2014 - Burlington Free Press: South Sudan strife affects Vermont's Lost Boys

GENERAL BACKGROUND RESOURCES ON SUDAN

NPR, All Things Considered: Christians Flock to South Sudan, Fear Future in North

Purchase: http://www.der.org/films/dinka-diaries.html Dinka Diaries tells the story of some of America's most recent arrivals: Sudanese refugees who would have never dreamt a few years ago that they'd be living in America. Over the course of ten months, the film follows the lives of three Sudanese refugees who resettle in the Philadelphia area and adjust to the new American culture and way of life.