|
1820 |
Sudan is conquered by Ottoman Egypt. |
1882 |
Great Britain invades. |
1899 |
Sudan comes under the joint rule of Great Britain and Egypt. |
1956 |
Sudan becomes independent. The new government, based in Khartoum, is dominated by Arabs from the north of the country. |
1962 |
Civil war breaks out between the Khartoum government and separatists from the south, who are mostly Christian or animist. |
1972 |
Under the Addis Ababa peace agreement, the south gains autonomy on internal matters. A rare period of peace ensues for the next 11 years. |
1978 |
Chevron discovers oil in southern Sudan. |
1983 |
Civil war between north and south breaks out again, and continues for the next two decades. Nearly 2 million people are killed. |
1989 |
The National Islamic Front takes control of the country in a military coup. |
1991 |
Osama bin Laden moves to Sudan where he lives for the next four years. |
1993 |
Omar al-Bashir, who first came to power in the coup staged by the National Islamic Front, is appointed president. |
1997 |
The U.S. imposes economic sanctions on Sudan, which it considers a state sponsor of terrorism. |
1998 |
In response to the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, the U.S. launches missile attacks on a Khartoum chemical plant suspected of producing chemical weapons. |
1999 |
Sudan begins exporting oil. |
2003 |
Rebel groups rise up in Darfur, angered by neglect from the central government in Khartoum. |
2003 |
Janjaweed militias begin a “scorched earth” campaign in Darfur. Riding in on horseback, they loot shops, rape women, and set entire villages aflame. |
2003-2004 |
Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Darfur flood into Chad. |
2004 |
The U.S. declares the situation in Darfur a “genocide;” the United Nations calls it “crimes against humanity” and “war crimes. |
June 2004 |
The first African Union peacekeepers arrive in Darfur. |
January 2005 |
The U.N.-brokered Comprehensive Peace Agreement ends the civil war between north and south, and establishes a unity government formed by the central government in Khartoum and southern rebel groups. |
March 2005 |
The U.N. Security Council votes to send people suspected of committing war crimes in Darfur to the International Criminal Court in the Hague. |
April 2006 |
Chad breaks ties with Sudan due to evidence that the Sudanese government is supporting rebel factions within Chad. |
May 2006 |
The Darfur Peace Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and the main faction of the Sudan Liberation Army; a rival faction and a smaller rebel group called the Justice and Equality Movement reject the deal. The violence continues. |
March 31, 2007 |
At least 65 people are killed and 8,000 driven from their homes when Sudanese janjaweed militia launch a cross-border raid in eastern Chad. |
April 2, 2007 |
Five African Union peacekeepers are killed in the deadliest attack on African Union forces since they arrived in the region in 2004. The African Union says it needs help from the U.N. |
May 29, 2007 |
U.S. President George W. Bush imposes new sanctions on Sudan and asks for an international arms embargo to end the “genocide.” |
August 1, 2007 |
A U.N. Security Council resolution authorizes a joint U.N./African Union force of over 26,000 troops, and the Sudanese government agrees, provided that the troops are predominantly African. General Martin Luther Agwai is appointed as the force’s commander. |
January 1, 2008 |
UNAMID, the joint U.N./African Union peacekeeping force, officially takes over for the African Union force. |
2006-2007 |
Despite the crisis in Darfur and continuing tension between north and south, the Sudanese economy is booming, due mostly to oil wealth. |
2008 |
In the lead up to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China’s economic and diplomatic ties with Sudan are in the international spotlight. Activists dub the games the Genocide Olympics. |
February 19, 2008 |
U.S. President George W. Bush criticizes the slowness of the U.N. deployment. |
April 2008 |
U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes says as many as 300,000 people may have died in five years of conflict in Darfur. |
May 15, 2008 |
Clashes in the oil town of Abyei lead to fears of a new outbreak of civil war between north and south. |
May 10, 2008 |
Rebels from Darfur nearly reach Khartoum, attacking in Omdurman, the capital’s twin city. |
May 28, 2008 |
John Kennedy Okecha, a Ugandan police officer, becomes the first U.N. peacekeeper to be killed in Darfur. |