Sudan Madhu (Madras 1966) Indian computer scientist. After graduating from Delhi and a doctorate in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley, he became a professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (mit). His contributions to various areas of theoretical computer science are notable, including the theory of probabilistically verifiable proofs and the theory of codes. In 2002 he was awarded the Nevanlinna Prize.
Sudan (owner Bilad al Sudan) Arabic expression meaning “country of Blacks”, used in modern Arabic literary sources to indicate the area to the South of the Sahara, between Senegambia and Ethiopia, inhabited by blacks and known as Sudan tout court. These texts, mostly travel chronicles, report geographic descriptions, socio-political systems and commercial trafficking which are quite valuable for the historical knowledge of African societies.
Defense and security
Sudan is the third largest arms producer on the African continent and is a major buyer of arms produced by Russia and China. In particular, Beijing has recently brought small arms production plants to Sudanese territory. The army has about 245,000 soldiers, enlisted with compulsory conscription for three years. Defense spending remains at very high levels both in the north (20% of the state budget) and in the south (42% of the budget), despite the commitment of both sides not to resume the conflict.
The war in South Sudan cost at least two million deaths and resulted in four million refugees within the country (the largest figure in the world), forcing 600,000 people to seek refuge across the border. Since the end of the conflict in 2005, the United Nations estimates that around two million displaced persons and 300,000 refugees abroad have returned to their regions of origin. The conflict in Darfur has resulted in over two and a half million refugees and at least 235,000 refugees in camps set up in neighboring Chad. International sources suggest that clashes along the Abyei border displaced some 600,000 in 2012 alone.
The unresolved issue of Darfur
The recomposition of the conflict between Sudan and South Sudan was offset in 2003 by the progressive deterioration of the situation in the western provinces of Darfur, where the secular Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), linked to the radical Islamism of the leader Hassan al-Turabi, they claimed a greater degree of autonomy and a different allocation of resources, on the model of what the southern provinces were achieving. By contrast, the Sudanese government supported militias known as Janjaweed, who attacked entire villages, killing, maiming and raping the civilian population. In 2010 Qatar mediated to end the conflict, but it obtained only a fragile truce which after a few months was violated by a territorial incursion by the Sudanese army. Today Darfur is the scene of frequent phenomena of banditry and a battleground for the various rebel groups. In September 2014, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Abdallah Banda Abaker Nurain, the rebel leader. The ICC has requested the cooperation of the Khartoum government to obtain his capture, but cooperation is made difficult by the fact that a mandate also hangs on the head of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
