Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, had been in power since 1989 and had promised to step down from office at the end of his current term, but in October 2014 he reneged on this vow when he accepted the ruling National Congress Party’s nomination as its flag bearer in the 2015 general election. Prior to the election, however, the constitution would have to be amended to allow him to run for another term. Analysts observed that behind Bashir’s decision to continue in office was his desire to avoid possible international criminal proceedings; he still remained under indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of having committed genocide and crimes against humanity relating to actions against the civilian population of Darfur in the early 2000s. In December the ICC prosecutor announced that she was suspending the investigation of the Darfur case, citing a lack of action by the United Nations Security Council in compelling Bashir and other defendants to appear in court.
Sudan ranked as one of the world’s most repressive regimes, placing 151st out of 167 states on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2013 Democracy Index. The security service used a heavy hand in arrests, detention, and censorship to quell public protest. International concern about Sudan’s human rights practices was exacerbated in May when Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, a woman who had a Muslim father but had been raised as a Christian by her mother and who was then pregnant with her second child, was sentenced by a Sudanese court to death for having committed apostasy after she refused to renounce her Christian faith and to receive 100 lashings for having committed adultery, because Islamic law did not recognize her 2011 marriage to a Christian. Although she was eventually released and allowed to leave the country, it was known that the foreign minister believed that the handling of her case had done “untold damage” to Sudan’s reputation.
The government faced intensifying opposition in Khartoum, where various political parties competed for recognition and power. On April 6 Bashir launched a National Dialogue to attempt to iron out differences. He promised to free some political prisoners, increase media freedoms, and renew efforts to make peace in those areas troubled by armed rebellion. Widespread skepticism among opposition leaders quickly proved warranted when on May 17 former prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi—the leader of the main opposition party, the Ummah Party—was arrested on suspicion of undermining the constitution, spreading false news, and sedition. At least five newspapers were raided or had specific issues seized during the year.
The army was involved with low-level conflicts on three fronts: the states of Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan and the Darfur region. Khartoum’s campaigns were often brutal, and the government failed to win sufficient public support to end rebel activity for any length of time. By the end of the year, about 650,000 people had sought refuge in Ethiopia, Chad, and Egypt, while another 1,873,000 were internally displaced.
Meanwhile, the economy was in dire straits and had not yet recovered from the loss of oil revenue resulting from the 2011 secession of South Sudan. Growth averaged about 2.6%. Nearly half the population was officially below the poverty line.