Sudan ends 30 years of Islamic law separating religion and state

Sudan’s transitional government agreed to separate the religion from the state, ending 30 years of Islamic rule in the North African nation.

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Abdel-Aziz al-Hilu, leader of the rebel group North Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, signed a statement in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Thursday, adopting the principle.

“For Sudan to become a democratic country where the rights of all citizens are enshrined, the constitution must be based on the principle of ‘separation of religion and state’, in the absence of which the right to self-determination must be respected.” the document says.

The deal comes less than a week after the government signed a peace agreement with the rebel forces that raised hopes of ending the fighting that ravaged Darfur and other parts of Sudan under the ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir. The larger of the two factions of the North Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, which has fought Sudanese troops in the nation’s border states, has refused to sign any agreements that do not guarantee a secular system.

Sudan is emerging from the international isolation that began shortly after Bashir took power in 1989 and implemented a hard-line interpretation of Islamic law that sought to make the country the “vanguard of the Islamic world.” Al-Qaeda and Carlos the Jackal settled there; The United States designated Sudan as a sponsor of terrorism in 1993 and then imposed sanctions until 2017.