Sudan is home to the Meroe pyramids, ancient structure up to 4,600 years old. There are more pyramids in Sudan (about 200) than there are in the whole of Egypt. Sudan became independent in 1956, and the country was the largest African country prior to the secession of the south in 2011. On 30 June 1989, Colonel Omar al-Bashir led a military coup and later became a one-party state. In February 2003, the war in Darfur (a region in western Sudan) started and the Government of Sudan carried out genocide against Darfur civilians: 480,000 people have been killed, and over 2.6 million people are displaced. Since then the economic and humanitarian situations have deteriorated, human rights violations and restrictions of freedom of expression have also increased.
