Blue Nile ( ar, النيل الأزرق ') is one of the eighteen
states of the
Republic of the Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
. It was established by presidential decree nº 3 in 1992 and is named after the
Blue Nile River
The Blue Nile (; ) is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. It travels for approximately through Ethiopia and Sudan. Along with the White Nile, it is one of the two major tributaries of the Nile and supplies about 85.6% of the water to ...
.
The region is host to around forty different ethnic groups. Its economic activity is based on agriculture and livestock and increasing mineral exploitation.
In 2011, residents of Blue Nile were scheduled to hold ill-defined "popular consultations" to determine the constitutional future of the state, per the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA, ar, اتفاقية السلام الشامل, Ittifāqiyyah al-salām al-šāmil), also known as the Naivasha Agreement, was an accord signed on January 9, 2005, by the Sudan People's Liberation Moveme ...
. Instead, a dispute over the rightful government of the state, and the determination of
Omar al-Bashir to eradicate the
Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North, have led to a
renewed insurgency and a
refugee crisis
A refugee crisis can refer to difficulties and dangerous situations in the reception of large groups of forcibly displaced persons. These could be either internally displaced, refugees, asylum seekers or any other huge groups of migrants.
A ...
. It appears that the consultations have been postponed indefinitely.
Administration
The State is sub-divided into six districts (with 2006 Census populations shown hereafter):
*
Ad-Damazin (212,712)
*
Al Kormok (110,815)
*
Ar Roseires (215,857)
*
Tadamon (77,668)
*
Bau or Baw (127,251)
*
Qeissan (87,809)
State Governors
* Feb 1994 – Dec 1997 :
Abdalla Abu-Fatma Abdalla
* Dec 1997 – Jan 2000 :
Abd ar-Rahman Abu Madyan
* Jan 2000 – Feb 2001 :
Al-Hadi Bashra
* Feb 2001 – 2003 :
Hassan Hamadayn Suleiman (1st time)
* 2003 – 2004?:
Abdallah Uthman al-Haj
* 2004 – 2005:
Hassan Hamadayn Suleiman (2nd time)
* Sep 2005 – Jul 2007 :
Abdel Rahman Mohamed Abu Madien
* Jul 2007 – 20 Sep 2011 :
Malik Agar Eyre
* Sep 2011 – Apr 2013 :
Yahya Mohamed Khair (1st time)
* 1 Apr 2013 – May 2018 :
Hussein Yassin Hamad
* 14 May 2018 – Feb 2019 :
Khalid Hussein Mohamed Omer
* 24 Feb 2019 – Apr 2019 :
Yahya Mohamed Khair (2nd time)
* Apr 2019 - 2020 :
Ahmed Abdul-Rahim Shukratall
* 22 Jul 2020 - 27 Dec 2020 :
Abdul Rahman Mohammed Nour al-Daiem
* Dec 2020 - 13 Jun 2021 :
Jamal Abdel Hadi
* 13 Jun 2021 - ''Incumbent'' :
Ahmed al-Omda
Geography
Blue Nile state has an area of 45,844 km
2 and an estimated population of 1,193,293. The Central Bureau of Statistics quoted the population at 832,112 in the 2006 census.
Ad-Damazin is the capital of the state. The state of Blue Nile is home to the
Roseires Dam, the main source of hydroelectric power in Sudan until the completion of the
Merowe Dam
The Merowe Dam, also known as Merowe High Dam, Merowe Multi-Purpose Hydro Project or Hamdab Dam, is a large dam near Merowe Town in northern Sudan, about north of the capital Khartoum. Its dimensions make it the largest contemporary hydropower pr ...
in 2010.
Languages
The following languages are spoken in Blue Nile state according to ''
Ethnologue''.
Languages of Sudan
''Ethnologue'', 22nd edition.
*Berta language
Berta proper, a.k.a. ''Gebeto'', is spoken by the Berta (also ''Bertha, Barta, Burta'') in Sudan and Ethiopia.
The three Berta languages, Gebeto, Fadashi and Undu, are often considered dialects of a single language. Berta proper includes the ...
*Gumuz language
Gumuz (also spelled Gumaz) is a dialect cluster spoken along the border of Ethiopia and Sudan. It has been tentatively classified within the Nilo-Saharan family. Most Ethiopian speakers live in Kamashi Zone and Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gu ...
*Hausa language
Hausa (; /; Ajami: ) is a Chadic language spoken by the Hausa people in the northern half of Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Benin and Togo, and the southern half of Niger, Chad and Sudan, with significant minorities in Ivory Coast.
Hausa is a memb ...
*'' Eastern Jebel languages''
** Gaam language
** Aka language
** Kelo language
** Molo language
*''Nilotic languages
The Nilotic languages are a group of related languages spoken across a wide area between South Sudan and Tanzania by the Nilotic peoples.
Etymology
The word Nilotic means of or relating to the Nile River or to the Nile region of Africa.
Dem ...
''
** Burun language
** Jumjum language
*''Omotic languages
The Omotic languages are a group of languages spoken in southwestern Ethiopia, in the Omo River region. The Ge'ez script is used to write some of the Omotic languages, the Latin script for some others. They are fairly agglutinative and have c ...
''
**Ganza language
Ganza, also known as Ganzo or Koma, is an Omotic language spoken in the Al Kurumik District of the Blue Nile (state) in Sudan and in the western Benishangul-Gumuz region of Ethiopia, specifically in the village districts of Penishuba and Yabeld ...
*''Koman languages
The Koman languages are a small close-knit family of languages located along the Ethiopia–Sudan border with about 50,000 speakers. They are conventionally classified as part of the Nilo-Saharan family. However, due to the paucity of evidence ...
''
** Komo language
** Gule language
** Uduk language
*''Other languages''
** Fulfulde language
References
External links
History and geography
UN Work Plan for Blue Nile State
{{Authority control
States of Sudan