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30-468: Kordofan covers an area of some 376,145 km (146,932 miles²), with an estimated population in 2000 of 3.6 million (3 million in 1983). It is largely an undulating plain, with the Nuba Mountains in the southeast quarter. During the rainy season from June to September, the area is fertile, but in the dry season, it is virtually desert. The region's chief town is El-Obeid . Traditionally the area

60-614: A result of the genocidal activities of Sudan in Darfur . Human Rights Watch says that cluster bombs are used in the region. The ongoing war continues as the international community continues to debate a resolution to the issue of the Nuba Mountains. Wilayat A wilayah ( Arabic : وَلاية , romanized :  walāya or wilāya , plural wilāyat, wilayat ; Urdu , Pashto and Persian : ولایت , romanized :  velâyat, welāyat ; Turkish : vilayet )

90-539: A significant number of people in southern Kordofan and are unique to the region, as are the Kadu languages , but Arabic is the main and most widely spoken language in the greater Kordofan region. About the beginning of the 16th century, Funj from Sennar settled in the country; toward the end of that century, Kordofan was conquered by Sulayman Solong , Sultan of Darfur . In 1779, Sultan Adlan II of Sennar sent Sheikh Nacib, with two thousand cavalry, to take possession of

120-576: A small minority of Baggara . The mountains cover an area roughly 64km wide by 145km long (40 by 90 miles), and are 450 to 900 metres (1,500 to 3,000 ft) higher in elevation than the surrounding plain. The mountains stretch for some 48,000 square kilometers (19,000 square miles). The climate is lush and green compared with most nearby areas — typically hot semi-arid with a rainy season extending from mid-May to mid-October, and annual rainfall between 300 and 800 millimetres (12 and 31 in) — allowing grazing animals and seasonal rain-fed agriculture. At

150-768: Is a general word meaning "territory", "area" or "region". In Thailand , it is the standard Malay term used to translate a " province" ". In Malaysia , the term In the Philippines , the term Traditionally the provinces of the Ottoman Empire were known as eyâlet s, but beginning in 1864, they were gradually restructured as smaller vilâyet s—the Turkish pronunciation of the Arabic word wilāyah . Most were subdivided into sanjaks . The current provinces of Turkey are called il in Turkish. The territory under

180-590: Is an administrative division, usually translated as "state", " province " or occasionally as " governorate ". The word comes from the Arabic root " w-l-y ", "to govern": a wāli —"governor"—governs a wālāya (or wilāya ), "that which is governed". Under the Caliphate , the term referred to any constituent near-sovereign state. In Arabic, wilayah is used to refer to the states of the United States , and

210-473: Is known for production of gum arabic . Other crops include groundnuts , cotton and millet . Originally Kordofan was inhabited by brown-skinned- Nubian -speaking peoples, and the region's name may be derived from the Nubian word Kurta meaning 'man', but by the 14th century Arabs from Egypt began expanding southwards into Kordofan, amalgamating with some of the indigenous population and driving remnants of

240-608: The Messiria . Additionally, the Sudanese government maintained a heavy military presence in the region and even prospective "popular consultations" were seen likely to be barred. The ambiguous situation and fears of future communal violence invoked concerns that South Kordofan could be the "next Darfur ". As of June 2011, South Kordofan's governor Ahmed Haroun had suspended the process of popular consultations and conflict between Sudan People's Armed Forces and Nuba fighters of

270-791: The Nuba Hills , are an area located in South Kordofan , Sudan . The area is home to a group of indigenous ethnic groups known collectively as the Nuba peoples . They are not the same as the Nubians who are indigenous to north Sudan. Rather their name is derived from the name of the mountains, “Nuba”. In the Middle Ages , the Nuba mountains had been part of the Nubian kingdom of Alodia . In

300-693: The SPLM-N followed (see Sudan–SPLM-N conflict (2011) ). The war in Sudan began in 1983 until the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed on 9 January 2005 with independence vote set for 9 July 2011-the vote on 9 July 2011 succeeded the south into Africa's newest country, the Republic of South Sudan . The capital is located in Juba . The Nuba Mountains are geographically in the north in

330-731: The Tsez language , the districts of Dagestan are also referred to as "вилайат" ( wilayat ), plural "вилайатйоби" ( wilayatyobi ). But the term "район" ( rayon ), plural "районйаби" ( rayonyabi ) is also used. Caucasus Emirate , a self-proclaimed successor state to the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria , is divided into vilayats. The Persian word for province (velâyat) is still used in several similar forms in South Asian countries as well: (Pashto: ولايت, wilāyat, plural: ولايتونه, wilāyatuna), subdivided into districts (Pashto: ولسوالۍ, wuləswāləi or Persian: ولسوالی, wolaswālī) In Urdu ,

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360-650: The Uygur language as Vilayiti ( ۋىلايىتى ). For the other, more numerous types of administrative divisions in Xinjiang , however, Uygur uses Russian loanwords like oblasti or rayoni , in common with other Xinjiang languages like Kazakh . In Kenya and Tanzania, the term wilaya is a Swahili term which refers to the administrative districts into which provinces are divided. In Malay (both in Malaysian and Indonesian standards) and Tausug , wilayah or wilāya

390-530: The 18th century, they became home to the kingdom of Taqali that controlled the hills of the mountains until their defeat by Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad . After the British defeated the Mahdi army, Taqali was restored as a client state. Infiltration of the Messiria tribe and Muraheleen of Baggara Arabs has been influential in modern conflicts. Up to 1.5 million people live in the mountains, mostly ethnic Nuba , with

420-687: The Defturdar, with about 4,500 soldiers and eight pieces of artillery, to subject Kordofan to his power. The monopoly enjoyed by the Egyptian governors in Kordofan impeded trade and stifled entrepreneurial activities. From 1837 to 1839, the country was explored by Ignaz Pallme . The Mahdi captured El-Obeid in 1883. The Egyptian government dispatched a force from Cairo under the British General William Hicks , which

450-542: The Nuba Mountains supporting relief and security operations. The international community, including a number of celebrities such as actor George Clooney and reporter Nicholas Kristof , have recently travelled to the Nuba Mountains and documented the continued genocidal activities of the Bashir government. President Bashir is an indicted war criminal at the International Criminal Court (ICC) as

480-615: The Nuba Mountains. Samuel Totten described the campaign of the Sudanese government in the Nuba Mountains as a "genocide by attrition" using starvation as a tool of extermination. In 2002, due to the extreme starvation of the people of the Nuba Mountains and under the international pressure from the UN, Khartoum under President Bashir (at that time, the government was termed the National Islamic Front) authorizes an interim cease fire to provide food and medical equipment/support to

510-610: The United States of America as a whole is called al-Wilāyāt al-Muttaḥidah al-Amrīkīyah , literally meaning "the American United States". For Morocco , which is divided into provinces and wilāyas, the translation "province" would cause the distinction to cease. For Sudan , the term state and for Mauritania , the term region is used. The governorates of Iraq ( muhafazah ) are sometimes translated as provinces, in contrast to official Iraqi documents and

540-414: The area called South Kordofan (see Misplaced Pages for in-depth review). The people of the Nuba Mountains (a five mountain chain rising from the desert to 1,000 metres (3,000 feet)) were not aligned with the north under sharia law nor the Arabic language . This cultural dispute was in part the reason for people in Nuba being prosecuted by indiscriminate bombing, attacks on civilians and mines at entry points to

570-548: The area of the Nuba Mountains as a sea lies a vast area of Cenozoic -aged sedimentary rock known as the "Umm Rawaba sediments". In the Nuba Mountains there are phosphate deposits hosting much uranium , vanadium and phosphorus which may be of economic interest. The largest mountains or hills are found in the central area of the Nuba Mountains, and these are inselbergs . These inselbergs are mostly made up of igneous rock, as metamorphic rock has been more heavily eroded and thus occupies lower ground. The region stayed under

600-562: The control of the central government and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement did not give the Nuba Mountains the right to join South Sudan in its vote for independence in 2011. Residents of the Nuba Mountains were required to hold ill-defined " popular consultations " to determine their future. Not only the Nuba Mountains but the whole of South Kordofan state would be eligible to vote, essentially to accommodate

630-406: The country, which remained for about five years under the government of Sennar. There followed a considerable immigration of Arab tribes and native people from Sennar and Dongola (see old Dongola ) into the country. The Sennari however suffered a decisive defeat in 1784 and thereafter under Darfur viceroys the country enjoyed prosperity. The inhabitants lived in peace and were not troubled with taxes;

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660-598: The end of the dry season from February to May there is often a shortage of water. There are almost no roads in the Nuba Mountains — most villages there are connected by ancient paths that cannot be reached by motor vehicle. On a grand scale the rocks of the Nuba Mountains form part of the southwestern fringe of the Arabian-Nubian Shield . The Nuba Mountains are made up chiefly of metamorphic rock of Precambrian age plus some scattered areas of igneous rock of Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic age. Surrounding

690-399: The general use for other Arab countries. This conflicts somehow with the general translation for muhafazah ( governorate ) and wilāyah (province). In the ethnically diverse Xinjiang region of Northwest China, the seven undifferentiated prefectures proper ( Chinese : 地区 ; pinyin : dìqū ; that is, not prefecture-level cities, autonomous prefectures, etc.) are translated into

720-704: The governance of the Islamic State (ISIS) is referred to them as officially being divided into wilayah , often translated into English as " province ". An example is Islamic State – Khorasan Province and Islamic State - West Africa Province. The Persian word for province ( velâyat ) is still used in several similar forms in Central Asian countries: During the Soviet period the divisions of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were called oblasts and raions , using Russian terminology. In

750-662: The indigenous population to the hills. Most of the inhabitants of Kordofan are Arabs . The main tribal groups of Arab tribes, include the Dar Hamid, Kawahla, Hamar, Bedairiah, Gawamaah and Rekabeiah. In Northern Kordofan there are large grazing areas used and inhabited for hundreds of years by Arabic -speaking, semi-nomadic Baggara and camel-raising Kababish tribes. Other ethnic groups that inhabit Kordofan are Nubians , Daju , Beja , Zaghawa , and Funj people. Nilotic tribes, Nuba , Shilluk and Dinka , also inhabit parts of Kordofan. The Kordofanian languages are spoken by

780-614: The merchants were exempt from duties, and the tribute paid was a voluntary present to the Sultan of Darfur. Bara, the second commercial town of importance in the country, was built by the Dongolavi. Commerce extended in all directions. Caravans brought products from Abyssinia and Egypt into Lobeid and Bara, from which the greater part was again transported on to other parts of Africa. This prosperity ended in 1821 when Muhammad Ali Pasha , Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt sent his son-in-law, Mahommed Bey

810-570: The people of the Nuba Mountains. In exchange, the Sudan People's Liberation Army/SPLA agree not attack the south-north pipeline to Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast. An international group of observers/advisers deployed to South Kordofan Province/ Kadugli with several US advisers deployed directly into the Nuba Mountains, specifically to be co-located with the SPLA. One of the advisers/observers

840-407: The term Vilayat is used to refer to any foreign country. As an adjective Vilayati is used to indicate an imported article or good. In Bengali and Assamese , the term is bilat and bilati (archaic bilaiti ), referring exclusively to Britain and British-made. The British slang term blighty derives from this word, via the fact that the foreign British were referred to using this word during

870-459: Was Randolph Hampton (US) located in Kauda co-located with the SPLA command element. Reports of indiscriminate bombing of civilians and mining entry points primarily for relief operation was reported and documents (with photos) during this time. Abdel Aziz Adam El Hilu was at that time, the governor of the Nuba Mountains and former military leader for the SPLA. He is currently (as of March 2012) back in

900-792: Was ambushed and annihilated at Sheikan to the south of El Obeid. Following British reoccupation in 1898, Kordofan was added to the number of provinces of the Sudan. In 1973 it was split into the provinces ( mudiriya ) of North Kordofan and South Kordofan , which became states ( wilayat ) in 1994. In 2011, armed conflict in South Kordofan broke out in June 2011, ahead of independence for South Sudan . Fighting has since involved rebel groups in Darfur and has expanded into North Kordofan. 13°N 28°E  /  13°N 28°E  / 13; 28 Nuba Mountains The Nuba Mountains ( Arabic : جبال النوبة ), also referred to as

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