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Sudan
Defense Costs
The civil war in the south had a devastating impact. Not only
were military operations in the south a great expense, but the
economy was disrupted by the fighting, and perhaps 3 million persons
were displaced from or within the war zones. Because of secrecy
restrictions dating from the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War, no substantial
information on the defense budget was released publicly or provided
to the People's Assembly, which however, had been suspended in
1989. Various official and unofficial estimates of the size of
defense expenditures and the burden imposed on the economy by
the military establishment have differed widely. The United States
government agency estimated the defense budget at US$610 million
in 1989, representing 7.2 percent of gross national product (
GNP--see Glossary). The Sudanese government has estimated the
cost of conducting the war at about US$1 million a day.
Although the specific components of military spending were not
available, it was known that the principal category of the defense
budget was personnel-related costs. Most large purchases of arms
had been financed with credits from the supplying countries. Financial
assistance from other countries, principally the Arab oil-producing
states of the Persian Gulf, had made these credit purchases possible.
Arms imports had fallen since the resumption of the civil war
in 1983, as a result of the unwillingness of Western countries
to supply weapons that could be used in the hostilities, and of
subsequent cutbacks in financial aid from the Middle East. The
total amount of funds for military procurements that was available
through loans, grants, direct purchases, and barter arrangements
was not made public.
Data as of June 1991
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