Sudan's Independence 1956 — The End of the Condominium and the Birth of the Republic
Sudan remained under Anglo-Egyptian Condominium rule from 1899, but the demand for independence rose after the Second World War. In October 1951 Egypt unilaterally abrogated the 1936 Treaty and proclaimed its sovereignty over Sudan, which increased Sudanese aversion to Cairo, until the July 1952 Revolution came in Egypt, led by Mohamed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser; the new leadership accepted the principle of the Sudanese people's right to self-determination, and separated the Sudan question from the question of the evacuation of British forces from the Suez Canal.
On 12 February 1953 Britain and Egypt signed an agreement that granted Sudan self-government and provided for a three-year transitional period at the end of which the Sudanese would decide their fate, with the withdrawal of British and Egyptian forces during that period. Parliamentary elections followed in November and December 1953, won by the National Unionist Party led by Ismail al-Azhari, who had fought the election campaign under the slogan "Unity of the Nile Valley". In January 1954 the first Sudanese government was formed under al-Azhari, and the process of Sudanization of the administrative and technical posts held by the British and Egyptians began.
During the two years of self-government, however, al-Azhari realised that Sudanese public opinion had turned away from unity with Egypt, so he gradually abandoned his campaign slogan and moved towards full independence. In August 1955 Parliament issued a resolution demanding the evacuation of foreign forces, and in the same month the mutiny of the Equatoria Corps broke out at Torit in southern Sudan; northern politicians pledged to consider a federal system after independence to reassure the southerners, and southern representatives voted in favour of a united, independent Sudan.
On 19 December 1955 the Sudanese Parliament unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, to take effect from 1 January 1956, and Britain and Egypt recognised Sudan's sovereignty. On the morning of 1 January 1956 the new flag of Sudan was raised at the independence ceremony by Prime Minister Ismail al-Azhari and opposition leader Mohamed Ahmed Mahgoub together, in a symbolic scene that brought together the government and the opposition, and the Condominium, which had lasted fifty-seven years, came to an end.
Sudan entered independence without agreement among its competing parties on a permanent constitution, so the Constituent Assembly adopted a transitional constitution that abolished the office of Governor-General and replaced it with a five-member Sovereignty Council as a collective head of state, elected by a parliamentary body consisting of an indirectly elected Senate and a popularly elected House of Representatives, while executive power passed to the Prime Minister, whom the House of Representatives nominates and the Sovereignty Council confirms in office.
📚 Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica — History of Sudan article: The growth of national consciousness and independence; U.S. Library of Congress — Country Studies: Sudan, chapters «The Road to Independence» and «Independent Sudan» — Editorial Team