Sudan (region) to the present-day country of Sudan, the western part of which forms part of the larger region, and from which South Sudan gained its independence in 2011. The Sudan region extends in some 5,000 km in a band several hundred kilometers wide across Africa. It stretches from the border of Senegal, through southern Mali (formerly known as French Sudan when it was a French colony), Burkina Faso, southern Niger, northern Nigeria, northern Ghana, southern Chad, the western Darfur region of present-day Sudan, and South Sudan. To the north of the region lies the Sahel, a more arid Acacia savanna region
French Sudan the French in the establishment of colonial government, largely because both were codified, and thus easy to standardize. Though they maintained a formal neutrality policy in regards to religion, the French colonial administration began to regulate Islamic education in the early 1900s. In addition, fear of a pan-Islamism political rise throughout North Africa and the Sahel led the French to adopt policies that aimed to prevent the spread of Islam beyond where it already existed and to prevent Muslim leaders from governing non-Muslim communities. Indigenous religions and Christianity existed under less formal policies, and French efforts often used these to