The Sudanese government has made formal agreements to separate religion from the state, ending three decades of Islamic rule in the North African nation.

Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, and Abdel-Aziz al-Hilu, a leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North rebel group, signed a declaration on September 3 in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa that adopts the principle of secularism.

The document states that, "For Sudan to become a democratic country where the rights of all citizens are enshrined, the constitution should be based on the principle of ‘separation of religion and state,' in the absence of which the right to self-determination must be respected."

In the accord, it is also expressed that, "Sudan is a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural society. Full recognition and accommodation of these diversities must be affirmed."

This declaration ends the strict Islamic law that began in the country in 1989, and comes in the same week that the transitional government began a peace deal with rebel forces—a development that has raised hopes for an end to the fighting in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum and elsewhere.

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