LANDSCAPE AND CLIMATE
"Sudan is not a country, it is a continent", say the Sudanese. Sudan covers more than 2.5 million square kilometres, an area larger than Ontario and Quebec combined. Located directly to the south of Egypt, this vast country is also bordered by the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, Kenya, Uganda and Zaire to the south and Central African Republic, Chad and Libya to the west.

 Sudan, surrounded by mountains, is like a huge, wide bowl. Lush and tropical in the south, the land slopes down toward the Sahara desert in the north. The waters of the Nile are the main source of irrigation and Sudan's lifeline. From the humid southern forests, the wide river flows northward through the enormous Sudd swamp region. At Khartoum the branches of the Blue Nile and White Nile meet to form the main stream of the Nile, which flows north through the desert in a giant S-curve to Egypt.

In the desert north of Khartoum, the average summer temperatures reach 40°C. The southwestern rain forests have average temperatures of about 26°C. The summer rainy season in the central farming area depends on the haboob winds from the Congo River Basin. These winds come each year creating a violent dust storm that throws up walls of sand and reduces visibility to zero. At times the winds and rains are delayed, or do not come at all. This causes drought and famine. In the 1970s and 1980s, these winds failed, bringing economic disaster.

 Animal life in the south is typical of the African savannas and includes lions, rhinoceroses, leopards, zebras, giraffes, crocodiles, hippopotamuses, monkeys and antelopes.

In the north about five million people live in the largest urban clusters of Khartoum, Khartoum North and nearby Omdurman, situated at the junction of the rivers. In 1988, the worst floods of the 20th century struck the urban area around Khartoum. Two million people were left homeless.

Summary Fact Sheet

 

 
Official Name:  Republic of Sudan
Capital:  Khartoum 
Type of Government: Islamic Military Regime
Population:  2.5 million sq km 
Area:  2.5 million sq km
Major Ethnic Groups:  Black, Arab, Beja and 570 additional groups
Languages:  Arabic, Nubian, Indigenous Languages, English
Religions:  Islam, Indigenous beliefs, Christianity
Unit of Currency:  Sudanese Pound 
National Flag:  Three horizontal stripes of red, white and black with a green triangle at the pole 
Date of Independence: January 1, 2022