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Sudan: TRANSPORTATION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS
TRANSPORTATION Overview: Sudan’s transportation system consists of waterways, railroads, roads, and air service. Facilities in general are in various stages of disrepair and neglect, and, aside from the waterways, all are inadequate for a country the size of Sudan. The Nile River and its tributaries—the Blue Nile and White Nile, the Atbarah, Sobat, and Bahar al Ghazal—form a natural transportation system that has long served as a funnel for commerce between tropical Africa and the eastern Mediterranean. The rail and road systems both date to the colonial era. Of the two, the rail system has been the more extensive and serves the more important population centers except for the southern provinces. Since the early 1980s, the road network has carried an increasing amount of traffic. It continues to undergo expansion, particularly in the North between Khartoum and the Red Sea, but most rural areas of the country remain inaccessible by wheeled transport. Sudan Airways, the national airline, which serves internal as well as international destinations, supplements the limited rail and road networks. The most recent addition to the transportation grid is an oil pipeline that connects the southern oil fields with Khartoum and Port Sudan. Beginning in the 1980s, Sudanese governments have sought to improve the transportation infrastructure, but both attention and funding have been limited, and progress has been slow.
Roads: Sudan has between 20,000 and 25,000 kilometers of roads. Of these, only about 3,500 kilometers are paved, and 4,000 kilometers are all-weather gravel roads; the remainder are tracks passable according to weather conditions. The main road, accounting for half of the paved surface, connects Port Sudan with Khartoum via Kassala.
Railroads: Sudan has 4,725 kilometers of narrow-guage, single-track railroads that serve the northern and central portions of the country. The main line runs from Wadi Halfa on the Egyptian border to Khartoum and southwest to Al Ubayyid via Sannar and Kusti, with extensions to Nyala in Southern Darfur and Waw in Bahr al Ghazal. Other lines connect Atbarah and Sannar with Port Sudan, and Sannar with Ad Damazin. A 1,400-kilometer line serves the al Gezira cotton-growing region. A modest effort to upgrade rail transport is currently underway to reverse decades of neglect and declining efficiency. Service on some lines may be interrupted during the rainy season.
Ports: Sudan has two ports on the Red Sea coast, Port Sudan and Sawakin. Major inland ports, all on the White Nile, include Khartoum, Kusti, Malakal, Juba, and Nimule on the border with Uganda.
Inland Waterways: Sudan has more than 4,000 kilometers of navigable waterways centered on the Nile and its tributaries, but only about 1,700 kilometers are navigable year-round. Barriers to navigation include the six cataracts on the main Nile north of Khartoum, variations in seasonal flow, a series of dams, and the Sudd, the vast papyrus-choked swamp on the upper White Nile. Since the mid-1980s, security problems associated with the rebellion in the South have hindered navigation south of Malakal.
Civil Aviation and Airports: The national carrier, Sudan Airways, provides international service to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East as well as domestic service, over which it holds a monopoly. In the past, it has experienced problems with a lack of trained personnel, scheduling, and maintenance. Currently, efforts are underway to privatize the company. Sudan has an estimated 63 airports, but only 12 have paved runways. The most important is Khartoum International Airport, followed by Port Sudan, Al Ubayyid, and Al Fashir.
Pipelines: In August 1999, a 1,610-kilometer pipeline was completed to carry oil from oil fields in the South to an export terminal on the Red Sea near Port Sudan. By 2003 the pipeline had been extended by 600-plus kilometers, and an 810-kilometer line carried refined petroleum products. A 156-kilometer line carries natural gas.
Telecommunications: As a result of recent investment, telecommunications in urban and outlying regions have improved markedly compared with low levels of service before the late 1990s. In 2002 almost 672,000 telephone lines were in use, producing a ratio of 2.1 lines per 100 inhabitants. These figures compare favorably with just 75,000 lines in 1995 and a line per inhabitant ratio of 0.3. Mobile service has also seen a substantial increase in users, rising from 8,000 subscribers in 1999 to 190,000 in 2002. Internet usage, introduced in 1998, has grown along with the upgrades in lines and equipment from a mere 5,000 users in 1999 to 84,000 in 2002, still well below the number of users in some neighboring countries. Cost and unreliable service have constrained Internet growth. As of 2002, 5.8 million radios and 250,000 television sets were in use in Sudan. International communications are facilitated by two satellite earth stations, one Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and one Arabsat. Telecommunications service is a state monopoly exercised through the Sudan Telecommunications Company (SudaTel) and its subsidiaries, which have undergone some privatization since the late 1990s.
AllAfrica.com,BARBARA AMONG reports Misgivings are growing in Ugandan government circles over the manner in which the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS), which is mediating ... Rift between UN, Sudan deepens with envoy's expulsion - 24 Oct 2006 Victoria Times Colonist,Pronk's expulsion deepens the rift between President Umar al-Bashir's government and the international community over demands that Sudan allow UN peacekeepers ... Sudan Expels UN Representative - 24 Oct 2006 Prensa Latina,Khartoum, Oct 23 (Prensa Latina) Sudan s official notice to UN special Representative Jan Pronk (Holland) on Sunday, giving him 72 hours to leave the country ... State lawmakers seek to punish Sudan - 24 Oct 2006 Durango Herald,DENVER - Colorado should divest its stock in companies that do business with Sudan as a protest against the genocide in Darfur, a group of students and state ... 'Lost Boys of Sudan' screening Nov. 3 in GR - 24 Oct 2006 Grand Haven Tribune,GRAND RAPIDS — Grand Rapids Community College will hold a free screening of the documentary "Lost Boys of Sudan" on Friday, Nov. ... Challenges Facing Southern Sudanese Returnees - 24 Oct 2006 OhmyNews International,2006 signing of a historic tripartite agreement between the governments of Kenya and Sudan and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), for ... SECRETARY-GENERAL REVIEWING SUDAN’S REQUEST TO WITHDRAW SPECIAL ... - 24 Oct 2006 PressZoom (press release),The Secretary-General received this morning a letter from the Government of Sudan requesting him to withdraw his Special Representative, Jan Pronk, from the ... South Sudan wants own country communication Code - 24 Oct 2006 Sudan Tribune,Oct 20, 2006 (KAMPALA) — Southern Sudan is mobilising support to get its own international gateway and communication code. Barnabas ... sudan: Plan announced to disarm feared Darfur militia - 24 Oct 2006 Monday Morning,Sudan announced a plan to disarm Darfur’s feared Janjaweed militia, as a human rights report released last week charged that the enormous death toll in the ... Condoleezza Rice On Expulsion Of UN Sudan Envoy - 24 Oct 2006 Scoop.co.nz (press release),SECRETARY RICE: I'm going to talk to Kofi Annan about this later today. The situation in Darfur has been deteriorating and the international ... Canada should lead in Darfur`Responsibility to protect' more than ... - 24 Oct 2006 Toronto Star,...situations have worsened. The government of Sudan has launched a new military offensive against the rebel holdouts. Meanwhile, government ... Call for expression of interest, Southern Sudan - 24 Oct 2006 ReliefWeb (press release),HelpAge International established a presence in Sudan in 1984 in response to the emergency situation caused by a series of famines in the Horn of Africa and ... UN Sudan envoy retains status - 24 Oct 2006 The Australian,JAN Pronk remains the United Nations' special envoy to Sudan with the full support of UN chief Kofi Annan despite being the target of an expulsion order from ... Zimbabwe Rights Groups Plan To Press AU's Konare At Upcoming ... - 24 Oct 2006 Voice of AmericaKonare met with President Robert Mugabe on October 13 and responded to requests for a meeting that his visit concerned African conflicts in Sudan and elsewhere ... Peace Talks Resume; LRA Requests For All Rebels to Assemble in Ri ... - 24 Oct 2006 Uganda Conflict Action Network,The LRA has said it wants all its troops to assemble in Ri-Kwangba in Western Equatorial State, one of the two assembly points in southern Sudan. ... Country Overview: Sudan - Oct 22, 2006 AND,Sudan has an estimated population of 38 million, a land mass of 2.376 million sq km and shares borders with 9 countries (Egypt, Libya, Chad, Central African ... US envoy says he has come to Sudan with open heart - Oct 23, 2006 AND,The Advisor of the President of the Republic, Dr Ghazi Salah Al-din, on Thursday said that the American Envoy to the Sudan, Andrew Natsios, has pointed out ... Genocide in Sudan - Oct 22, 2006 ProgressiveU.org,Every week, 8000 innocents are killed in the Darfur region of Sudan. ... Currently, only 6,700 African Union (AU) troops are deployed in Sudan. ... Sudan dictatorial shift and Prok’s expulsion - Oct 22, 2006 Sudan Tribune,In this context, the expulsion of the UN Secretary General Special Envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, after a press release by the Sudanese army against him, comes as ... AU welcomes signing of Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement - Oct 23, 2006 AND,The Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission welcomes the signing of the Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement (ESPA), which is signed between the Government ... Sudan lifts emergency state in east after deal - Oct 22, 2006 Reuters AlertNet,KHARTOUM, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Sudan has lifted the state of emergency in its eastern region and released prisoners following a peace deal signed last week ... Pressure builds on businesses tied to Sudan - Oct 21, 2006 MarketWatchSAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Companies doing business in Sudan are coming under increasing pressure from the United States, as the international community ... News Roundup - Oct 22, 2006 Monsters and Critics.com,KHARTOUM, Sudan, Oct. ... So far, however, the Sudan government refuses to allow an international peacekeeping force into Darfur. NEW BRIGHTON, Pa., Oct. ... Forum: Help keep Sudan on right path - Oct 21, 2006 Washington Times,Earlier this month, I concluded my tenure as chief of mission at the Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan to the United States. ... This series of profiles of foreign nations is part of the Country Studies Program, formerly the Army Area Handbook Program. The profiles offer brief, summarized information on a country’s historical background, geography, society, economy, transportation and telecommunications, government and politics, and national security. In addition to being featured in the front matter of published Country Studies, they are now being prepared as stand-alone reference aides for all countries in the series, as well as for a number of additional countries of interest. The profiles offer reasonably current country information independent of the existence of a recently published Country Study and will be updated annually or more frequently as events warrant. |
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