Location: Sudan is located in northeastern Africa. It

borders the Red Sea between Egypt on the north and

Eritrea and Ethiopia on the southeast; it borders Chad

and the Central African Republic on the west.

Size: The total area of the country is 2,505,813 square

kilometers.

Land Boundaries: The length of Sudan’s borders is

7,687 kilometers. Border countries are: Central African

Republic (1,165 kilometers), Chad (1,360 kilometers), Democratic Republic of the Congo (628 kilometers), Egypt (1,273 kilometers), Eritrea (605 kilometers), Ethiopia (1,606 kilometers), Kenya (232 kilometers), Libya (383 kilometers), and Uganda (435 kilometers).

Disputed Territory: Two regions along the border with Egypt between the Nile River and the Red Sea are in dispute, but Egypt administers the larger of the two contested parcels.

Length of Coastline: The length of Sudan’s Red Sea coastline is 716 kilometers.

Maritime Claims: Sudan claims a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea zone, an 18-nautical-mile contiguous zone, and jurisdiction over the continental shelf to a 200-meter depth or to the depth of resource exploitation.

Topography: The country is generally a broad, flat plain, with low mountains in the northeast near the Red Sea coast, in the west, and on the southeast. An outcropping of low mountains in the south-central region is known as the Nuba Mountains. The Nile River system divides the eastern third from the western two-thirds of the country. In the North, the Nubian Desert lies to the east of the Nile, the Libyan Desert to the west. Both are stony, virtually rainless, and dune-covered. South of Khartoum, the vegetation gradually changes from dry grassland and woodland to verdant savannah.

Principal Rivers: The Nile is the dominant geographic feature of Sudan, flowing 3,000 kilometers from Uganda in the south to Egypt in the north. Most of the country lies within its catchment basin. The Blue Nile and the White Nile, originating in the Ethiopian highlands and the Central African lakes, respectively, join at Khartoum to form the Nile River proper that flows to Egypt. Other major tributaries of the Nile are the Bahr al Ghazal, Sobat, and Atbarah rivers.

Climate: The climate varies from tropical wet and dry seasons in the South to arid desert in the North. Annual temperatures vary little at any single location. The rainy season (April to November) and the length of the dry season constitute the most significant climatic variables.

Natural Resources: Petroleum is Sudan’s major natural resource. The country also has small deposits of chromium ore, copper, gold, iron ore, mica, silver, tungsten, and zinc.

Land Use: Sudan’s total land area amounts to some 251 million hectares. About half of this land is suitable for agriculture, of which about 17 million hectares are actually cultivated.

Environmental Factors: Sudan suffers from inadequate supplies of potable water, declining wildlife populations because of warfare and excessive hunting, soil erosion, desertification, and periodic droughts.

Time Zone: Local time in Sudan is Greenwich Mean Time plus three hours.