Sudan

Overview

There are several areas which should be avoided, with the most up to date details at the Foreign Office link.

Those areas aside there is the Omdurman camel market, the Arab Souk, Dindar National Park, which is amongst the largest in the world, with a variety of wildlife, and of course the Red Sea. The latter has clear water, marine gardens and coral reefs, all of which make it popular with tourists.

The visitor should bear that in mind if it is isolated relaxation that they are seeking. They will find all sorts of landscape such as desert, jungle clad mountains and equatorial forests, which means that they should bring the appropriate clothing. Islamic Sharia code is in place, hence alcohol is banned.

History

Military regimes favoring Islamic-oriented governments have dominated national politics since independence from the UK in 1956. Sudan was embroiled in two prolonged civil wars during most of the remainder of the 20th century. These conflicts were rooted in northern economic, political, and social domination of non-Muslim, non-Arab southern Sudanese. The first civil war ended in 1972, but broke out again in 1983. The second war and famine-related effects resulted in more than 2 million deaths and over 4 million people displaced over a period of two decades. Peace talks gained momentum in 2002-04 with the signing of several accords; a final Naivasha peace treaty of January 2005 granted the southern rebels autonomy for six years, after which a referendum for independence is scheduled to be held. A separate conflict that broke out in the western region of Darfur in 2003 resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and over 1 million displaced, but by early 2005, peackeeping troops had stabilized the situation.