Nexus Country Profile // Sudan
Sudan is located from 9°N to 22°N in north-eastern Africa; it shares borders with Egypt, Libya, Chad, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea as well as the Red Sea. Although located in the tropics, the climate extends from a desert climate in the northern regions to a summer-rain climate in the southern regions. Approximately half of the country (mainly in the northern states) is covered by bare rocks and soil. In the southern regions, agricultural areas, trees, shrubs and herbaceous land cover is dominant. The second Sudanese civil war lasted from 1983 to 2005, when a peace deal was made. The Darfur crisis started in 2003, and a peace accord with the government was signed in 2010. In 2011, following a unanimous referendum vote, South Sudan gained independence from the rest of Sudan. Abyei is a disputed area with South Sudan and Bir Tawil and the Hala’ib Triangle are disputed areas with Egypt.
Highlighted Nexus-related challenges faced by Sudan:
- Regional conflict and instability have forced millions of people to migrate within the country, forcing more people to face extreme poverty with low water, energy and food securities. Furthermore, civil war and famine in South Sudan has seen vast numbers of people seek safety in Sudan, and cross-border oil flows have been drastically reduced.
- The water dependency on water originating outside the country is high, and suitable management of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) will be vital for ensuring that Sudan’s water demands are met.
- Approximately 5.5 million people in Sudan face food insecurity and 15.9 million people don’t use at least basic drinking water services.
- Poor water management contributes to high levels of wastage in the irrigation schemes.
- Power shortages are common, hence there is an urgency from the government to increase the country’s energy supply through greater generation from hydropower or imports from Ethiopia.
Download
- Nexus Resource Platform website
Published
December 2018
By
- Nexus Dialogue Programme
- League of Arab States (LAS)
About the Nexus Country Profiles
The Nexus Country Profiles give an overview of the Nexus-related challenges faced by a country, show the specifics of the water, energy and food/agricultural sectors and summarise the water-energy, water-food and energy-food interrelations. Nexus-relevant aspects of the country’s governance are highlighted and allow for a better understanding of possible entry points for integrated management and policy planning. The profiles culminate in a tri-sectoral Nexus evaluation and food-energy-water security index.
The country profiles are developed in the frame of the Nexus Dialogue Programme, jointly funded by the European Union and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany, and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in cooperation with regional partners. Research for and elaboration of the country profiles is supported by the Institute for Technology and Resource Management in the Tropics and Subtropics (ITT) at the TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences, Germany.