Logistics

In 1955, the year before Sudanese independence, the Sudan Railways network stretched across 4,756 kilometres of track. It connected Khartoum to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, south to Sennar and Kosti on the White Nile, west through Kordofan to Nyala in Darfur, north along the Nile to Wadi Halfa on the Egyptian border. It was, at independence, one of the most extensive rail networks in Africa — the physical infrastructure of a country that moved its cotton, its sorghum, and its people on steel rails through the desert. ...

The Nile enters Sudan near Wadi Halfa in the north and flows south through Dongola, Khartoum, Kosti, and Renk before crossing into South Sudan — a journey of nearly 1,850 kilometres. For most of this distance, the river is wide, deep, and navigable. It passes through the heart of the country’s agricultural zones, connects its largest cities, and reaches populations that road infrastructure has never reliably served. Sudan has one of the world’s great natural highways running through the middle of it. For most of the country’s modern history, this highway has been almost entirely unused for freight. ...