Sudan has a shoreline of 853 km with the Red Sea on the northeast side of the country. It has a total land area of 1,731,671 km and a water area of 129,813 km, along with a population of approximately 49.2 million inhabitants.[1] Sudan is confronted with a set of political, social, and economic challenges that include a high unemployment rate (19.81%)[2] and entrenched poverty (46.5%),[3] predominantly in rural areas, and hyper-elevated public debt (121.6% of GDP).[4] Additionally, Sudan faces negative economic growth (-1.0%).[5]

Sudan faces additional challenges due to the large percentage of hyper-arid land that makes up its total land area. Approximately 50.7% of the country is bare rock and soil, and in total only 11% of Sudan’s land is cultivated with permanent crops.[6] Only about 11.2% of the total land area is arable.[7] Sudan has three general ecological regions: desert, semi-desert, and low-rainfall savannah.[8] Overall, Sudan experiences an average of 250mm of rainfall annually, but rainfall ranges dramatically across the country, from around 25mm in the drier northern regions to up to 700mm further to the south. The inconsistent and highly variable patterns of rainfall have historically led to both years of drought and years of extreme flooding.[9] Oil has played an important role historically in the Sudanese economy. However, although Sudan retains oil infrastructure such as pipelines and refineries, its level of production has declined since 2011.[10] The major political crisis in Sudan has been the ongoing political transition since 2019 and the outbreak of violent conflict within the Sudanese security sector resulting in mass displacement of millions of Sudanese citizens.  

Sudan’s current climate situation makes clear the country’s extreme vulnerability to climate change. As noted above, the country experiences extreme variation in climate and rainfall (including years of extreme drought) from north to south.[11] In the past decade, the area around Darfur especially has experienced a dramatic reduction in rainfall which has led to widespread desertification in the area, as well as depletion of previously-existing renewable water sources.[12] Desertification has steadily been expanding southward, which has had serious effects as well on the productivity of crop production, which has been in decline.[13] Additionally, because of the arid quality of much of Sudan’s land, and the concentration of the population in only a small area of the country with access to water resources, the challenges and stressors of increased water evaporation and drought is even more extreme. Although Sudan contributes only a 0.27% share of the total global greenhouse gas emissions,[14] it has made commitments to reduce greenhouse gas use in the energy sector 38% by 2030, with even more ambitious changes planned in the forestry sector.[15]

[1] “Sudan,” in The World Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency, February 21, 2024), https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/sudan/.

[2] “Sudan.”

[3] “AQUASTAT Country Profile – Sudan” (Rome, Italy: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2015), 4.

[4] “Sudan.”

[5] “GDP Growth (Annual %) - Sudan” (World Bank national accounts data, and OECD National Accounts data files, 2022), https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locations=SD.

[6] “AQUASTAT Country Profile – Sudan,” 1.

[7] “Arable Land (% of Land Area) - Sudan” (Food and Agriculture Organization, electronic files and web site, 2021), https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.LND.ARBL.ZS?locations=SD.

[8] “AQUASTAT Country Profile – Sudan,” 1.

[9] “AQUASTAT Country Profile – Sudan,” 3.

[10] “Energy Profile: Sudan,” UN Environment Programme Country Profiles (Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Environment Programme, 2015), 279.

[11] “AQUASTAT Country Profile – Sudan” (Rome, Italy: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2015).

[12] Mohammed Eltoum Masaad, Mohamed Salih Mohamed, and Ibrahem Ibrahem, “The Role of Ecological Factors in Causing Land Surface Desertification, the Case of Sudan,” Journal of Agriculture and Ecology Research, July 5, 2015.

[13] “Climate Change Risk Profile: Sudan,” Fact Sheet, Climate Change Adaptation, Thought Leadership and Assessments (Washington, D.C.: United States Agency for International Development (AID), August 2016).

[14] “Sudan,” Climate Promise (New York, N.Y.: United Nations Development Programme, November 24, 2023).

[15] “Republic of Sudan: First Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement” (Sudan: The Higher Council for the Environment and Natural Resources, October 2021).