Sudan observes East Africa Time: UTC+3, year-round, no daylight saving. The IANA identifier is Africa/Khartoum.

Khartoum sits at roughly 32.5 degrees East longitude, where solar noon occurs around 09:50 UTC. UTC+3 places local noon at 12:50. A reasonable alignment.

Where two Niles meet

Khartoum is located at the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile. These two rivers, originating in Ethiopia (Blue Nile) and Uganda/Tanzania (White Nile) respectively, merge at Khartoum and flow north as the Nile through Egypt to the Mediterranean.

The Blue Nile carries most of the Nile’s water (about 85 percent) but only during the Ethiopian rainy season from June to September. The White Nile provides the more consistent year-round flow. Together, they sustain one of the world’s longest river systems.

The confluence has been strategic for millennia. Khartoum itself was established as a military post by Egyptian forces under Ottoman administration in 1821. The city became famous in 1885 when British General Charles Gordon was killed there during the Mahdist siege, a defeat that shocked the British public and led eventually to Kitchener’s reconquest of Sudan in 1898.

The secession

Sudan was Africa’s largest country by area until 2011, when South Sudan gained independence. The two countries had been at various stages of civil war for decades, rooted in differences between the Arab Muslim north and the predominantly Christian and animist south.

The July 2011 independence was peaceful but the subsequent relationship has been anything but. Oil fields that straddle the border, disputed territories, and ongoing conflicts in regions like Darfur and South Kordofan have kept the two countries in tension.

Darfur

The Darfur conflict, which began in 2003, involved Sudanese government forces and allied Arab militias (the Janjaweed) conducting what the International Criminal Court has characterized as genocide against Black African ethnic groups in the Darfur region. Estimates of deaths range from 200,000 to over 400,000.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2009 for genocide and crimes against humanity, the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC. Al-Bashir was overthrown in a military coup in 2019, following mass protests. The post-Bashir transition government has been contested; Sudan has experienced significant political instability.

For developers

Sources