Sudan Warning or Danger Tips by maykal

Don't be alarmed by this list, as Sudan is a very large place...and remember that the north (where most of the tourist attractions are found) is one of the safest places anywhere. But Sudan does have its fair share of dangerous locations, and here I will mention places to avoid at present. The south is at war...well, some places are under control, like Juba and Malakal, but officially they are unsafe so only certain aid workers are allowed to go. The Nuba Mountains have also had problems, and despite a recent ceasefire, tourists are discouraged from going...we got as far as Kadugli and had an amazing trip, but I've heard of others being turned back before Dilling. The west (Nyala, Jebel Marra, El Fasher, El Geneina) is a very dangerous place to be at the moment, with tribal fighting occuring in the city streets. Sometimes this area is safe, and some friends of mine enjoyed a holiday in Jebel Marra and Nyala in October 2002, but a friend who went a week later was sent home due to "skirmishes". At the end of 2002, Kassala was under attack again from Sudanese rebels based in Eritrea...it is a safe town nowadays, but you might have difficulties getting documents to visit...I live there, and have a considerable wad of paperwork from various ministries, and have spent many hours waiting for permits, so you might decide it is not worth the trouble. The border areas around Kassala are still technically at war, and there are certainly land mines planted around, so this is also an area to stay away from. In August 2003, Kassala experienced terrible flooding, and much of the town was destroyed...yet another reason for the authorities to discourage tourism there.

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If the heat doesn't kill you, the amount of paperwork to be a visitor in Sudan might well do. Once you arrive, you have to fill in registration forms, then you have to register with the police, the ministry of the interior, the Aliens' Registration Bureau and probably your embassy too. If you come with a travel agent, they should do most of this for you, but if not, then the endless repeated questions and trips to offices around Khartoum will soon get you down. To take photos, you need a photo permit, available free from the Ministry of Tourism, if they can be bothered. Travel permits are no longer necessary for Northern Sudan, right down to the Ethiopian border, but if you plan to visit anywhere else (Kassala, Port Sudan, Kordofan, Darfur and anywhere in the south), you need a special travel permit called "talab izn taharruk". Go to the ministry of Humanitarian Affairs near to the University of Khartoum, where you'll struggle to find anyone claiming to know what to do with you. Take more passport photos than you need, photocopies of anything important, and fill in the form with the help of the official in charge. You can write as many destinations as you like on the form, but the length of time will usually only be granted if you write something like two weeks...don't worry, few outside Khartoum bother about dates, and you can always "lose" the original while photocopying altered versions. Anyway, you get the gist...a lot of paperwork! But without the paperwork, you run the risk of being sent back to Khartoum or having to pay "fines".
An Iqaama or residence permit is granted to those with official work in Sudan...they last for a year, but be warned that if you want to leave Sudan, you must get an exit visa first, which is an absolute nightmare to get. If your employer doesn't do it for you, then you need all the luck in the world...although I am against corruption, dollar bills do speed the process up, and can persuade officials to overlook certain irregularities in your passport if you have any!

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I think I ought to say something about Sudan's confusing currency. Once upon a time, Sudan used the Sudanese pound, called the jineeh in Arabic. Over the years, inflation caused many zeros to be added, and it got a little silly, so the government introduced a new currency. They lopped a zero off, and, it being the period of Arabization, they called it the dinar. With me so far? Good, because here comes the confusing bit. People don't really like the dinar, so they still quote in pounds. So the note that says 100 dinar on it is called 1000 pounds. "mi'a" is not the 100 dinar note, but the 10 dinar coin, and likewise "alf" is the 100 note, not the 1000 note, which is called "ashara alf". However, more confusion occurs when shopkeepers decide that us khawajas don't have a clue about this silly system, and start quoting in dinars rather than pounds. Or sometimes they will be determined to speak English, and say something like "one"...one what? Until you get used to thinking in English in dinar, yet in Arabic in pounds, then you are likely to get ripped off. Make sure you clarify exactly what you are paying, pounds or dinars, before you hand the money over!

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Sudan adheres to Sharia Law, which means that alcohol is forbidden. Where there are rules, there are people who break them, and as a foreigner you'll meet these people. I'm not condoning the use of alcohol in Sudan, as that is advertising something illegal, but I'm saying it exists and that I have indulged more than once. In Khartoum, it is easy to find...in fact, a few embassies have exclusive drinking clubs (e.g. the British Pickwick Club), but it is difficult for a tourist to get invited. The local alternative is "aragi", a strong spirit made from dates. Every town has an area known for the production of aragi, and the local police tend to turn a blind eye, probably because they are the biggest customers! Aragi is drunk at home, doors locked, late at night. It isn't really a social thing like it is in Europe...you drink to the point of intoxication, then sleep it off straight away. Truth be told, it isn't much fun at all. What happens is that you will be passed a shot, usually in a tea-glass, and you will be expected to down it, before being handed a second, a third, a fourth...until you lose count. Sometimes, the disgusting taste is semi-masked by apple flavoured crystals, but mostly it is drunk neat. It is rough, and hangovers are horrific, partly due to the heat. If you are offered aragi, it goes without saying that you should make sure you drink lots of water before and after. You might come across gin or cognac smuggled in from Eritrea (common in Kassala), which taste better than aragi, but are still pretty rough...the drinking technique is exactly the same.

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Never, and I mean never, go and fetch alcohol yourself if you can't pass yourself off as Sudanese. I tried it, and got myself arrested. Cue a story....I'd been invited by a student to drink, so off we went to an area called "ashwa'i" in Kassala, a place where many IDP's have set up more or less permanent homes, and in desperate situations, alcohol is quite a money-maker. Ashwa'i is a very dark area of mud huts and barking dogs, and a white face is noticed. Almost as soon as we had entered the neighbourhood, the police stopped us, asked where we were going, and suddenly we found ourselves on the back of a truck, head down with an iron bar bouncing on our necks. At the police HQ, we were questioned, but because we hadn't drunk or bought anything, I was accused of being a spy, an Israeli one at that. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we were let off, but with a warning that if we were ever caught in that area again, I would be deported, and my companion beaten. Had he gone alone, maybe all would have been OK, but who knows...I'm fairly sure that it was my white face that sparked it all off. Moral of the story...if you have to have alcohol, don't fetch it yourself, and be prepared to live with yourself if the fetcher is caught and whipped.
Before leaving the police HQ, the chief commander gave me his phone number, and said "if you need a drink, avoid the local stuff, and call me...I can get you good imported stuff"...I haven't phoned...

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Be careful when taking photos in Sudan, as some people and places are a bit touchy. First of all, you should get a photography permit (available free at the Ministry of Tourism), just in case you encounter any problems. Don't point your camera at "military places, bridges, ministries, palaces, beggars, slums, or poor people", as says your permit...and when taking photos of people, make sure you ask first, as some people will object. Also be careful if you take any views from upstairs windows...often you can see directly into people's courtyards, where women go "naked" (they mean uncovered), and angry husbands or brothers may think you are spying on their women if they see the tell-tale flash. Some towns don't allow photography...for example, it is officially forbidden to take photos in Kassala, but I've had no problem. However, the security police asked us not to take pictures while we were in Dilling, not that we wanted to! If in doubt, it is better to ask someone with authority!

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If you are white, then don't expect to go unnoticed. Everywhere you go, you will hear the term "khawaja" from every corner. Cross the road to your local shop, "khawaja", get on the bus, "khawaja", enter a restaurant, "khawaja, khawaja"...you don't have to do any funny dances or attempt a double backflip to get this attention...all you do is exist and behave as normal and somebody will treat you to a "khawaja".
Khawaja is the loose term for anyone who is different. The word actually comes from the old Turkish word "hoca" which means teacher, and locals will tell you it is a mark of respect. However when you hear the word hundreds of times a day, it loses all niceties and becomes just merely annoying, mildly racist. It now means something like "white person".
While there are many khawajas in Khartoum, places like Kassala don't see too many so you'll hear "khawaja" shouted a lot more there. Even though I have lived there for many months now, I am still "al-khawaja", and the name still grates every time I hear it. You can try to be amusing by replying "Sudani" or "Afriki", but they don't seem to get the humour. You can try to shout back at them, but that just gets you hot and angry, while everyone else has a good laugh at your expense.
I'm often told that I should try to fit in with the Sudanese culture more, make more of an effort...but I've got to the point where I can't be bothered...whatever I do, I'm still going to be labelled as different, always stared at, pointed at, shouted at.
My strategy nowadays is to ignore khawaja, not even look up to see who is calling it, try to block it from my brain.

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One thing I learnt very early on was to assume that everyone understands English. So if you are tempted to start commenting on the passenger next to you on the bus, do so discreetly...you never know who might understand! It is a shame that the Sudanese have no such qualms about talking about you, often in loud voices accompanied by much pointing in your direction. "Look at him! He must be from Gremany/Russia/America! He's very red, and look at all those mosquito bites! How is he going to pay the bus...he speaks no Arabic, you know...". Sometimes I subtly let them know I've understood every word, but this doesn't seem to embarrass anyone, and conversations about me tend to escalate! It can be amusing when their assumptions are so wrong (I've been a Russian doctor more than once on buses in Kassala!), but more often than not, it is annoying.
The other thing that gets me down sometimes is being stared or pointed at in the street. People will stop in their tracks to watch you as you do mundane everyday things like buy oranges or get on a bus. I've even had one poor guy drop his shopping bag and cause a cyclist to crash, because he had such a shock seeing me walk into a photocopy shop! You are different, and you have to accept it and get used to it.

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