Sudan closing for referendum?
 

Don't want to alarm anyone but that's what someone who was in close contact with the Brit embassy in Khartoum learned a couple of weeks ago.

As he explained it, the issue of visas from Sudanese consulates may slow down and stop in December, and resume in Jan or Feb when it's all over.

Perhaps it might be just a week or so if it all goes smoothly, but for months reports have been predicting the opposite, especially if the referendum result is 'wrong'.

Worth bearing on mind if you plan to cross in Jan or so.

Chris S

This indeed appears to be the issue. I was in Sudan for work late October, and was hoping to get another single entry visa to go back there for December, but the Embassy in London has been stalling and does not appear to be issuing visas at the moment (though they won't admit that).

The situation is heating up considerably with the referendum approaching, and overall I would advise against anything but essential travel from North to South Sudan. If South Sudan does indeed become independent, it is also likely that there will be demonstrations and riots in the North, aimed at both Southern Sudanese, as well as possibly Westerners. On top of that, the disputed border areas are also prone to organised or localised violence by either armed groups or criminal elements.

Joova

Now, I'm all for being cautious, but being in Kenya at the moment and meeting new overlanding people coming from the north every day I can say that at the moment there is no issue at all in Sudan on the normal route through wadi Halfa to Khartoum to Ethiopia. This is true for both Nile and Desert routes.

People here in Nairobi are getting their Sudan visas every day without problems so this embassy is obviously not realloy fased by it all. The British embassy still issues letters of introduction and simply tell their citizens to keep an eye on travel warnings and nothing more.

So, IMHO, internatuional media will make huge noise about things that will not really affect travvelers, but every person should make his own, informed decision wether to go there or not.

ok at the moment
 

We got visas in cairo in 24hrs for sudan, crossed the border a couple of weeks ago and no probs