EAST AFRICA – The Republic of the Sudan

  • Life expectancy in Sudan is just 58 years. In the United States, the average person can expect to live to the age of 77.
  • Of every 1,000 babies born alive in Sudan, 93 will die before their fifth birthdays — compared to only 8 out of 1,000 in the United States.
  • Safe water is accessible to just 69% of the people of Sudan. Almost everyone in the United States has access to safe water.
  • Illiteracy is a major problem in Africa, as is the disparity between men's and women's education. In Sudan, 72% of the men and just 51% of the women are literate. In the United States, nearly all adults — 97% of both men and women — can read and write.
  • Annual per capita income in Sudan is $1,820 (GDP per capita, ppp US$). It is $35,750 in the United States.

With the largest land area of any country in Africa, Sudan is located in the dry, drought-prone Sahel region, just south of the Sahara Desert. Africare first assisted Sudan in 1980, with the donation of medical equipment and supplies for use by needy hospitals and clinics nationwide. During the 1990s, Africare also assisted more than 33,000 Sudanese refugees, who had fled the fighting at home and sought shelter in the neighboring Central African Republic. Currently, Africare is assisting refugees from Darfur. That assistance is at the Africare-managed Gaga Refugee Camp, located just across the border in Ouaddai, eastern Chad. At the Gaga Refugee Camp, Africare is providing shelter, food, medical care and other aid to 20,000 Darfurian refugees. (Africare also assists the Chadian host communities, which have been strained by the influx of refugees from Darfur.)

Current Africare Programs for Darfurian Refugees (FY2005 annual report):

Gaga Refugee Camp (in Ouaddai department, Chad): Emergency assistance to refugees from Darfur, Sudan (U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees)

Ouaddai department (Chad): Assistance to Chadian communities adjacent to Sudanese refugee camps (Government of France)

For sources of country statistics, return to Where We Work.

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