eSIM Sudan

Port Sudan is where coverage is most dependable, and it’s where most organisations, flights and port operations are now based. Kassala, Gedaref and Atbara, and the Nile towns north to Dongola and Wadi Halfa, usually have Zain service in and around the centre, with gaps on the roads between them. Telecoms in Khartoum were badly damaged in the fighting, and what works there can change from one week to the next. In Darfur and Kordofan, outages have lasted for long periods. If your work takes you beyond the east and north, assume the eSIM may not connect and plan around a satellite link.

Zain Sudan is the one network this eSIM uses. Where a mast is standing and has power, towns typically get 4G/LTE, with slower data outside them. Since April 2023, networks have been cut for days at a time, at least once across most of the country, and masts go quiet when their generators run out of fuel. If Zain is down where you are, the eSIM has no other network to move to. Your validity keeps counting through an outage, which is one reason a 30-day plan gives a deployment more slack than the 7-day one. Nothing is throttled on our side.

• 1 GB: a short assessment trip or a week in Port Sudan, with office Wi-Fi for anything heavy
• 3 GB: a few weeks of WhatsApp, Signal and email, plus maps for field movements
• 5 GB: a month-long posting, or a hotspot shared with a laptop for reports and calls
For anything beyond that, add data to this eSIM rather than buying a new one.

This isn’t a time for sightseeing, and we won’t suggest an itinerary. Sudan’s history is still worth knowing. The pyramids of Meroë, on the Nile between Shendi and Atbara, were the royal cemetery of the Kingdom of Kush, and Jebel Barkal near Karima was a sacred mountain for the same kingdom; both are UNESCO World Heritage sites. Suakin, south of Port Sudan, served for centuries as the country’s main Red Sea port, and its coral-stone town now stands largely in ruins.

Teams, drivers and suppliers mostly work over WhatsApp, and many organisations use Signal as well. Bankak, the Bank of Khartoum app, is how a lot of people in Sudan pay for everyday things, but it needs a Sudanese bank account. Cash in Sudanese pounds is still needed and can be in short supply, and foreign cards are rarely accepted, so follow your organisation’s advice on how much to bring. Download offline maps of Port Sudan and your routes before you travel. With power cuts this frequent, charge everything whenever there’s electricity.

Roaming on your home SIM is rarely cheap in Sudan. Sort the settings before you fly: mobile data on the Esimy eSIM, Data Roaming enabled for it, and roaming switched off on the home SIM. Flights into Port Sudan come mainly from regional hubs such as Cairo and Jeddah, and some people come overland from Egypt through the crossings near Wadi Halfa. The plan covers Sudan only. For the Cairo leg use our Egypt eSIM, for Jeddah our Saudi Arabia eSIM, and for work across the border in Ethiopia our Ethiopia eSIM. Conditions change quickly, so check what your government currently advises, and your organisation’s security briefing, before each trip.

• Zain Sudan 4G/LTE wherever its masts have power
• Installed before you travel, so it can be ready at Port Sudan airport
• Nothing to register with your passport at a SIM shop
• Days are counted from the first connection in Sudan, not from purchase
• Top-ups go onto the same eSIM from the app or dashboard

• November to February: the coolest months, though Port Sudan stays warm
• June to September: severe heat inland and humid heat on the Red Sea coast
• July to September: the rainy season, when floods can cut roads around Kassala, Gedaref and further south
• Summer haboobs, the big dust storms of the Nile valley, can delay flights and road moves

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