Sudan and South Sudan - ITMB Publishing Ltd.

Considering that Sudan is locked into an even more brutal civil war than the one besetting Israel-Hamas, this might seem like an odd time to bring out our first-ever map of Sudan and South Sudan, but it may be an important area of the world to have an updated map of, to focus on a tragedy unfolding mostly unnoticed by the world at large. More than 10,000 locals have been slaughtered since a rebel group made an abortive grasp to overthrow the current government a couple of months ago, mostly in the Darfur region. ITMB publishes maps to encourage touristic travel, but our maps also bear witness to atrocities and natural disasters and are widely used by selected governments and humanitarian aid groups thanks to the accuracy of our artwork. Side 1 concentrates on Sudan from its disputed (and closed) border with Egypt south to a little below Khartoum, the capital. An inset map of central Khartoum is also included. Side 2 focusses on South Sudan from its borders with CAR, Congo, Uganda, and Kenya north to the still-contested border with Sudan and the southern provinces of that country. The most dominant feature of both Sudans is the Nile River (White Branch) that flows through both countries on its way to the Mediterranean. This is the first time that South Sudan has been so intensely mapped and is a credit to Lan’s team of cartographers to portray a country carved recently out of adversity and coping with intense tribal rivalries. It is not practical for most of us to travel to either Sudan at the moment, but wars end, governments stabilize, and peace eventually reigns in every warring part of the world, and Sudan has an enormously important historical significance that will attract visitors in the future. For now, like our maps of Ukraine and of Palestine, it will probably sell well for what I would consider to be the wrong reasons, but this is an important map for the world to have at this particular point in time, so I urge everyone to stock it and all of you to open it and study it. There are several wars besetting our planet at the moment and nice though it may be to map pleasant travel destinations, ITMB has a long history of mapping countries suffering from war, famine, and natural disasters. Someone has to do it; it’s important.