Sudan

Do South Africans need a visa for Sudan?

Yes. South Africans need a visa arranged in advance. In practice, the ongoing war has disrupted normal consular services and entry routes. Sudan is a yellow-fever-risk country, so you’ll need a yellow fever vaccination certificate — South Africa asks for it when you come home.

What the travel advisory says

The UK Foreign Office advises against all travel to Sudan because of the ongoing military conflict in Khartoum and other parts of the country. The only exceptions are two remote, disputed border areas — the Hala’ib Triangle and Bir Tawil. For those, the advice is all but essential travel.

This is the advice as we checked it on 19 September 2026. It can change overnight, so read the current FCDO advice before making any decision. We use the UK Foreign Office as our benchmark because its advice is detailed, broken down by region and regularly updated. The US State Department and Australia’s Smartraveller are worth checking too.

If you have to travel

There’s no realistic tourist travel to Sudan while the war continues. Humanitarian travel is organised through agencies with their own security arrangements.

Check that your travel insurance explicitly covers Sudan. Most standard policies exclude destinations under these warnings, and travelling against official advice can void your cover. Tell someone at home your plans, and find the nearest South African mission before you go — DIRCO lists them.

Why this page exists

South Africans search for the entry rules for Sudan, and they deserve an honest answer, so we cover them here. This isn’t a travel guide, though, and Sudan isn’t in our where-to-go filter because the official advice is against travel. If that changes, we’ll build it out into a full guide.