Sea Ports Authority
The Sea Ports Authority is the official body entrusted with establishing, managing and operating Sudanese ports on the Red Sea coast. It is one of the units of the Ministry of Transport, and it is the main outlet for Sudan's exports and imports. The roots of its work go back to the port of Suakin, which until the beginning of the twentieth century remained Sudan's only port on the Red Sea and a commercial centre and a port for pilgrims, before the need arose for a deeper and more modern port. Construction of Port Sudan began in 1905, it received its first ship in 1906, and it was officially opened in 1909, and the port remained managed within the Railways Department until 1974. On 18 March 1974 the Authority's law was issued, so the port separated from the Railways and the Authority became under it an independent institution with its own legal personality, working through a board of directors. The Authority derives its powers from its law, and its purposes include establishing ports, harbours and marine lighthouses, developing them and maintaining them, while observing the safety of operation and maintaining an advanced level of services. Port Sudan, located on the Red Sea coast about 850 kilometres northeast of Khartoum, is linked to the railway line that reached it in late 1905, so it became the gateway for foreign trade that the line carries from the interior of the country and to it. The Authority manages Port Sudan with its sections: the northern port for general cargo, the southern port as a container terminal, the Green Port for dry bulk cargo, and Al-Khair oil port, which was completed in 2003. It also manages Prince Osman Digna Port in Suakin, which was opened in its modern form in January 1991 and is designated for cargo, passengers and liquefied petroleum gas, and the port of Oseif, and Martyr Al-Zubair Mohamed Salih Port in Wadi Halfa, in addition to dry ports in Kosti and Salloum linking the sea ports to the interior of the country.
(Sources: Sea Ports Authority website, Wikipedia — Sea Ports Authority, Library of Congress — Country Studies on Sudan)
— Editorial Team
