Dans comments:

May be hard to get a visa.

Country profile: (further details available on the BBC website)

Sudan is the largest and one of the most diverse countries in Africa, home to deserts, mountain ranges, swamps and rain forests.

It has emerged from a 21-year civil war between the mainly Muslim north and the Animist and Christian south which is said to have cost the lives of 1.5 million people. After two years of bargaining the government and rebels signed a comprehensive peace deal in January 2005.