Country Profile on AI Governance: Sudan

Fellow-assigned pillar score. Indicators not scored. North Africa mean 2.23 · all 54 states mean 1.76.

10 indicators: 1 evidence found, 0 confirmed absence, 9 not determined.

1. S1.1

   National AI strategy existence

   ○Not determined

   No national AI strategy or policy found. On 5 Nov 2025 a Prime Ministerial decree created a Sudanese Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority alongside digital-transformation and cybersecurity authorities, and coverage mentions no national AI strategy.

   Sources ecofinagency.com (opens in a new tab) · carnegieendowment.org (opens in a new tab)

2. S1.2

   Strategy adoption date

   ○Not determined

   No AI strategy adoption date found.

   Sources ecofinagency.com (opens in a new tab)

3. S1.3

   Political commitment signals

   ●Evidence found

   Institutional action: PM Kamil Idris decreed the Sudanese Data and AI Authority (5 Nov 2025). On 30 Mar 2026 he directed an AI bachelor's programme and the integration of AI into school curricula, working with Digital Transformation Minister Ahmed al-Dirdiri Ghandour.

   Sources ecofinagency.com (opens in a new tab) · allafrica.com (opens in a new tab)

4. S1.4

   Dedicated AI budget allocation

   ○Not determined

   No AI budget found; reporting cites limited financial resources amid ongoing conflict (Nov 2025).

   Sources ecofinagency.com (opens in a new tab)

5. S1.5

   AU Continental AI Strategy alignment

   ○Not determined

   No information on AU Continental AI Strategy alignment.

   Sources ecofinagency.com (opens in a new tab)

6. S1.6

   Multi-stakeholder consultation

   ○Not determined

   No AI strategy consultation found.

   Sources ecofinagency.com (opens in a new tab) · allafrica.com (opens in a new tab)

7. S1.7

   Sector prioritisation

   ○Not determined

   No strategy located; sector prioritisation not assessable.

   Sources ecofinagency.com (opens in a new tab)

8. S1.8

   Implementation roadmap

   ○Not determined

   No strategy located; roadmap not assessable.

   Sources ecofinagency.com (opens in a new tab)

9. S1.9

   Monitoring and evaluation framework

   ○Not determined

   No strategy located; M&E not assessable.

   Sources ecofinagency.com (opens in a new tab)

10. S1.10

    Strategy review mechanism

    ○Not determined

    No strategy located; review mechanism not assessable.

    Sources ecofinagency.com (opens in a new tab)

Fellow-assigned pillar score. Indicators not scored. North Africa mean 1.56 · all 54 states mean 1.32.

10 indicators: 1 evidence found, 3 confirmed absence, 6 not determined.

1. G2.1

   AI-specific legislation

   ○Not determined

   No AI-specific bill or law for Sudan was identified in this review.

2. G2.2

   Data protection law status

   ■Confirmed absence

   None: dataprotection.africa (May 2022) states that Sudan has no data protection legislation, only sectoral laws such as the Electronic Transactions Act 2007 and the Cybercrime Act 2007 (amended 2020). No later enactment was found in this review.

   Sources dataprotection.africa (opens in a new tab)

3. G2.3

   DPA AI mandate

   ■Confirmed absence

   No DPA: dataprotection.africa (May 2022) records no data protection law and no data protection authority in Sudan.

   Sources dataprotection.africa (opens in a new tab)

4. G2.4

   DPA staffing and budget

   ■Confirmed absence

   Sudan has no data protection authority (dataprotection.africa, May 2022), so there are no DPA staff or budget figures.

   Sources dataprotection.africa (opens in a new tab)

5. G2.5

   AI regulatory body existence

   ○Not determined

   No AI governance body or council for Sudan was located in this review.

6. G2.6

   Institutional design model

   ○Not determined

   No regulatory model for AI governance in Sudan was identified in this review.

7. G2.7

   Malabo Convention ratification

   ●Evidence found

   Signed: The AU official status list dated 02/02/2026 records for Sudan: signature on 15/03/2023, with no ratification or deposit. The Convention entered into force on 8 June 2023.

   Sources au.int (opens in a new tab) · au.int (2) (opens in a new tab)

8. G2.8

   Enforcement actions taken

   ○Not determined

   No AI-related enforcement action (investigation, fine or order concerning AI or automated processing) was located in this desk review (October 2026); absence is not confirmed because DPA decision registers were not accessible.

9. G2.9

   Extraterritorial provisions

   ○Not determined

   With no data protection law (dataprotection.africa, May 2022), no data-protection extraterritorial scope exists; cybercrime and other legislation was not reviewed for provisions covering foreign AI systems.

   Sources dataprotection.africa (opens in a new tab)

10. G2.10

    IP framework for AI

    ○Not determined

    No evidence of a review of intellectual property legislation for AI-generated content was located in this desk review (October 2026); IP-specific searches could not be completed, so absence is not confirmed.

Fellow-assigned pillar score. Indicators not scored. North Africa mean 1.63 · all 54 states mean 1.51.

10 indicators: 2 evidence found, 2 confirmed absence, 6 not determined.

1. I3.1

   Data center count

   ●Evidence found

   Data Center Map's Africa directory (page undated; accessed 2026-10-06) lists 2 data centre facility(ies) in Sudan, out of 261 listed across 43 African countries. The directory is self-reported by operators and may include some non-colocation facilities.

   Sources datacentermap.com (opens in a new tab)

2. I3.2

   Data center capacity (MW)

   ○Not determined

   No dated, named source publishing total live data centre power capacity (MW) for Sudan was found. Data Center Map's directory does not report MW, and the ResearchAndMarkets Africa portfolio (Mar 2025) does not disclose country breakdowns in its public release.

   Sources datacentermap.com (opens in a new tab) · businesswire.com (opens in a new tab)

3. I3.3

   Submarine cable landing points

   ●Evidence found

   TeleGeography Submarine Cable Map data (accessed 2026-10-06) lists 1 landing point(s) in Sudan served by at least one in-service international cable (Port Sudan), carrying 5 distinct international cable systems: 2Africa, EASSy, FALCON, SAS-1, SAS-2.

   Sources submarinecablemap.com (opens in a new tab) · submarinecablemap.com (2) (opens in a new tab)

4. I3.4

   International bandwidth (Gbps)

   ○Not determined

   No dated national international-bandwidth figure for Sudan was verified. ITU DataHub (indicator: international bandwidth usage) returned HTTP 403 and robots-disallowed errors on 2026-10-06, and searches of the regulator and press found no usable national figure in this pass.

5. I3.5

   Hyperscaler presence

   ■Confirmed absence

   None: Official region lists checked on 2026-10-06 show no cloud region, availability zone or local/edge zone in Sudan: AWS (Africa region Cape Town only; local zones Johannesburg and Nairobi), Azure (South Africa North/West only), Google Cloud (africa-south1 Johannesburg only), Oracle (Johannesburg and Casablanca live; Kenya coming soon) and Alibaba (no African region). Huawei Cloud's African regions are Johannesburg and Cairo (May 2024), but this rests on press coverage because Huawei's own region page could not be machine-read.

   Sources aws.amazon.com (opens in a new tab) · aws.amazon.com (2) (opens in a new tab) · learn.microsoft.com (opens in a new tab)

6. I3.6

   GPU/HPC access

   ○Not determined

   No source documenting GPU or HPC capacity for AI research in Sudan was opened in this pass. No Sudan system appears on the TOP500 list (June 2026).

   Sources top500.org (opens in a new tab)

7. I3.7

   Data localisation provisions

   ○Not determined

   Sudan has no data protection law, and dataprotection.africa (May 2022) records no law restricting cross-border transfer. Sectoral localisation rules were not verified in this pass.

   Sources dataprotection.africa (opens in a new tab)

8. I3.8

   Cross-border data flow framework

   ■Confirmed absence

   None: dataprotection.africa states Sudan has no data protection law and that there are no laws restricting cross-border transfer (page updated 24 May 2022; only sectoral e-transactions and cybercrime laws).

   Sources dataprotection.africa (opens in a new tab)

9. I3.9

   Foreign AI surveillance spending

   ○Not determined

   Sudan is not among the 11 countries mapped in IDS/ADRN's Smart City Surveillance in Africa (March 2026), and no other dated source documenting a contract value for foreign AI-enabled surveillance in Sudan was opened in this pass.

   Sources ids.ac.uk (opens in a new tab)

10. I3.10

    Sovereign cloud initiatives

    ○Not determined

    No source documenting a national sovereign cloud or government domestic computing initiative in Sudan was opened in this pass.

Fellow-assigned pillar score. Indicators not scored. North Africa mean 1.54 · all 54 states mean 1.20.

10 indicators: 2 evidence found, 0 confirmed absence, 8 not determined.

1. H4.1

   AI researchers per million

   ○Not determined

   No consistent cross-country source of AI-specific researchers per million was found or could be queried for this country as of Oct 2026 (the planned OpenAlex author query was blocked by an API rate limit on 2026-10-06). Context only: the World Bank/UNESCO UIS indicator SP.POP.SCIE.RD.P6 (total R&D researchers per million, all fields) has no value for this country for 2010-2025.

   Sources api.worldbank.org (opens in a new tab)

2. H4.2

   DPA staff with AI competency

   ○Not determined

   No published source was found on the number of data protection authority staff with demonstrable AI technical skills as of Oct 2026; DPA annual reports were not located within the research budget of this pass.

3. H4.3

   University AI programs

   ○Not determined

   No source counting universities with AI/ML degree programmes was opened for this country in this pass (Oct 2026); a national higher-education programme register or course-page review is needed.

4. H4.4

   African-authored AI publications

   ●Evidence found

   CSET Country Activity Tracker (Merged Academic Corpus) via Our World in Data, series 'AI scholarly publications - Field: All', entity Sudan (SDN), reference year 2024: 79 publications (2023: 89). Counts articles with at least one author at an institution in the country, English title/abstract only; dataset last updated 27 Apr 2026. OpenAlex could not be used because the API was rate-limited on 2026-10-06.

   Data note: CSET/OWID AI publications 2022–24: 81, 89, 79.

   Sources ourworldindata.org (opens in a new tab) · ourworldindata.org (2) (opens in a new tab)

5. H4.5

   AI patents filed

   ○Not determined

   No country-level count of AI-related domestic patent filings was retrieved as of Oct 2026. WIPO IP Statistics and national IP office data were not accessible in this pass, and no published AI-patent figure for this country was found.

6. H4.6

   K-12 CS education

   ○Not determined

   No authoritative source on the status of K-12 computer science education was opened for this country in this pass (Oct 2026).

7. H4.7

   AI workforce training programs

   ○Not determined

   No government-supported AI reskilling or upskilling programme was identified for this country in the sources opened in this pass (Oct 2026).

8. H4.8

   Labour transition policy

   ○Not determined

   No government framework on AI and labour-market transition (adopted, draft or under discussion) was found for this country in the sources opened in this pass (Oct 2026).

9. H4.9

   Informal economy AI assessment

   ○Not determined

   No government assessment of AI's impact on the informal economy was found for this country in the sources opened in this pass (Oct 2026).

10. H4.10

    African language NLP coverage

    ●Evidence found

    Count of domestic non-European languages in Meta NLLB-200/FLORES-200 or Google Translate (Cloud Translation list accessed Oct 2026; Jun 2024 expansion), mapped by the researcher. Supported: Modern Standard Arabic (NLLB arb_Arab; Google ar). Sudanese Arabic, Beja, Fur and Nubian languages are not listed; Dinka and Nuer (Google) are mainly South Sudanese and not counted.

    Sources raw.githubusercontent.com (opens in a new tab) · cloud.google.com (opens in a new tab) · blog.google (opens in a new tab)

Fellow-assigned pillar score. Indicators not scored. North Africa mean 1.39 · all 54 states mean 1.05.

10 indicators: 1 evidence found, 1 confirmed absence, 8 not determined.

1. N5.1

   AI companies count

   ●Evidence found

   TechBehemoths directory (accessed Oct 2026, page undated) states 'There are 2 Companies in Sudan that provide Artificial Intelligence Services'. Directory of self-listed IT service firms: a lower bound, not a census of AI startups.

   Sources techbehemoths.com (opens in a new tab)

2. N5.2

   Private AI investment (USD)

   ○Not determined

   Partech's 2025 report (22 Jan 2026) states that outside the top four markets only Senegal, Morocco and Ghana exceeded US$50M in tech equity, so Sudan received less than US$50M in 2025; no country figure and no AI-specific investment figure was found. Partech notes Sudan recorded 2 equity rounds in 2025, both female-led (amounts not given).

   Sources partechpartners.com (opens in a new tab) · cdn-website.partechpartners.com (opens in a new tab)

3. N5.3

   AI incubators/accelerators

   ○Not determined

   No AI-focused incubator or accelerator count established from an opened source in this pass (general tech hubs not counted).

4. N5.4

   Regulatory sandbox (AI)

   ○Not determined

   No fintech or other regulatory sandbox for this country appears in the Open Bank Project Africa sandbox list (updated to early 2026). No AI-specific sandbox was identified; the Datasphere Initiative 2025 inventory found AI-specific sandboxes in Africa still nascent.

   Sources openbankproject.com (opens in a new tab) · thedatasphere.org (opens in a new tab)

5. N5.5

   Government AI procurement

   ○Not determined

   No evidence located on government procurement of AI from domestic developers (no AI-specific procurement rule or preference policy found in sources opened).

6. N5.6

   AI safety evaluation capacity

   ○Not determined

   No AI safety testing or evaluation facility (academic, government or accredited) identified in sources opened.

7. N5.7

   ISO/IEC 42001 adoption

   ○Not determined

   No ISO/IEC 42001 certification of an organisation based in this country and no national adoption of the standard was found (searches Oct 2026); the national standards body is not a member of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42, the committee that publishes ISO/IEC 42001.

   Sources iso.org (opens in a new tab)

8. N5.8

   Standards body AI competency

   ■Confirmed absence

   Exists, no AI focus: National standards body SSMO (ISO member body) exists, but Sudan is absent from both the participating and observing member lists of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42 (Artificial intelligence) as of Oct 2026, so there is no AI committee participation; no national AI committee was found.

   Sources iso.org (opens in a new tab) · en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)

9. N5.9

   AI risk assessment frameworks

   ○Not determined

   No sector-specific or cross-sector AI risk assessment framework identified in sources opened.

10. N5.10

    University-industry AI partnerships

    ○Not determined

    No formal university-industry AI research partnership identified in sources opened.

Fellow-assigned pillar score. Indicators not scored. North Africa mean 1.33 · all 54 states mean 1.26.

10 indicators: 1 evidence found, 1 confirmed absence, 8 not determined.

1. E6.1

   Algorithmic impact assessment

   ○Not determined

   Sudan is not covered by GIRAI 2026, and no AI impact-assessment requirement or guidance was found in sources opened as of Oct 2026; absence could not be confirmed from an authoritative source.

   Sources global-index.ai (opens in a new tab) · dataprotection.africa (opens in a new tab)

2. E6.2

   Bias audit requirements

   ○Not determined

   Sudan is not covered by GIRAI 2026 and no AI bias-audit requirement or guidance was found in sources opened as of Oct 2026; absence could not be confirmed.

   Sources global-index.ai (opens in a new tab)

3. E6.3

   Transparency obligations

   ○Not determined

   Sudan is not covered by GIRAI 2026; dataprotection.africa records no automated-decision right ('No law'), and no AI transparency requirement or guidance was found in sources opened as of Oct 2026, so absence of all transparency obligations is not confirmed.

   Sources global-index.ai (opens in a new tab) · dataprotection.africa (opens in a new tab)

4. E6.4

   Citizen redress mechanism

   ■Confirmed absence

   No mechanism: dataprotection.africa (May 2022) records that Sudan has no data protection legislation and no data protection authority, so there is no statutory right against solely automated decisions and no DPA complaint route; no AI-specific complaint channel was found as of Oct 2026.

   Sources dataprotection.africa (opens in a new tab)

5. E6.5

   Judicial AI remedy

   ○Not determined

   No court case on algorithms, AI or solely automated decisions was found for Sudan in sources opened as of Oct 2026 (data protection trackers, GIRAI 2026, which does not cover it); ordinary courts have general jurisdiction, but the absence of precedent is not confirmed by an authoritative source.

   Sources dataprotection.africa (opens in a new tab) · global-index.ai (opens in a new tab)

6. E6.6

   AI advisory body diversity

   ○Not determined

   A Prime Ministerial decree of 5 Nov 2025 created a Sudanese Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority alongside digital-transformation and cybersecurity bodies (Ecofin); it is a government authority, and no advisory body or published composition was found.

   Sources ecofinagency.com (opens in a new tab)

7. E6.7

   Global AI governance participation

   ●Evidence found

   Observer: Sudan is a UNESCO Member State; the Recommendation on the Ethics of AI was adopted unanimously by all 193 Member States in 2021 (as restated in Sep 2025 reporting). Sudan is not on the Paris AI Action Summit statement (11 Feb 2025), the initial New Delhi AI Impact Summit Declaration endorser list (20 Feb 2026) or the OECD.AI GPAI member list, and no completed UNESCO RAM was found in sources opened as of Oct 2026.

   Sources middleeastainews.com (opens in a new tab) · elysee.fr (opens in a new tab) · digitalpolicyalert.org (opens in a new tab)

8. E6.8

   Civil society AI engagement

   ○Not determined

   No formal or documented ad hoc civil society participation mechanism in AI governance was found for Sudan in sources opened as of Oct 2026; GIRAI 2026 does not cover it.

   Sources global-index.ai (opens in a new tab)

9. E6.9

   African ethical framework reference

   ○Not determined

   No reference to Ubuntu or African ethical principles was found in AI governance material for Sudan opened as of Oct 2026; no adopted national AI document was searched in full, so absence is not confirmed.

   Sources global-index.ai (opens in a new tab)

10. E6.10

    Youth participation

    ○Not determined

    No formal youth participation mechanism in AI governance was found for Sudan in sources opened as of Oct 2026; absence is not confirmed.

    Sources global-index.ai (opens in a new tab)

Fellow-assigned pillar score. Indicators not scored. North Africa mean 1.47 · all 54 states mean 1.55.

10 indicators: 2 evidence found, 0 confirmed absence, 8 not determined.

1. R7.1

   AU AI Strategy alignment

   ●Evidence found

   Awareness: Sudan is a signatory of the Africa Declaration on AI (Kigali, 4 April 2025), which in clause 3.6.1 commits signatories to support national AI policies and governance frameworks aligned with the AU Continental AI Strategy; no country-specific formal alignment process was found in sources opened as of Oct 2026.

   Sources c4ir.rw (opens in a new tab)

2. R7.2

   Kigali Declaration endorsement

   ●Evidence found

   Endorsed: Sudan appears on the official signatory list of the Africa Declaration on Artificial Intelligence, done at Kigali on 4 April 2025 (C4IR Rwanda PDF created 5 April 2025; list of AU, Smart Africa and 52 states). No evidence of a national implementation step specifically citing the Declaration was found as of Oct 2026.

   Sources c4ir.rw (opens in a new tab) · aiexpoafrica.com (opens in a new tab)

3. R7.3

   REC AI governance coordination

   ○Not determined

   Sudan is a member of IGAD (founding 1986), COMESA (founding 1994) and CEN-SAD (founding 1998). No REC-level AI governance coordination activity involving Sudan was found in sources opened as of Oct 2026.

   Sources en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)

4. R7.4

   Cross-border AI agreements

   ○Not determined

   No bilateral or multilateral AI governance cooperation agreement involving Sudan was found in sources opened as of Oct 2026; non-binding declarations (Kigali 2025 and, where applicable, Paris 2025 or New Delhi 2026) are recorded under R7.2 and R7.10.

5. R7.5

   Election integrity AI provisions

   ○Not determined

   No legal or institutional provision addressing AI in elections was found for Sudan in sources opened as of Oct 2026.

6. R7.6

   Disinformation response framework

   ○Not determined

   No government framework for responding to AI-generated disinformation was found for Sudan in sources opened as of Oct 2026.

7. R7.7

   AI election incidents documented

   ○Not determined

   No national election has been held during the conflict, and no election-related AI incident was found. The AI Incident Database logs 3 or more non-electoral AI disinformation incidents in Sudan, including fake audio attributed to Omar al-Bashir and to the US ambassador; count not determined as of Oct 2026.

   Sources incidentdatabase.ai (opens in a new tab)

8. R7.8

   Platform content moderation

   ○Not determined

   No government engagement with platforms on AI content moderation was found for Sudan in sources opened as of Oct 2026.

9. R7.9

   Geneva Dialogue participation

   ○Not determined

   Sudan does not appear on the UN list of national statements from the inaugural Global Dialogue on AI Governance (Geneva, 6-7 July 2026). No statement does not prove non-attendance, since the Dialogue is open to all Member States, so participation is not determined.

   Sources un.org (opens in a new tab) · un.org (2) (opens in a new tab)

10. R7.10

    G20/multilateral AI engagement

    ○Not determined

    Sudan is not on the Paris AI Action Summit statement signatory list (Feb 2025), the initial New Delhi AI Impact Summit Declaration endorser list (87 states, 20 Feb 2026; later joiners not fully listed) or the G20 Johannesburg 2025 invited-states list. No other multilateral AI initiative participation was found.

    Sources elysee.fr (opens in a new tab) · digitalpolicyalert.org (opens in a new tab) · en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)

Fellow-assigned pillar score. Indicators not scored. North Africa mean 1.05 · all 54 states mean 0.78.

10 indicators: 0 evidence found, 0 confirmed absence, 10 not determined.

1. M8.1

   AI governance budget disbursed

   ○Not determined

   No source on this indicator was located in this pass. No national AI strategy or sector AI instrument for Sudan was identified, and no affirmative statement of absence was found.

2. M8.2

   Health AI regulation

   ○Not determined

   No source on this indicator was located in this pass. No national AI strategy or sector AI instrument for Sudan was identified, and no affirmative statement of absence was found.

3. M8.3

   Health AI devices approved

   ○Not determined

   No source on this indicator was located in this pass. No national AI strategy or sector AI instrument for Sudan was identified, and no affirmative statement of absence was found.

4. M8.4

   Government AI system registry

   ○Not determined

   No source on this indicator was located in this pass. No national AI strategy or sector AI instrument for Sudan was identified, and no affirmative statement of absence was found.

5. M8.5

   AI governance M&E reports

   ○Not determined

   No source on this indicator was located in this pass. No national AI strategy or sector AI instrument for Sudan was identified, and no affirmative statement of absence was found.

6. M8.6

   Agriculture AI governance

   ○Not determined

   No source on this indicator was located in this pass. No national AI strategy or sector AI instrument for Sudan was identified, and no affirmative statement of absence was found.

7. M8.7

   Financial services AI governance

   ○Not determined

   No source on this indicator was located in this pass. No national AI strategy or sector AI instrument for Sudan was identified, and no affirmative statement of absence was found.

8. M8.8

   Education AI governance

   ○Not determined

   No source on this indicator was located in this pass. No national AI strategy or sector AI instrument for Sudan was identified, and no affirmative statement of absence was found.

9. M8.9

   Measurable governance outcomes

   ○Not determined

   No source on this indicator was located in this pass. No national AI strategy or sector AI instrument for Sudan was identified, and no affirmative statement of absence was found.

10. M8.10

    WHO AI health guidance adoption

    ○Not determined

    No source on this indicator was located in this pass. No national AI strategy or sector AI instrument for Sudan was identified, and no affirmative statement of absence was found.