Port Sudan

Chief port of Sudan, located in Red Sea State, bordering the Red Sea, 65 km/40 mi north of Suakin; population (1995 est) 281,000. It is the capital of the Eastern region of Sudan and handles most of the country's trade, exporting cotton, gum arabic, oil seeds, and grain. Local salt pans supply the needs of the whole country. There is a railway line to Berber on the Nile, an airport, and the city is also the terminus of an oil pipeline from Khartoum. The port was founded by the British in 1905.