The National Exports Highway: Reviving an Economic Lifeline for Sudan and Its Neighbours

Dr Mohammed Awad Mohammed Metwally
The announcement in July 2026 that the Sudanese Armed Forces and security services had secured the National Export Road represented a geo-economic and strategic shift extending far beyond an ordinary battlefield gain. It restored the principal artery through which the Sudanese economy—and the economies of several landlocked African countries—draw breath.
This vital corridor extends for hundreds of kilometres, linking the plains, farms, and mines of western and central Sudan with international export gateways through Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast. It is the primary driver of Sudan’s non-oil foreign trade and one of the banking system’s most important sources of foreign currency, at a time when the world is facing major challenges to the stability of international supply chains.
The closure of this corridor as a result of military operations caused near-total logistical paralysis. Transit lorry movements fell by more than 85 per cent, while millions of tonnes of strategic agricultural and mineral commodities accumulated in production areas without access to export routes. This prevented billions of dollars in foreign-currency inflows from reaching the Central Bank, contributed to imported inflation, and sharply eroded citizens’ purchasing power.
The reopening of the road, however, has brought rapid relief to market and trade conditions. Transport operations are now flowing through a fleet of more than 12,000 heavy-goods vehicles, immediately reducing logistics costs and the cost of transporting a tonne per kilometre by between 35 and 42 per cent.
This structural fall in costs has reduced shipment transit times from 14 days to fewer than four. It is also expected to restore a price competitiveness advantage of up to 28 per cent for Sudanese exports such as gum arabic, oilseeds, and livestock. This would allow Sudan to recover its leading position in the global gum arabic market, in which it accounts for more than 80 per cent of international demand.
This logistical recovery has direct implications for the state’s monetary and fiscal policy. Economic estimates indicate that the road’s full operation could add between US$2.4 billion and US$3.1 billion annually to gross domestic product.
These financial inflows would strengthen the Central Bank’s sovereign reserves, creating a first line of defence against further depreciation of the Sudanese pound, reducing inflationary pressure, and narrowing the structural trade deficit.
The effect would also extend to international risk assessments. The regular movement of goods and the securing of commercial corridors send positive signals to global marine insurers and reinsurers, helping to contain and reduce war-risk premiums associated with Sudanese ports and commercial vessels entering the country. This would translate directly into lower overall import and export costs.
At the social and community level, the road revives agricultural and pastoral production areas by restoring more than 450,000 employment opportunities for farmers, herders, lorry drivers, and logistics workers across several states. This helps communities remain on their ancestral lands while reducing unemployment and the economic structures created by war.
In terms of regional economic diplomacy, the road once again places Sudan at the heart of supply chains linking eastern and western Africa. It offers the fastest and least costly maritime outlet for landlocked countries such as Chad, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan, which have long endured considerably higher shipping costs through alternative Atlantic ports.
Looking ahead, the road’s strategic importance remains closely tied to its governing geo-economic and functional role, despite its urgent need for engineering development to withstand seasonal flooding and natural erosion.
Transforming it into an integrated development corridor will require sustainable green engineering solutions that adapt the infrastructure to climate change and seasonal floods, ensuring uninterrupted movement throughout the year.
It will also require integration with river transport systems and railway networks in order to establish a multimodal logistics system that maximises Sudan’s competitive advantage.
Establishing economic zones, dry ports, and processing centres close to production areas would help retain added value within the country instead of exporting raw materials. It would also create promising opportunities to attract foreign direct investment and public–private partnerships for the modernisation and expansion of the road in accordance with the highest international standards.
The revival of the National Export Road is therefore not merely a temporary logistical development. It represents the beginning of a new phase of economic resilience and social security, in which the state can move from managing crises and operational disruption towards leading development and restoring its rightful position on the regional and international trade map.
Analyst, academic, and associate economic expert at the Centre of Experts for Development Studies and Crisis Analysis

Shortlink: https://sudanhorizon.com/?p=16569