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The 'Sudan', from the Arabic ''bilâd as-sûdân'' "land of the Blacks," is a geographic region in West and Eastern Africa. The phrase 'The Sudan' is also used by some to refer specifically to the country Sudan, the savannah of which forms much of the larger region.
The Sudan extends in a band across Africa from Mali in the west to the western edge of the Ethiopian Highlands in the east. To the north lies the Sahel, a more arid Acacia savanna region which in turn borders the Sahara desert, and to the east Ethiopia (called ''al-Ḥabašah'' in Arabic). The grass in the Sudan is longer than in the Sahel, and because the region receives more rainfall than the Sahel it is more suitable for farming.
The region is divided by the Cameroon Highlands into eastern and western halves. To the south of the western part is the Guinea forest-savanna mosaic. To the east in Sudan are the Sudd flooded grasslands, and to the south the Northern Congolian forest-savanna mosaic