Prayer Times in Nyala, Sudan Today

South Darfur, and the widest gap in Sudan's timetable

Nyala is the capital of South Darfur, in the far west of the country, near 12.05 degrees north and 24.88 degrees east. It is a long way from the Nile — several hundred kilometres of it — and further still from the capital, and its prayer times reflect that distance directly.

Nyala lies close to eight degrees of longitude west of Khartoum. Since the sun reaches a given position roughly four minutes later for each degree travelled west, that places every prayer here about half an hour later on the clock than in the capital. Sudan keeps one time offset for the entire country, so the clock does nothing to absorb the difference; it simply passes it through.

Half an hour is the largest internal offset on this site for Sudan, and it applies to all five prayers equally and on every date. Using a Khartoum table in Nyala would put Fajr thirty minutes early and Maghrib thirty minutes early — in Ramadan, an error at both ends of the fasting day.

Twelve degrees north: a year that barely moves

The other distinguishing fact about Nyala is its latitude. At around twelve degrees north it is the southernmost city covered here for Sudan, and closeness to the equator flattens the seasonal cycle considerably.

Day length here varies far less across the year than it does in the north of the country. Fajr and Maghrib still drift, but through a noticeably narrower range than a resident of the Red Sea coast would experience, and Dhuhr sits close to the same point in the day throughout. In practical terms this means a personal routine built around the prayers holds its shape better here than almost anywhere else in Sudan. The correction you make between summer and winter is smaller.

The two effects together

Nyala therefore differs from the capital in two independent ways, and it helps to keep them apart. The longitude offset is large, constant and affects every prayer identically. The latitude difference is smaller, seasonal, and affects Fajr and Maghrib more than Dhuhr. Neither is a discrepancy in the calculation; both are what a correct calculation produces for this position.

The method, referenced not repeated

The national parameters apply here unchanged — the Egyptian General Authority of Survey's 19.5-degree dawn and 17.5-degree nightfall angles, on a UTC+2 clock without seasonal adjustment. The Sudan prayer times hub explains the choice. What is local to this page is the coordinate pair, and in Nyala's case that is where all the interest lies.

Asr

Maliki practice predominates in Sudan and this page uses the corresponding rule: Asr begins when an object's shadow has grown by the object's own height beyond the shadow it cast at midday. Shafi'i and Hanbali positions agree. The Hanafi school sets the threshold at a doubled shadow and prays later. At a low latitude the difference between the two positions is somewhat more compressed than it is further north, but it remains clearly noticeable.

Sunrise in the table

Sunrise is listed because it ends the window in which Fajr may still be prayed, not because it has any bearing on the fast. Fajr marks the start of the fast, and with a 19.5-degree dawn angle it comes well before sunrise. The interval between the two is long enough that treating them as the same moment would be a real error.

Ramadan

Fajr closes the pre-dawn meal, Maghrib opens the fast, and both move through the month. Nyala's low latitude keeps that movement modest compared with the north of the country, so the length of the fasting day changes less from the first day of Ramadan to the last than it does elsewhere in Sudan. It still changes. Isha is derived from a twilight angle rather than a fixed offset after sunset, so the interval between iftar and taraweeh is not constant either. The monthly view is the reference worth keeping.

Friday

Jumu'ah takes the place of Dhuhr for those attending, called at the Dhuhr time listed above. Sermon length varies between mosques and imams. Anyone praying at home prays Dhuhr at its ordinary time.

Adhan and iqama

This page gives the moment each prayer's time enters. It does not give the moment congregations begin, which is set locally and typically falls some minutes later. A gap between this table and a nearby mosque is almost always that, or an application left on a calculation method other than Sudan's.

Qibla and other pages

Use the Qibla direction tool to work out the direction of prayer from your position; at this distance from the rest of the country, a bearing borrowed from another Sudanese city would be meaningfully wrong. See the Hijri calendar for Ramadan and Eid dates, or the Arabic Nyala schedule. For the opposite end of the national spread, compare Port Sudan prayer times.