Criminal Law of 1991, as amended in 2020.

The Code, comprising 192 articles, establishes Sudan’s general framework for criminal liability, offenses, and penalties. It sets out preliminary provisions on scope, legal definitions, and territorial and extraterritorial jurisdiction, while exempting certain southern states from specific Islamic penalties unless locally adopted. Criminal responsibility applies only to sane, mature, and voluntary actors, with exemptions for minors, mental illness, self-defense, and duress. It also regulates attempts, complicity, incitement, and joint intent. Penalties include capital punishment, imprisonment, fines, whipping, confiscation, and restitution, alongside alternative measures for juveniles, the elderly, and pregnant women. The Code then classifies major offenses, including crimes against the state and public order, corruption, counterfeiting, public safety violations, religious offenses, crimes against the person (such as homicide and female genital mutilation), morality offenses, kidnapping, and property crimes like theft, robbery, and fraud. It further contains a dedicated section on international humanitarian law, prescribing severe penalties for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, and protecting civilians and prisoners while prohibiting the recruitment of child soldiers under eighteen.
The Code criminalizes in Article 71 environmental pollution and related conduct that harms or risks harm to humans, animals, or plants. It covers contamination of air and the general environment, with heightened seriousness when human life is endangered. It also addresses pollution of Sudan’s territorial waters and adjacent high seas. In addition, it includes acts that endanger roads and means of transportation. Article 70 similarly protects water resources by prohibiting the introduction of toxic or harmful substances into wells, reservoirs, or other public water sources where this endangers human life or safety, as well as any acts that contaminate or degrade such resources and reduce their suitability for intended use.
Animal protection is addressed through several provisions. Article 71 criminalizes environmental pollution that is likely to harm persons, animals, or plants, including contamination of air and the general environment, as well as related harmful conduct. Further protections are set out in Articles 85 and 87. Article 85 prohibits the knowing sale, offering for sale, or presentation of carrion (meat from dead animals), defining it as meat from animals that have died naturally or been slaughtered unlawfully. Article 87 addresses animal cruelty by prohibiting intentional acts of severe mistreatment, including torture, overwork, overloading, or negligent treatment of animals unfit for use due to age or illness. It also empowers the court, upon conviction, to order protective custody of the animal, require payment for its care and treatment, or, where necessary, order its humane destruction.
As regards food, the Code provides that anyone who offers food to a person or to the public, knowing that it is religiously prohibited for them or for some of the recipients, and that it contains a substance forbidden for human consumption, without disclosing this fact, shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or a fine.