The second Rift Valley Institute Sudan Course was held in July 2005 in Rumbek (then the administrative centre of the new government of South Sudan). The course took place at Rumbek Senior Secondary School, the first international event to be held there since before the civil war.

The teaching staff on the 2005 course consisted of international Sudan specialists including Justin Willis (the Director of the course), Gérard Prunier, Atta al-Battahani, Jok Madut Jok, Philip Winter, John Ryle Khalid Medani, Jemera Rone, Suzanne Jambo and Eisei Kurimoto. Among the students were senior aid workers, diplomatic staff and academic researchers from Africa, Europe and the Americas. Visiting speakers included Paul Macuei, former Governor of Rumbek, Acuil Malith Banggol, director of Supraid (and organizer of the annual Twic Olympics), Ben Parker of UNICEF and Captain Louis Lepage of UNMIS, the UN Mission in Sudan.

Highlights of the course included a visit to War Nyang, a shrine of the Dinka religion near Rumbek, and the first showings in Sudan of two documentary films: The Man Who Could Be King, directed by Nancy Ing-Duclos and Edith Champagne, and Taghreed el Sanhouri’s All About Darfur. Another film, The Price of Survival by John Ryle and Bapiny Tim Chol, was shown at Rumbek Senior Secondary to an audience of students from the School.

There was a basketball match in Freedom Square, Rumbek, between the Rift Valley Course team and Rumbek town. The trophy went to the home team.