Rainfall is the most important water resource in central and western Sudan, a region affected by the recent drought in Africa. A general methodology for studying the annual rainfall process is presented and applied to data from central and western Sudan. It is assumed that certain time series models adequately describe the annual rainfall process in the region. Based on this assumption, the drought frequencies are calculated in the subregions with stationary series. The theory of runs is applied in calculating drought frequencies using a data generation method.