Khartoum, July 30 (IANS) Prices hike and scarcity of basic commodities across Sudan have exacerbated the living conditions of citizens already grappling with the repercussions of an ongoing civil war in the country.
In Omdurman city, north of the capital Khartoum, the prices of basic commodities witnessed a significant rise.
“During the recent period, prices have increased by nearly 35 percent,” Hamdan Abdullah, a merchant at a market in the city’s Karari locality, told Xinhua.
Omer Idris, a resident from a south Khartoum neighborhood, said essential items such as rice, flour, meat, and milk are often unavailable due to high prices.
In Al-Manaqil city in Gezira State in central Sudan, the flow of necessary commodities to the city has stopped due to the security situation, fuel shortage, and the heavy rains, according to Mohamed Mekki Ibrahim, a resident of the city.
Most of western Sudan areas, including Darfur and Kordofan States, have also been suffering from shortages in basic commodities and prices hike.
Hawa Ishaq, a resident of the Dalang city in South Kordofan state, said, the prices have doubled, where a bag of maize now costs 300,000 Sudanese pounds, Xinhua news agency reported.
According to the Bank of Khartoum’s daily exchange rates of foreign currencies, the exchange rate of one dollar was 1,885 Sudanese pounds on Monday.
“People here eat tree leaves. We are trapped as the roads are closed, and we do not have any source of income. The city is lifeless,” she told Xinhua.
Similarly, the markets in Nyala, the capital city of South Darfur state, are also witnessing an unprecedented rise in commodity prices, where Yaqoub Adam, a merchant in the city, told Xinhua that the price of a bag of millet has jumped from 145,000 pounds to 190,000 pounds.
The World Food Programme has warned that the ongoing war in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces “risks triggering the world’s largest hunger crisis.”
Sudan’s inflation rate reached 136.67 percent in the first half of 2024, the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics said in a press release on Monday.
Coinciding with the release on inflation rates on Monday, the Sudanese pound continued to decline against foreign currencies.
According to the Bank of Khartoum’s daily exchange rates of foreign currencies, the exchange rate of one dollar was 1,885 Sudanese pounds, the Euro was 2,009 pounds, the Saudi riyal was 508 pounds, and the UAE dirham was 519 pounds.
However, in the parallel market, the exchange rate of one dollar registered 2,700 Sudanese pounds, the Euro 2,935 pounds, the Saudi riyal 720 pounds, and the UAE dirham 736 pounds.
–IANS
as/