Beleaguered Sudan Pound sees North Darfur fuel price soar

The official rate of the US Dollar maintained its level at SDG 445.39 for purchase and SDG 448.73 for sale on Monday, according to the website of the Central Bank of Sudan. The price of the Dollar fell slightly on the parallel market on Tuesday, to reach SDG 570, compared to SDG575 the day before. Public transportation and taxi drivers in North Darfur denounced the state government’s failure to implement the decision to reduce the price of fuel, as has occurred in other states.

They explained that a jerrycan of petrol costs SDG 17,000, in addition to an increase in the prices of spare parts, and the authorities’ imposition of additional fees in favour of the state, which led to a rise in the transportation tariffs.

Atef Abdelrahman, head of the Abuja petrol station in El Fasher, called in an interview with Radio Dabanga on the North Darfur state government to reduce the fuel prices, like the rest of the states, and to reduce the price of a petrol canister to SDG 14,000.

On Tuesday, employees of the Ministry of Finance in North Darfur embarked on a strike due to the government’s failure to implement salary increases, in addition to arrears, the nature of work and allowances.

The personnel of the government secretariat refrained from disbursing their salary for April, demanding increases in salaries and allowances, with a tendency to implement a comprehensive strike for all government institutions within a week, according to the deadline set by the North Darfur Workers’ Union.

The economic situation has continued to deteriorate in Sudan during 2022. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Sudan revealed the continued deterioration of the economic situation. Reports indicate that the value of the local currency has decreased 20 times (2,000 per cent) during the past five years.

In its latest report, OCHA states that the suspension of economic support provided by the international community (following the October 25 military coup in 2021) led to the suspension of more than $7.2 billion, and indicated that the decline in foreign exchange reserves, limited economic activity, and continued political instability led to the depreciation of the Sudanese Pound .