Bread, fuel still in short supply in Sudan

Many states in Sudan are still experiencing severe shortages bread and fuel – crises that played a major role in sparking the public anger that has erupted into open public revolt across the country over the last two months.

Residents complain of a worsening of the fuel and bread crisis as commodity prices have continued to rise. They pointed out that there are long queues in front of the bakeries, to long lines of vehicles at petrol stations.

A fuel station worker in Sennar in eastern Sudan confirmed that the shortage results in long queues of vehicles hoping to obtain some fuel.

Civil aviation

Economists fear that a number of airlines will leave the Sudanese airspace in the coming period unless the civil aviation authorities address the crisis of rising ticket prices for companies operating in the country, after reducing some of the number of flights.

The economists warned that the problem would lead to the interruption of travel to Sudan in the absence of the national carrier Sudan Airways, and that these companies have global commitments paid in hard currency as the Sudanese Pound is not in the categories of international currencies.

Radio Dabanga reported last week that several international airlines including Kenya Airways, Emirates Airlines, Etihad Airways, and Qatar Airways have reportedly stopped taking bookings for tickets in Sudan because of Sudanese civil aviation’s obligation for travel agencies not to sell tickets in US Dollars.

Travel agencies said civil aviation notified the travel agencies in Sudan to sell tickets at the official exchange rate of SDG 47.5 and threatened to close agencies that did not comply with the decision.

They pointed out that the decision is causing travel agencies heavy losses due to price differences in the parallel market.

However, the Civil Aviation Authority distanced itself from the pricing of airline tickets according to the Market Makers Mechanism.