High fuel prices lead to water shortages in Darfur camp

Due to high fuel prices two out of seven pumps of water wells in the Gireida camps for the displaced in South Darfur are not functioning. This has led to long waiting lines, high prices and shortages of water.

Teacher Mohamed Daoud told Radio Dabanga that a water tank is sold in the camps for SDG 100 to SDG 150 ($ 1.9 to 2.8). He also said that diesel and petrol is sold at the market for four times the price that has to be paid at petrol stations.

Petrol stations all over Sudan are not provided with enough subsidised fuel.

Kutum

The residents of Kutum in North Darfur also complain about high prices for fuel and consumer goods, member of the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) in Kutum, Yahya El Khims, told Radio Dabanga. Diesel is four times as expensive at the market than at petrol stations, petrol even twelve times as expensive. The high fuel prices led to increased costs for transportation. A ticket from Kutum to El Tina now costs SDG 1200 ($ 23).

The price of a 50 kg sack of sugar has reached SDG 3,400 ($ 65.4) in Kutum. At the beginning of this month a sack of sugar cost SDG 3000 in West Darfur. In Kutum a 50 kg sack of flour now costs SDG 1,250 ($ 24) and a jerrycan of cooking oil SDG 2,700 ($ 51.9).

* USD 1 = SDG 52.73 at the time of publishing. As effective foreign exchange rates can vary in Sudan, Radio Dabanga bases all SDG currency conversions on the daily middle US Dollar rate quoted by the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS).