Khartoum campaign against tea sellers continues

The authorities in Khartoum continued their campaign against tea sellers and street vendors in different parts of the city on Sunday.

Policemen confiscated the equipment of tea sellers at their work places at the Palace Street, Sayed Abdelrahman Street and the Nile Avenue in the Sudanese capital.

Awadiya Mahmoud Kuku, Head of the Union of Tea and Food Sellers Cooperative, told Radio Dabanga on Sunday afternoon that the campaign affected thousands of tea and food sellers in Khartoum.

She appealed to President Al Bashir “to give heed to our cause by directing the officials to leave the tea sellers do their work”.

“The women are in desperate need to practice their trade, especially in light of the deterioration of living conditions that forces them to sell tea in the markets and streets,” she told Radio Dabanga in a previous interview.

In July 2016, the state Commissioner issued a decree withdrawing the permits of vendors to sell tea at Nile Street, the boulevard along the Blue Nile, without offering alternatives in other areas. The harassment of tea sellers in the city continued during the rest of the year.

Over 88 percent of the tea sellers in Khartoum, almost all women, are either displaced or migrants from rural areas, economic expert Dr Hassan Abdelati said in a study published last year. The number of tea sellers is growing because of inflation, war, difficult economic conditions, and poor education standards among the women.