Khartoum tea sellers ordered to move

Authorities ordered tea sellers and street vendors in Khartoum to make way for foreign visitors to the capital city this week.

Policemen and members of the security service addressed a number of tea selling women on the Nile Avenue under the pretext that “visitors from outside Sudan will move along the Nile Avenue”, on Thursday and Friday. The boulevard is parallel to the Blue Nile river.

Awadiya Mahmoud Kuku, Head of the Union of Tea and Food Sellers Cooperative, told Radio Dabanga on Sunday that the authorities informed the vendors to stop their work during the two-day period, until the visitors have left the country.

In July 2016, the state Commissioner issued a decree withdrawing the permits of vendors to sell tea at Nile Avenue, without offering alternatives in other areas. Tea sellers reported to be harrassed in the city during the rest of the year. This month authorities in Port Sudan arrested street and tea vendors and confiscated their property in a campaign to regulate the markets.

Meanwhile the Commissioner of Jabal Awliya locality issued a decision returning the rental price of chairs for tea sellers to 1 Sudanese pound instead of 2 (from $0.15 to $0.30). He said to have donated SDG50,000 ($7,425) to buy chairs for every tea seller in Jabal Awliya.