Outrage over ‘inappropriate’ El Gedaref plan to buy 52 vehicles

Several residents of Sudan’s El Gedaref have raised their voice denouncing the state government’s intention to spend more than SDG 61 million ($10 million) on 52 vehicles for local officials. They consider it inappropriate that such an amount could be spent on vehicles for ‘constitutionalists’ when the population suffer from poor health care and infrastructure.

A resident told Radio Dabanga that the purchase of the vehicles is an imbalance in the priorities of the government.

He added that this kind of expenditure is inappropriate at a time when the localities of the state are experiencing clear deterioration in health services, lack of ambulances and paved roads to link the localities with the capital of the state.

He pointed to the increasing mortality of pregnant women because of the lack of ambulances in peripheral localities.

The chairman of the legislative council, Mohamed Abdallah El Mardi, defended in press statements the decision to buy the vehicles.

He pointed out that the condition of the current vehicles is very bad and the only vehicle usable is the governor’s.

Low market prices coupled with poor irrigation and failed crops have put the population of El Gedaref state under extreme socio-economic pressure over the past years.