Students protest soaring bread prices in North Darfur

Elementary and secondary school students demonstrated in the North Darfur capital El Fasher on Sunday, in protest against the high prices of bread, tuition fees, transportation tariffs, and the high prices of drinking water.

The demonstrators marched through various parts of El Fasher and reached the governor’s house, chanting slogans calling for a reduction in bread prices. While the state governor held a meeting with a committee of student demonstrators. The governor attributed the current crisis to the closure of the Port Sudan ports and roads.

The Director of the North Darfur Ministry of Education, Idris Abdallah, said after the meeting that the governor promised the protesting students to solve the bread and transportation crisis after sitting with the owners of the vehicles.

He affirmed the Ministry of Education’s commitment to reviewing tuition fees and solving all problems that hinder the school year. Abdallah appealed to all citizens to stand with the ministry in the progress of the educational process so that it can go out to safety and make the school year successful.

Sources report from Khartoum that most of the bakeries are closed because of a lack of flour. There is also a large shortage of cooking gas due to the closure of the ports and main roads in eastern Sudan, and the delay of transport vehicles to warehouses.

They also complained about a scarcity of sugar in the market. The price of a 50-kilo sack of sugar jumped from SDG21-22,000 to SDG30,000. While the price of a kilo sugar at the shops rose to SDG600. Traders and suppliers explained that the closure of the Port Sudan-Khartoum railways and highway caused the markets to dry up from sugar.