♦ This week’s news in brief ♦

A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan's highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan

♦ Sudan again raises US Dollar indicative rate, price of wheat flour

February 6 – 2018 KHARTOUM / El OBEID The Central Bank of Sudan has raised the indicative exchange rate of the US Dollar from SDG 18 to SDG 30 on Monday. The Central Bank of Sudan had set the indicative exchange rate of the Dollar on SDG 18 last month. Two weeks later, the greenback hit SDG 42 on the black forex market in Khartoum.

In another surprise move, the authorities decided to increase the prices of wheat flour again. The price of a 100 kg sack of wheat rose from SDG 440 ($ 24) to SDG 550 ($ 30) on Saturday. A housewife told Radio Dabanga from El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, that most bakeries closed their doors in response. “For two months now, we are suffering from a scarcity of bread, but it has become more acute in the past two days.”

Economic professors warned for an economic collapse as people are withdrawing their money from the banks. “The Dollar had become the way of savings for people,” said professor Hamid El Tijani, whom expects that the rate will increase further this year.
Minister of State for Financial Affairs, Abdelrahman Dirar, attributed the price hikes to “rumours, psychological diseases, and speculations, not economic reasons” in parliament on Sunday, dismissing critical voices in the media.

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♦ CPJ calls on Sudan to cease ‘absurd attempts’ to silence press

February 5 – 2018 KHARTOUM / WASHINGTON D.C. The Sudanese authorities should immediately release El Jareeda reporter Ahmed Jadein, cease confiscating newspapers, and allow journalists to report on matters of public interest without fear of reprisal, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said last week.

Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) detained Jadein on January 31 while he was reporting on anti-price hike protests in Khartoum North. Jadein has been held without charges. The Sudanese government’s decision to devaluate the local currency and rising food prices sparked ongoing protests across the country, which have resulted in the police killing at least one protester and arresting hundreds of activists.

In addition the NISS has confiscated more than one edition of at least four newspapers. A number of journalists were detained, including Amal Habbani and correspondents of Reuters and AFP.

“Responding to critical coverage of protests by jailing a journalist and seizing newspapers undercuts the already narrow margin of freedom in which the Sudanese press operates,” CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa Programme Coordinator Sherif Mansour said from Washington D.C. on February 2.

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