♦ This week’s news in brief ♦
A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan’s highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan
A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan's highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan
♦ Looming food gap: Flour, fuel shortage affect bakeries and crops
February 13 – 2018 KUTUM / KASSALA / EL GEDAREF The lack of fuel in Darfur, Kassala, and Kordofan’s states has caused large tracts of cultivated land to dry up as irrigation pumps cannot be operated. A shortage of the staple food sorghum and millet is looming.
In addition the national flour shortage has forced bakeries to shut-down in cities and states across Sudan. Consumers are experiencing a severe bread crisis amounting to the closure of bakeries in Kadugli, El Damazin, and Port Sudan. Other cities are experiencing continuous crises in flour, cooking gas, and fuel including Kutum and Sennar.
In Kutum, North Darfur, a number of the vegetable and fruit farmers reported that the lingering thirst damaged large areas of their crops because the irrigation pumps run on fuel. The fuel crisis in Kutum has stopped all the grain mills from working and a complete shutdown of all fuel stations in the city. Similarly in El Gedaref state, the lack of fuel halted the sorghum harvest in several agricultural projects.
Demonstrations against the sharp price increases on consumer goods have been taking place throughout Sudan starting January, during which numbers of people are detained by the security apparatus. The price hikes are the result of the higher taxes on goods following the government’s budget for 2018.
♦ Seven people die of 'watery diarrhoea' spreading in Central Darfur
February 13 – 2018 NIERTETI Five people reportedly died of what is suspected to be cholera in Nierteti in Central Darfur on Monday. A team of doctors has not yet been able to reach the affected villages.
Two people died from similar symptoms of acute watery diarrhoea* or cholera in the last week. Nierteti Hospital’s designated isolation ward received a number of patients during the weekend, volunteers in the hospital told Radio Dabanga.
Fifteen cases of cholera or diarrhoea arrived from the villages of Ketzuela, Kurna, Mara and Kutrem, bringing the total number of cases in the hospital to 53 on Monday. Residents reported a rapid spread in the east of Nierteti town.
On Sunday the state’s health ministry deployed a medical team consisting of ten doctors, eight nurses and medics to Nierteti town and they went on their way to the affected villages. “But military forces stationed at Kutrem, east of Nierteti, denied the team access to the villages and forced the team to return to Nierteti,” a source in the area said.
Last October, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Sudanese Ministry of Health reported that the total number of reported ‘acute watery diarrhoea’ cases across 18 states of Sudan reached more than 35,000 people – including 800 related deaths since the outbreak of the disease less than a year ago. A slight increase in cases was reported during the last week of 2017 and the first week of this year, however: 46 and 30 new cases respectively were registered in eastern Sudan.
* In spite of numerous independent confirmations (conducted according to WHO standards) that the disease was cholera, the Sudanese authorities and several international organisations still call it ‘Acute Watery Diarrhoea’.
More news from Radio Dabanga:
February 12 – 2018 NEW YORK / KALMA CAMP The UN Security Council (UNSC) extended the mandate of the Panel of Experts on Sudan with a period of 13 months last week. The Darfur…
February 11 – 2018 SINGA Officers of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) in Sennar have transported five opposition leaders to Khartoum on Thursday.On Wednesday …
February 11 – 2018 SHATTAIA / NIERTETI Four people were killed and wounded in Central Darfur in two separate incidents last week.Speaking to Radio Dabanga, a farmer reported from …
February 9 – 2018 EL MALAM / TABIT Three people were killed in violent events in South Darfur’s El Malam on Wednesday. Armed men abducted four women and a man and reportedly…
February 9 – 2018 KHARTOUM The Darfur Bar Association submitted a memorandum to the UN High Commission for Human Rights and four international rights organisations, demanding an…
February 9 – 2018 KHARTOUM The Sudanese security service confiscated the print-runs of three newspapers, El Jareeda, El Midan and El Tayyar for unknown reasons in Khartoum on…
February 8 – 2018 KHARTOUM The Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS) has banned any import operations by banks without obtaining its prior approval…
February 8 – 2018 EL OBEID / KHARTOUM El Obeid, capital of North Kordofan, witnessed a peaceful demonstration yesterday carried out by university students against the rise of prices. A…
February 7 – 2018 KHARTOUM A US State Department official visiting Khartoum has called on Sudan to continue its efforts to combat human trafficking despite Sudan’s presence one the US…
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