♦ 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
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♦ Chronic cash shortage, economic woes put a damper on Eid El Adha
August 21 – 2018 SUDAN People in Sudan are unable to buy gifts or lambs for their children and families for Eid El Adha, the festival of sacrifice that started on Tuesday. Prices for food and consumer goods have doubled or tripled in the current economic hardship.
In Khartoum, a number of people told Radio Dabanga that the economic conditions are too difficult to buy gifts and clothing for their children. “Let alone buy a lamb, they cost between SDG3,000 and SDG6,500 ($106 – $231),” a resident said. Traders have complained about the weak purchasing power and the frightening decline in the market because of the liquidity shortage.
In Kassala state, thousands of people still live in the open Kassala state after floods and rains caused the collapse of homes and buildings. “My children asked me how our relatives can possibly visit us for the feast while we are living out in the open,” a father told Radio Dabanga last week. Floods in Kassala have caused the destruction of 1,990 houses and the partial collapse of 2,992 houses, mostly in the town districts of Makram, Kadugli, El Nour, in the northern state localities and around the Atbara river.
Speaking from Port Sudan in Red Sea state, journalist Osman Hashim reported that lamb prices also range between SDG4,000 to SDG6,000. “The majority of people became reluctant to buy lamb and have only bought sweets.”
Radio Dabanga reported that banks operating in Khartoum and its suburbs have seen early morning crowds to get a little of their savings to cover their Eid needs, to no avail.
♦ Women stage protest against drowning of 22 children in Khartoum
August 17 – 2018 KHARTOUM Dozens of women staged a demonstration outside Khartoum’s Ministry of Education yesterday after 22 students and a woman drowned in River Nile state on Wednesday.
The boat was reportedly taking them from El Kanisa area of El Kabna administrative unit on their way to schools in the area. The cause of the accident has been reported to be engine failure in the middle of the Nile, a river currently swollen due to the rainy season. Witnesses reported that after the boat’s engine failed, it hit a rock or tree trunk that caused it to capsize.
Activist Tahani Abbas told Radio Dabanga on Thursday that the women participating in the protest wore black cloths to express their mourning for the 22 drowned students and the drowned woman who was with the students, an official responsible for statistics at El Kabna hospital.
The demonstrators also mourned the death of three schoolgirls in Ombadda district in Omdurman, when a wall collapsed under the heavy rains on August 1. Abbas criticised the government’s neglect towards the events, and demanded the resignation of the Federal Minister of Education and an acceleration of the investigation into the two incidents. “There are officials accountable for this.”
More news from Radio Dabanga:
August 21 – 2018 KHARTOUM The Sudan Liberation Movement Transitional-Council (SLM-TC) claimed that four of its fighters captured by government forces have died in prisons of war in a press statement…
UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur ‘motivated to redouble efforts’ as Unamid prepares for exit
August 20 – 2018 EL FASHER The head of the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (Unamid) Jeremiah Mamabolo has affirmed that as his mission prepared to exit Darfur, it is “motivated to redouble our efforts…
Deadly shooting in Gireida, South Darfur
August 20 – 2018 GIREIDA A 35-year-old displaced man, Salah Juma was shot dead in Gireida in South Darfur on Saturday. A relative told Radio Dabanga from Gireida that at 10am on Saturday an unknown person opened fire on…
Sudan Call coalition affirms faith in ICC
August 20 – 2018 PARIS The Sudan Call coalition of opposition parties and armed movements has confirmed its commitment to the statue of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a mechanism to support the people against the…
Sudan Congress Party President banned from travelling to Sudan Call Paris meetings
August 19 – 2018 KHARTOUM The security services banned the President of the Sudanese Congress Party and prominent member of the Sudan Call coalition leadership Omar El Degeir, from travelling to Paris and confiscated his…
August 19 – 2018 EL BUHEIRA Sudan’s President Al Bashir has directed the construction of a mixed model bicameral school at El Buheira area north of Khartoum in River Nile state where 22 students and an adult woman from El…
Darfur rebels deny ‘one-sided’ report by UN Panel
August 17 – 2018 DARFUR Darfuri rebel groups disclaimed the findings of the report by a United Nations experts’ panel, which claims that the rebels are strengthening their presence in Libya to build up military strength and return…
University of Kassala suspends classes after student demos
August 16 – 2018 NEW HALFA The administration of the University of Kassala has issued a decision to suspend studies in the faculties of Agriculture and Education in New Halfa in response to the marches that took…
Kordofan: ‘People eating porridge for lack of bread’
August 15 – 2018 ABU JUBEIHA / EL FULA / EL OBEID / KHARTOUM Public anger is rising in the cities of Sudan's South and West Kordofan are experiencing a severe bread crisis amidst a state of anger among the residents…
Kassala governor, Dutch ambassador discuss migration issues
August 15 – 2018 KHARTOUM The acting governor of Kassala state and the ambassador of the Netherlands to Sudan have met in Kassala to discuss issues of illegal migration and the impact of the floods and…
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