♦ This week’s news in brief ♦

August 28 – 2018 KHARTOUM The Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) confiscated all copies of El Jareeda and El Tayyar newspapers on Monday morning. The move comes days after discussions between newspapers and Sudan’s National Assembly. The security service did not provide an explanation for the confiscation of the two titles. Editor-in-chief of El Jareeda newspaper, Ashraf Abdelaziz pointed out that the confiscations happened in spite of a “positive atmosphere” that prevailed during a meeting between the Sudanese National Assembly and heads of newspapers last week. The meeting was held ahead of Eid El Adha, in order to create a charter of honour for the press that would be signed by the concerned parties.

Earlier in August, newspapers and the head of the NISS agreed to form a committee to deliberate on the so-called red lines for Sudanese media. New confiscations of newspapers were temporarily suspended, while the work of the joint committee was pending.

Continue reading

♦ Khartoum bread crisis into fifth day: 'Quota manipulation'

August 27 – 2018 KHARTOUM / PORT SUDAN / EL GEDAREF The chronic bread crisis has escalated in Khartoum state, entering its fifth day without any solution in sight. In El Obeid in North Kordofan, bakeries have run out of gas to fire their ovens. A number of Khartoum residents said they spend most of their day standing in queues and moving between the bakeries to get bread. They pointed out that a number of bakeries have stopped working because of lack of flour, while the owners of mills have accused the agents of manipulation of quotas.

Also in Red Sea state, residents complained about severe shortages of bread and milk since the Eid El Adha holiday. Journalist Osman Hashim attributed the crisis to the poor distribution network and problems in its organisation.

Meanwhile farmers in El Gedaref reported this week that the diesel crisis has continued, delivering only half the quota they need for cultivation. Many smaller farmers have not received their quota at all. In July, Radio Dabanga reported the repeated warnings of small farmers in El Gedaref state of a failure of the cultivation of sesame and millet in the current season, pointing to a lack of diesel and high production costs. There are reports of the security service targeting small farmers by confiscating their quantities of fuel.

Sudan has suffered from a scarcity of fuel and cooking gas and flour crises last year, including in December. In March 2018 however, the crises extended and became acute.

More news from Radio Dabanga: