♦ 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
♦ Dropping Sudanese Pound: Banks run dry, gas price soars
August 26 – 2016 KHARTOUM A number of commercial bank customers in Sudan have been unable to withdraw foreign currency from their accounts after Sudan's Central Bank reduced the banks' shares of foreign currency. The recent sharp drop in the value of the Sudanese Pound has aggravated the foreign currency crisis, while Khartoum has again increased the prices for gas.
The standard price of a 12.5 kilo gas cylinder now amounts to SDG80 ($13.04) for the consumer, instead of SDG75 ($12.23). In January, the government announced a standard price rise for cylinders from SDG25 to SDG75 ($12.25). The actual price is often higher and ranges per area. Economic expert Dr. Sidgi Kabello told Radio Dabanga that he was surprised by the increase in Sudan, as there is a global decrease in these prices. “The government attempts to cover the costs of the waged war by increasing taxes […] It is an attempt to get out of the ecnomic crises by throwing the burden on citizens.”
A significant drop in the value of the Sudanese pound against foreign currencies in the black market has resulted in a huge rise in the prices of essential goods and services throughout Sudan. Meat, vegetable and dairy prices sharply increased. “This can have a major impact on low-income people,” a housewife in Khartoum told this station. Currency trades in Sudan's black markets occur more after the US Dollar price exceeded SDG16, attracting the attention of Sudan's economic security forces and detectives to the markets of Khartoum.
♦ Six dead, including police chief, in South Darfur ambush
August 30 – 2016 GIREIDA Six people, including the police Chief of Operations, were killed in an ambush by militiamen in Gireida on Sunday afternoon. The attackers managed to seize two police vehicles. The assailants, about 100 militiamen strong in the area of Hashaba, first ambushed a group of civilians, and subsequently a police contingent that rushed towards the sound of gunfire.
The attacks happened against the backdrop of the murder of a displaced farmer by militiamen on Saturday. A group of locals formed a rescue team on Sunday and chased the tracks of the perpetrators to Hashaba. In that area, three members of the group were killed when militiamen opened fire from the bushes.
A police force that arrived at the scene in the afternoon was also shot at, resulting in the deaths of the Chief of Operations and a policeman. Seven members of the rescue group are missing since the ambush. The same day, people discovered the body of a woman on a farm near the scene of the shooting. She had a gunshot wound to her head that she might have sustained from a stray bullet, according to a member of the rescue team whom Radio Dabanga spoke with.
More highlights from Radio Dabanga:
Floods affect 40,000 families in Sudan: Red Crescent
August 30 – 2016 KHARTOUM More than 40,000 families have been affected by the recent floods in Sudan, while burst rivers caused the destruction of more than 21,000 houses. The Sudanese Red Crescent…
‘Use Sudan’s financial vulnerabilities to pressure for peace’: Enough Project
August 29 – 2016 WASHINGTON DC Sudan’s increasingly urgent economic crisis, which has recently grown more acute because of financial isolation related in part to tighter sanctions enforcement for Iran…
OCHA: ‘Spike in acute malnutrition in West Darfur’
August 28 – 2016 KHARTOUM Over the past few months, the West Darfur Ministry of Health has reported high rates of severe acute malnutrition in the state. Between January and July 2016, the total number of severe acute…
'Burkina Faso withdraws from Unamid': Foreign Affairs
August 26 – 2016 KHARTOUM A Burkina Faso State Minister confirmed that her country will withdraw its peacekeepers from the hybrid African Union-UN Mission in Darfur, in compliance with the policy of Sudan in this regard…
Missing passengers return from Darfur road robbery
August 26 – 2016 GIREIDA Six of the passengers who went missing after an attack on a vehicle on its way to Gireida in South Darfur returned on Wednesday. Several passengers remain missing. Gunmen attacked a commercial vehicle…
Italy repatriates Sudanese immigrants
August 25 – 2016 KHARTOUM / ROME Italy has repatriated a group of Sudanese nationals who attempted to cross the border to France. They arrived in Khartoum on Wednesday evening. A spokesman for the Sudanese Foreign Ministry reported…
Judge postpones hearing of activists in Sudan capital
August 24 – 2016 KHARTOUM A Judge at the Khartoum Criminal Court in Sudan today postponed the case against nine activists affiliated with the Khartoum-based Centre for Training and Human Development (TRACKS). At what was expected…
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