Two Sudanese tradesmen detained by GIS at Delling market

Agents of the General Intelligence Service (GIS) detained two tradesmen from the market of Delling in South Kordofan on Wednesday after the men refused to pay the increased tax on consumer goods.

Ali Elameen from the Delling Chamber of Commerce told Radio Dabanga that Aboud Saboun and Saleh El Jumabi were arrested inside the market and taken to the police station because they refused to pay the increased taxes on consumer goods imposed by the South Kordofan Ministry of Finance.

In response, market vendors and shopkeepers carried out a protest yesterday afternoon against both the detention of their colleagues and the announcement of the Ministry of Finance to increase the taxes on consumer goods with 300 per cent.

The increased tax on consumer goods comes at a time when food and fuel prices are already at an all-time high. One in four Sudanese are estimated to face food shortages as prices climb and clashes, droughts, and floods destroyed people’s ability to farm, an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation stated last month.

“The result is that millions of people in Blue Nile, South Kordofan and Darfur do not have enough food, water, medical care or other necessities to survive. This crisis is complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, and a shortage of basic commodities” said ICRC Vice President Gilles Carbonnier.

Last week, the town of Delling in South Kordofan celebrated the end of the harvest festival, an important social and economic event for the region.

* In July 2019, several articles of the 2010 National Security Act were amended, in order to reform Sudan’s infamous National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), and limit its competences. The new GIS is reportedly no longer authorised to detain people or carry out search operations.

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