Eastern Sudan’s El Gedaref still without bread

The flour crisis in El Gedaref has entered its fourth week.

“Not a single loaf of bread was to be found in the town today,” a resident complained to Radio Dabanga on Friday. “Most of the bakeries have been closed because of the acute flour shortage.”

He called the decision by the El Gedaref Ministry of Finance to increase the price of flour unfair. “Why do the people have to pay for the failure of the state government to provide flour to the bakeries?”

Last week, the secretary-general of the El Gedaref Chamber of Commerce held the Ministry of Finance in the state responsible for the bread shortage because of its non-commitment to distribute the quota of flour to the bakeries in the state. He confirmed the reduction in quotas by 50 per cent.

The Minister of Finance and Economy of El Gedaref attributed the crisis to the alleged sale of quantities of flour by owners of bakeries to traders in the markets. His Ministry detected a number of health violations and a reduction in the weight of bread after a campaign of checks was carried out by the authorities on a number of bakeries in the state.

Since the start of this year, people in various parts of Sudan, in particularly in the east of the country, complain about a shortage of flour.