Business leader: War killed 70% of commercial activity in Sudan

The war that has raged in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has destroyed more than 400 factories in the Khartoum North Industrial Zone and 139 more in Omdurman. This has led to the loss of a quarter of a million jobs in the Bahri industrial zone alone, according to the director of Global Sudan, Moez Saleh. Sudan’s Oil Ministry reported that the war has ‘cost’ the country at least seven million barrels of crude oil.

In an interview with Radio Dabanga correspondent Ashraf Abdelaziz in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa yesterday, Saleh says that that the war has led to the destruction of 14 central markets in Khartoum state, which has completely eliminated the capital of 22,000 merchants.

More than 100 bank branches were ransacked in Khartoum and the states, and overall, Saleh says that the war has led to the cessation of 70 per cent of all commercial activity in Sudan.

He calls for a reconsideration of the distribution of commercial and industrial activities in the country in a fair and balanced manner in the future.

The devastation wreaked on the Sudanese economy, which was already faltering before the outbreak of the war, is difficult to monetise.

Most recently, Sudan’s acting Minister of Energy and Oil, Muhyiddin Naeem, said that the reconstruction of the oil infrastructure destroyed during the current war will costs at least $5 billion.

He told the Sudan News Agency (SUNA) that about 210,000 barrels of crude oil have been lost a result of the sabotage of the storage facility at the Khartoum refinery, which used to provide about 40 per cent of Sudan’s needs. The decline in oil production throughout this period has led to the loss of about seven million barrels of crude oil.