Sudan doctors: ‘Expired flour spikes food poisoning’

The Sharg El Nil (East Nile) Emergency Room in Khartoum North reported 25 new cases of food poisoning yesterday, adding to several incidents recorded over the past three days. Doctors, who treated these patients, attributed the illnesses to expired flour and food oils.

Medical professionals confirmed that most of the cases resulted from consuming food items without checking expiration dates. The ongoing food shortages and soaring prices have worsened Sudan’s hunger crisis, compelling many to consume unsafe food.

In a statement obtained by Radio Dabanga, the East Nile Emergency Room urged people to exercise caution when purchasing oils, flour, and other food products. They stressed the importance of verifying the expiration dates to avoid further health risks.

Charity kitchens

The Sudanese Hadhreen organisation reported in March that it managed to restore communication with 21 of the 25 charity kitchens it is supporting in Khartoum state. 

Volunteers are forced to travel to northern Sudan, where Internet connections are working again, to receive donations to the kitchens transferred via banking apps.

Hadhreen is not the only group supporting so-called community kitchens in the three cities of Khartoum state: Omdurman, Khartoum, and Khartoum North (Khartoum Bahri). 

The Khartoum Emergency Room reported in the last week of February that the communications blackout that began in the region in end January has forced 221 of the about 300 community kitchens to suspend their charity work, leaving people in the three cities without access to food.

240,000 families in Khartoum state are threatened with severe hunger. The emergency room state that “the closed kitchens were the only refuge for those who have no breadwinners and no food”.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned in February that the vast majority of Sudanese face severe hunger, with more than five million people unable to have one adequate meal per day, due to the ongoing war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).