Sudan’s Suakin Sea Port ‘paralysed by workers strike’

Small traders and workers at the Osman Digna Port in Suakin south of Port Sudan, the capital of Red Sea state, are blocking the harbour since Wednesday morning, in protest against the new conditions for the import of goods, imposed in the beginning of this month.

Mahmoud Ali, head of the Suakin Stevedoring Committee, told Radio Dabanga on Wednesday that “the closure paralysed the port completely, except for passengers.

“We decided to close the port as a last resort after meeting with all the parties that issued the decision, including members of the Sovereignty Council, ministers, the Customs Administration and the Ministry of Trade,” Ali stated.

Hundreds of small traders and freight workers set up a huge tent in front of the port, blocking work. Their leaders are explaining the objectives of their action.

A delegation of the protesters met with officials and handed them a memorandum rejecting the decision, but they did not receive a response to their demands to cancel the decision and allow small traders to continue their work without obligating them to follow complex banking procedures.

Import form

At the beginning of this month, the Sudanese Customs Administration announced a new decision prohibiting the clearance of any import transaction except through an electronic import form, with payments exclusively dealt with by the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS).

Article 209 of the Customs Law was dropped, which now blocks the possibility of settling import transactions, and obligates all importers, including small traders, to follow the intricate banking procedures.

The new measure led to a general strike by customs officers at the Sudanese-Egyptian border crossings on Saturday. A customs clearance officer at the border told Radio Dabanga that the electronic import form “is now only issued for goods worth more than $5,000, which means that small traders are banned”.

In response, the head of the Sovereignty Council, Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, decided to transfer the supervision of the customs clearance from the Ministry of Trade to the council “to facilitate procedures at the border crossings” and “to ensure the flow of commercial traffic by the speedy clearance of goods”.

Customs officers downplayed El Burhan’s decision, saying that border crossing control falls under the jurisdiction of the customs authorities.

‘Tabali’ not allowed anymore

The new clearance form “is only issued for goods worth more than $5,000, which means that small traders are banned,” a customs officer at the Sudanese-Egyptian border told Radio Dabanga on Saturday.

While this trade is called ‘bag trade’ at the border with Egypt, petty trade goods imported over sea are known locally as ‘tabali’ goods (a Sudanese tabliya is a tray hung around the neck, used for displaying small items for sale).

Ali said that ‘tabali’ goods are now banned. “The import of merchandise with a value that does not exceed SAR10,000 [$2,663] and which includes limited quantities of food and other small items imported from Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates, is now not possible anymore.”

Another reason for the workers’ refusal of the new measures is that the traders need to provide a bank account with the Central Bank of Sudan “but most of them do not have such a bank account or a commercial record,” he said.

“The Suakin Port is not commercial, like the outhern and northern ports of Port Sudan. The Suakin Customs Department used to settle the clearance of small quantities of goods through an inspection certificate, taking into consideration the situation of the people in the region, whose livelihoods depends entirely on tabali.

“This kind of petty trade was included in the Eastern Sudan Track protocol of the Juba Peace Agreement,” he explained. “Trade via small ships from Saudi Arabia was allowed within the framework of understanding the people’s dire living conditions.”