Protests on the main road leading to Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, from Port Sudan have caused an acute shortage of bread, leading shoppers to queue for hours outside bakeries.
The blockade, which began more than three weeks ago, is also causing a shortage of fuel oil used for power generation, jeopardising the country’s fragile electricity supply.
State-subsidised bread selling at five Sudanese pounds a loaf has been in shorter supply than the commercial variety sold at up to 35 pounds apiece. Khartoum residents say a five-hour wait outside bakeries for the cheaper type has become the norm.
“The lines for the subsidised bread are incredibly long,” said Omar Halafawy, 45, a government employee from Khartoum. “I am just buying the commercial bread at 30 pounds apiece and I only have to wait in line for an hour or so.”
Mayadah Jaafar, a private-sector employee from the district of Khartoum III, cannot afford the luxury of the more expensive bread.
“My wait in the line is usually morning until lunchtime. And sometimes, the bakery runs out of flour and I go home and then go back later and start all over again," she said.
The shortage of wheat-flour has forced many bakeries in the Sudanese capital to close, said bakery owner Yahya Moussa.
“Sometimes we are closed for two days until we get more flour,” he said.
The protesters in eastern Sudan say they want the transitional government to annul and renegotiate a peace deal for their region signed a year ago. They say that those who signed on behalf of their area, which includes Port Sudan, have no following to speak of.
They are also protesting against what they say are the poor economic conditions of their region.
The blockade of the Khartoum-Port Sudan highway has caused friction between the military and civilian politicians who have shared power since the removal of long-time dictator Omar Al Bashir in 2019.
The politicians say the military aims to embarrass the civilian-led Cabinet by not taking action to lift the blockade. The military denies the charge, saying it is the job of the police to deal with the demonstration.
Simmering tension between the civilian and military factions of the transitional administration went public last month after a failed coup attempt on September 21, with each side blaming the other for the country’s woes in a bitter war of words.
The quarrel has prompted many world powers and the UN to state their support for Sudan’s transition to democratic rule. On Friday, the US, Britain and Norway called for talks with the eastern-region protesters to end the road blockade.
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Essentials
The flights
Etihad and Emirates fly direct from the UAE to Delhi from about Dh950 return including taxes.
The hotels
Double rooms at Tijara Fort-Palace cost from 6,670 rupees (Dh377), including breakfast.
Doubles at Fort Bishangarh cost from 29,030 rupees (Dh1,641), including breakfast. Doubles at Narendra Bhawan cost from 15,360 rupees (Dh869). Doubles at Chanoud Garh cost from 19,840 rupees (Dh1,122), full board. Doubles at Fort Begu cost from 10,000 rupees (Dh565), including breakfast.
The tours
Amar Grover travelled with Wild Frontiers. A tailor-made, nine-day itinerary via New Delhi, with one night in Tijara and two nights in each of the remaining properties, including car/driver, costs from £1,445 (Dh6,968) per person.
Company profile
Date started: January, 2014
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Marwan Lutfi says the core fundamentals that drive better payment behaviour and can improve your credit score are:
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Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Volvo ES90 Specs
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
