Kassala runs out of bread as flour crisis enters second month

The bread crisis in Kassala has entered its second month, and sources on the ground expect that the town in eastern Sudan with a population of nearly half a million people will completely run out of bread in the coming days.

On Monday, a resident of Kassala told Radio Dabanga that the security apparatus has selectively distributed flour quotas to a limited number of bakeries in the past two days.

He said that a number of bakeries in the market and districts have stopped working, while those bakeries that are still operating are very crowded, and can only produce limited quantities of bread.

A number of bakery owners said that on Tuesday, the security-apparatus-controlled Seen Flour Mills company, which is responsible for the provision of flour, notified them of the expiry of its flour stocks and that they must take the necessary precautions.

He predicted a complete lack of bread in the city in the coming days.

El Obeid

El Obeid in North Kordofan has also been witnessing a severe bread crisis for weeks.

In an interview with Radio Dabanga, residents spoke of long queues for bread in the markets and at bakeries.

Khartoum

On Monday, the Legislative Council of Khartoum state accepted in its meeting the answer of the state Minister of Finance, Adel Mohamed Osman, on the urgent issue presented by member Esam Maher on the position of bread in the state, its share and the necessary precautions.

The Minister attributed the queues in front of the bakeries in a number of districts in Khartoum state as a transitory caused by the bakery workers going to their families, this in addition to the non-operation of some bakeries mechanically. The Minister said that the state consumes 50,000 sacks of flour weighing 50kg a day and announced that the state's production of bread is 45 million loaves a day.