Sudan: Kassala gold traders shut shop amid clashes, illicit parallel market

The closure of the gold market in Kassala entered its second consecutive day on Tuesday, after traders shut their shops on Monday in protest at repeated incidents and clashes involving itinerant gold sellers, and what they say is the authorities’ failure to address complaints they have been raising for some time. Several gold traders told Radio Dabanga that the closure followed an incident on Monday in the vicinity of the market that escalated into clashes and assaults, injuring a passer-by. They said it was not the first such incident, with similar episodes reported in the market in recent months.

The traders said the proliferation of itinerant gold sellers outside the shops had created an unregulated parallel market. Some of these sellers, they claimed, offer prices above the prevailing market rate to lure gold owners, before allegedly manipulating weights or the number of pieces during transactions.

One trader said that when the market price for a gram of gold was, for example, about SDG 750,000, some itinerant sellers would offer SDG 800,000. He accused some of them, however, of manipulating the weight or number of pieces during transactions. He also said that quantities of gold were being traded without official invoices, disrupting prices and undermining traders who comply with government procedures and fees.

The trader said shop owners pay taxes, zakat, mining and local-authority fees, and stamp duties, as well as charges related to security at the market complex. Yet, he argued, they do not receive the protection needed to ensure stable trading conditions.

The traders said they had lodged complaints with several government bodies about the activities of itinerant sellers and the repeated incidents. They said, however, that the complaints had produced no practical response, prompting them to impose a complete closure from Monday.

They said the closure followed the exhaustion of attempts to engage with the authorities. They called for urgent government action to regulate the buying and selling of gold outside licensed shops, curb unregulated practices, and provide protection for the market and its workers.

They warned that allowing the current situation to continue threatened the stability of one of Kassala’s oldest gold markets.

Editor’s note: This article has been translated from Arabic with the assistance of artificial intelligence, and subsequently reviewed and adapted by a human editor before publication.