Sudan opposition head condemns government silence on economic crisis

Dr Mohamed El Mahdi Hasan, the head of the Political Bureau of Sudan’s opposition National Umma Party (NUP), said that the political and economic crisis in Sudan has escalated in an unprecedented manner in the light of an official government silence.

in an interview with Radio Dabanga, Dr Hasan ridiculed the statements made by government officials to ease the fuel crisis and on the restart of El Jeili refinery.

He pointed to the continuation of the queues of vehicles in front of petrol stations and crowding of people in the transportation stations yesterday.

Dr Hasan explained that the crisis has severely affected drinking water in east and west Sudan. He criticised the government for not explaining the matter to the citizens and leaving them to the rumours and speculations and warned of the serious social and moral effects of economic crises.

He said that visiting delegations to Sudan do not have the keys to the solution, rather do they come to Khartoum to achieve their interests.

"The solution of the crises should come from inside and rather than from abroad and harshly criticised the government for trying to resolve the crisis by buying fuel from brokers in the Red Sea," he said. "Respected countries resolve such issues by signing protocols with the oil-exporting countries rather than dealing with brokers’ vessels."

Dr Hasan pointed to the aggravation of the political crisis within the ruling National Congress Party concerning the re-nomination of Al Bashir in 2020 and the escalation of conflicts among senior leaders in the government and the party.

He expressed surprise at bringing a number of Rapid Support Forces to Khartoum, explaining that the authority responsible for securing the capital is the police not any other party.

‘Agriculture, transport affected’

Economic analyst Hafiz Ismail pointed to the serious effects of the current economic crisis on the productive sectors such as agriculture and transport, which affects the estimates of the budget of 2018 called for review.

in an interview with Radio Dabanga he said that the crisis has reached its peak during the last period with the exacerbation of the crisis of fuel and liquidity and the lack of confidence in the banking sector.

He considered the current economic crisis a natural result of the accumulation of crises during the previous years.

Ismail said that resolving the economic crisis is through clarity of the political vision and the development of an economic vision including structural treatments, and criticised the government for resorting to solutions such as cash deposits and commodity loans.

He explained that it leads to further complication of the crisis.

Ismail told this station that the agreements on commodity loans in oil under the exacerbation of the crisis mostly include a lot of unfair conditions.

He explained that the previous crises have been addressed through cash deposits or fast commodity loans, pointing out that the default in repayment leads to a permanent cessation of loans and exacerbation of crises.