♦ This week’s news in brief ♦

A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan’s highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan

A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan's highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan

 

♦ Acute flour shortage: long bread queues across Sudan

August 14 – 2018 KHARTOUM The lack of flour in the Sudanese capital has been the cause of long queues in front of the bakeries that have remained open. Bakeries have shut their doors and services of schools and restaurants have been disrupted by the bread crisis, in Khartoum as well as in the states. The situation has forced residents to queue for long hours. In Omdurman, a person was stabbed during a quarrel in one of these bread queues.

On Sunday, a housewife from El Haj Yousef El Radmiya in Nile state told Radio Dabanga that some blocks saw a total lack of bread where the inhabitants spent their day searching from a bakery to another in search of bread to no avail.

The bread shortage is a knock-on result of the chronic fuel crisis in Sudan. This impacts logistics and puts mills under pressure leading to a shortage of flour, however vehicles to transport the flour to bakeries must queue for fuel. The bakeries themselves are also short of gas to fire their ovens.

The Minister of Finance, Economy and Consumer Affairs of Khartoum State, Adil Mohamed Osman, said that the bread crisis is nearing its end. “Khartoum will receive its full quota of flour within the next two days,” he announced yesterday.

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♦  Opposition rejects Al Bashir's re-nomination for presidential term

August 14 – 2018 KHARTOUM More opposition parties have voiced their disapproval of the re-nomination of president Omar Al Bashir to run in the elections in 2020. Only constitutional amendments passed by the parliament will allow the incumbent president to run for a third term.

The National Shura Council of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) meeting in Khartoum approved Al Bashir as its presidential candidate on Thursday. The president has accepted the nomination. In the past Al Bashir, now president for nearly 30 years, had declared his intention to step down before 2020.

NUP leader Imam El Sadig El Mahdi said that the re-nomination of Al Bashir by the NCP came “without an objective evaluation of his performance in the past 30 years, or with regard to the constitutional impediment. Nor taking into account the harm suffered by Sudan under the presidency of his international criminal warrant [by the International Criminal Court, RD].”

At this moment the Sudanese constitution restricts individuals to a maximum of two presidential terms. Amendments to the constitution have to be passed by the national parliament, where the ruling NCP holds the majority of seats.


More news from Radio Dabanga:

Supreme Court annuls student’s death penalty

August 14 – 2018 KHARTOUM The Supreme Court has annulled the death penalty on student Asim Omar, a member of a student opposition party at the University of Khartoum. He has to remain in…
 

North Darfur, Kordofan rains destroy houses and lives

August 14 – 2018 TAWILA / EL OBEID / MURNEI Heavy torrential rains and winds have destroyed hundreds of houses and a number of classrooms in camps for displaced people in North Darfur. Four…
 

Sudan's President Al Bashir: ‘Cut off limbs and necks of those who refuse to surrender illegal arms’

August 13 – 2018 KHARTOUM President Omar Al Bashir has ordered Sudan’s judges to “apply the law and cut off limbs and necks of anyone who refuses to hand over his illegal weapon, in the public…
 

Sudan’s Eid El Adha season failing due to fees, Saudi restrictions

August 13 – 2018 SUDAN The rapporteur of the former exporters division at the Chamber of Commerce, Khalid Khair, has reported the failure of Eid El Adha season this year because of the “large…
 

Newspapers meet with Sudan’s NISS: ‘Confiscations suspended’

August 10 – 2018 KHARTOUM In a meeting between newspapers and the head of the Sudanese security apparatus NISS, they agreed to form a committee to deliberate on the so-called red lines for…

 

Germany, Sudan sign for refugee projects worth €28 mln

August 10 – 2018 KHARTOUM The German ambassador for Sudan and the Sudanese government signed agreements for the implementation of projects for refugees and their host communities in El…

 

West Kordofan schools close over damage, teachers’ shortage

August 10 – 2018 EL MUGLAD Rainfall in West Kordofan has damaged a school, which is now forced to shut its doors. In the same area another girls’ school has closed because of a lack of…
 

High-level British delegation visits North Darfur

August 9 – 2018 EL FASHER On Tuesday, a delegation from the United Kingdom led by the British Minister of State for Africa, Harriett Baldwin, visited North Darfur and held talks with the state…
 

NUP Secretary-General barred from leaving Sudan, passport confiscated

August 9 – 2018 KHARTOUM Secretary-General of the opposition National Umma Party (NUP), Sarah Nugdallah, was barred from leaving Sudan for the second time, and her passport was confiscated…
 

Woman dies, four injured as herders attack North Darfur farms

August 8 – 2018 TABIT A woman farmer has died and four others injured in an attack by armed herders on farms south of Tabit in Tawila locality in North Darfur on Tuesday…
 

‘Mediating South Sudan accord is in Sudan’s best interests’

August 8 – 2018 KHARTOUM Researchers and strategists in Sudanese affairs said that the resolution of the conflict in South Sudan mediated by Sudan, which produced a power-sharing deal and final…
 

 

This digest is an excerpt from the weekly Darfur & Sudan News Update. Subscribe here to receive the newsletter directly in your inbox