{"id":181159,"date":"2016-01-28T15:40:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T15:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dabangasudan.preview.websight.nl\/anger-at-sudan-s-cooking-gas-price-hike\/"},"modified":"2016-01-28T15:40:00","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T15:40:00","slug":"anger-at-sudan-s-cooking-gas-price-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dabangasudan.org\/en\/all-news\/article\/anger-at-sudan-s-cooking-gas-price-hike","title":{"rendered":"Anger at Sudan\u2019s cooking gas price hike"},"content":{"rendered":"

The threefold increase in the cooking gas prices announced by the Sudanese government on Monday has sparked widespread condemnation in the country.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“This crazy increase is not logical and disproportional with the incomes of the people,” housewife Samia El Shiwein told Radio Dabanga from Khartoum.<\/p>\n

“This increase is shocking, as the prices of gas, petrol and its derivatives were declining. Now the government suddenly turns our life upside-down again. Many people will have to use their savings to survive.”<\/p>\n

No alternative<\/strong><\/p>\n

She noted that “the government knows very well that there are no alternatives available in Sudan for cooking gas”. People in North Kordofan’s capital El Obeid are at a loss over what to cook on. A listener told Radio Dabanga that “LPG cylinders even became scarce at the black market”.<\/p>\n

He added that the authorities have banned the use of charcoal and firewood. “They put a fine of SDG1,000 ($163) on the sale or purchase of a 100kg sack of charcoal.”<\/p>\n

A resident of Khashm El Girba in eastern Sudan’s Kassala state reported to Radio Dabanga that the people in the area suffer from a “complete lack of flour and cooking gas for a week”.<\/p>\n

In Berber in northern Sudan’s River Nile state people are queuing for days to obtain a gas cylinder, a listener reported. He strongly condemned “these destructive policies of this failing government”.<\/p>\n

Flour scarcity<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Bakeries’ Union expects the bread prices to increase too after the government lifted the subsidies on cooking gas. The Union’s secretary-general, Adel Mirghani, said in a press statement that a committee will be established to collect information on the number of bakeries using cooking gas.<\/p>\n

He said that the government subsidy on cooking gas for bread bakeries has not been lifted. “Yet this contribution covers only 20 percent of the costs of a piece of bread.”<\/p>\n

The head of the Bakeries Union also pointed to an acute scarcity of flour in a number of districts in the Sudanese capital. “This will end soon, as the Seen Flour Mills has distributed flour to the bakeries the past couple of days. Moreover, a 30,00 load of wheat arrived at Port Sudan from Turkey.”<\/p>\n

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