Skyrocketing food prices lead to demonstrations

Sudan’s civil war led first to starvation and skyrocketing food prices, and now to social unrest.

“Scores of demonstrators took to the streets in the eastern Sudanese city of Gedaref on Sunday to protest worsening living conditions and skyrocketing food prices, as the local currency continues to tumble,” reports Sudanese media.

“Sudan’s markets have seen persistent price increases for staple commodities and fresh produce in recent months, eroding purchasing power and leaving residents struggling to afford daily essentials. Protesters blocked the main road in Gedaref’s Al-Tadamon neighborhood with burning tires and chanted slogans against the deteriorating economic situation.”

“Three loaves of bread now cost 1,000 Sudanese pounds, and bakeries are manipulating weights with no government oversight,” says Hassan Ali, a local. “A basic salad plate with three tomatoes, a cucumber, and some arugula has reached 10,000 pounds.”

10,000 Sudanese pounds is $17. That’s a lot of money for a salad. Too much money for most people living in the city to afford. The average income in this dirt-poor city in eastern Sudan is only about $1,000 per year per person. So people are living on starches, and going without fruits and vegetables. Meat is also increasingly unaffordable.

People in Gedaref typically eat kisra, a wafer-thin, fermented flatbread made from sorghum flour. They also often eat asseeda, a porridge or stiff dough made from sorghum, corn, or millet. Gedaref is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and gets only about 24 inches of rain per year.

Meanwhile, a Sudanese aid worker has died in the custody of the Rapid Support Forces militia in western Sudan’s North Darfur state after being detained. El Tayeb El Tom Mersal died inside the RSF-run Shala Prison in El Fasher, the state capital, where he had been held since the city fell to the militia.

Earlier, the RSF militia committed genocide in the western city of El Fasher, carrying out mass killings, gang rapes and deliberate starvation of civilians, a United Nations investigation has found. The UN Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan released its findings in July, “concluding that the RSF’s systematic campaign of violence against civilians during and after its siege of the capital of North Darfur state amounted to genocide.”

So much killing occurred in the city that it became mostly a ghost town, and blood-soaked earth could be seen from outer space.

The RSF’s genocide was mainly aimed at the Zaghawa people, who live in the far west of Sudan and in the eastern part of the neighboring country of Chad

Te RSF also have committed genocide against the Masalit people of Darfur in western Sudan, before and after seizing the major city of El Geneina. The RSF has kidnapped thousands of people and held them for ransom, torturing many of them. The RSF has killed at least 250,000 people from non-Arab ethnic groups in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

Sudan’s military is using poison gas in violation of international law. It is fighting against the RSF in Sudan’s civil war.

Sudan’s civil war has already killed at least 400,000 people. Both the RSF and Sudan’s army have killed thousands of civilians using drones.

Tens of thousands of Sudanese people have starved to death. The RSF interfered with harvests in Sudan’s Jazira state, which is “home to one of the largest irrigation systems in the world.” CNN notes that

Before the war, Jazira produced almost half of Sudan’s total wheat and housed most of the country’s grain reserves….The RSF’s presence effectively prevented farmers from harvesting their crops…“This harvest was badly needed to compensate for the massive production losses that already occurred due to the fighting in other states. The RSF’s violent advances in Jazira state, their targeted destruction of warehouses, Sudan’s gene bank and irrigation systems will inevitably further exacerbate Sudan’s massive food shortages.”

The RSF steal food from the populace, looting them. Meanwhile, Sudan’s military has sometimes blocked trucks carrying international food assistance into areas controlled by the RSF.

Starving people in Sudan’s South Kordofan region are eating leather, tree leaves, and wild plants, in their effort to stay alive. Many of their children have already died of starvation. Accompanying this article is a photo of mountain herbs eaten by these starving people.