Altaghyeer: Khartoum
The bread crisis escalated in Khartoum and other major cities which resulted in huge financial losses for restaurant and eatery owners. And tens of people queued in front of bakeries in different parts of Khartoum as they waited to get some bread.
The endless queues and lengthy waiting time sparked fights and brawls between customers and bakeries’ owners.
The crisis was confined to certain bakeries and areas in the capital, but afterwards it became an overall crisis in all areas involving Kafori and Matar neighborhoods where top and influential officials reside including president Omer Albashir.
One angry citizen told Altaghyeer that he waited in line from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm and still he couldn’t get the amount of bread he needed. Adding “after all this time waiting the owner told me that he will only give me 10 pieces due to the large crowd, that is half the amount I need, so I had a little spat with him and he gave 15 pieces”.
An owner of a big bakery in Bahri attributed the crisis to the lack of flour and gas besides increased costs of production saying “the shortage first started with flour as weekly quota was halved, and now that amount is halved again, and there is also a shortage in gas”.
Meanwhile, the crisis inflicted financial losses on restaurant and eatery owners since the food is usually prepared early in the morning.
A restaurant owner at Khartoum2 market said he suffered losses by failing to get bread at the bakery, and he added “customers came to buy food but they couldn’t find bread, so we lost”.
Bread crisis was a recurring feature since 2017 in Sudan for reasons linked to the economic collapse and mismanagement according to some observers.
