April 25, 2018

Vehicles queued for hours at gas stations in Sudan’s capital as fuel shortage, caused by government’s difficulty in importing it due to a foreign-currency-crisis hit home, the Media reports Wednesday.

Once an exporter of oil, Sudan was forced to begin importing it after the south seceded in 2011, taking with it three-quarters of what had been the country’s oil output.

Oil was Sudan’s main source of foreign currency.

“I have been waiting at the gas station from last night until midday today.

“This bus is my only source of income,’’ said Adam Abdullah.

The 45-year-old bus driver is one of many workers, who spent the night at a gas station to refuel their vehicles.

“I have been waiting for hours to find transportation to return home.

“This is something we cannot stand; where is the government?’’ asked Intesar Awad from a bus station in the heart of Khartoum.

Hundreds of others queued for rides home, joining lines that have built up since the end of last week as the currency crunch has bitten deeper.

The Sudanese pound has dropped from 33 pounds to 35 to a dollar earlier this week, a black market trader told the Media.

The trader expected the Sudanese pound to weaken further in coming days.

Inflation quickened to 55.6 per cent in March year-on-year from 54.34 per cent in February.

Prices have risen since the pound plummeted to record lows in the black market in recent months.

This is prompting the central bank to make two steep devaluations since the start of the year.

It now officially trades at about 28 pounds to the dollar from 6.7 pounds in late December.

The Sudanese pound hit a record low of about 40 pounds to the dollar earlier this year on the black market.

But the devaluations and a ban on deposits of dollars, obtained from the black market, have reversed this trend.

The central bank has also introduced restrictions on withdrawals, leaving many unable to take out cash from banks.

Minister of State for Finance, Abdelrahman Drar, said in a statement on Tuesday that five tankers carrying petroleum products had arrived at Sudan’s main port to alleviate the shortages.

Potentially increasing the short-term-uncertainty, two Nigerian oil companies, Express and Misana, on Monday sold their 30 per cent joint stake in Sudan’s al-Rawat oil field to Sudan-National-Petroleum-Corporation, said state news agency.

Sudapet now owns all the shares in al-Rawat, which falls along the White Nile, 420 kilometres south of Khartoum.

It hopes to increase output in the long-term, reducing the dependence on imports, through increased exploration.