Fuel Shortages in Sudan Squeeze Drivers, Cleaners and Traders as Costs Climb

Azhari Mohamed, 60, drives a minibus in Port Sudan, carrying eight passengers at a time between the Shagar neighbourhood and the city centre. He makes seven round trips a day, working from 6am to 9pm. Even so, fuel shortages have made earning a living much harder.

His vehicle burns three gallons (11 litres) of petrol daily, which costs about 105,000 Sudanese pounds, or $11.30 at the parallel-market rate. Because fuel is so hard to find, he now works two days and spends a third waiting in line. A single wait can top five hours, and sometimes the petrol runs out before he reaches the pump, sending him to the back of another queue.

Prices have climbed with the scarcity. A gallon of petrol costs 40,000 pounds ($4.30) in Gazira State, south of Khartoum, and 35,000 pounds ($3.80) in Port Sudan. Once operating costs are paid, Azhari is left with about 50,000 pounds ($5.40) a day to support his wife and a daughter at university. "We just need fuel to be available so we can work," he told Al Jazeera.

The pressure has reached fares. This month, Sudan's Transport Chambers Union, which regulates public and private transport, raised intercity bus fares by 40% and minibus fares by 30%.

For passengers, the increase is painful. Aziza Ibrahim, 38, cleans for a living in Port Sudan to support four children. She has cut her work to three days a week because of travel costs. Before the war, her trip to the main city-centre station cost 700 pounds ($0.08). Fares are now 2,000 to 2,500 pounds on various routes, and she needs 11,000 pounds ($1.18) a day for the round trip. Transport eats up nearly half of her 400,000-pound monthly salary ($43), and she also faces costly diabetes treatment. She sometimes borrows to get to work and repays the loan when she is paid.

The United Nations Development Programme says the war has pushed average incomes in Sudan back to levels last seen in the 1990s. Fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces began on April 15, 2023. Last year, the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum put war-related losses at $20 billion. The World Bank has reported that attacks on the Balila oil field disrupted supplies to the Khartoum refinery, which used to meet about 60% of national demand for petrol and liquefied petroleum gas.

With domestic output sharply reduced, Sudan depends on imports at a time when a global fuel crisis has raised prices for gas, petrol and diesel. Economic analyst Sidi Ohaj said government rules for importers have made matters worse. Importers must deposit 200kg of gold in the Central Bank and own fuel storage facilities, and some could not comply and left the market. "This reduced supply relative to demand," he said, adding that the government should urgently ease import procedures. He also pointed to drone attacks that threaten infrastructure, and the continuing war between the United States and Iran is disrupting global energy markets, leaving little hope of quick relief.

Businesses are feeling it too. Ahmed al-Haj, a trader in Omdurman market who packages skincare products such as petroleum jelly, said higher diesel and petrol prices have raised the cost of moving a tonne of goods by 30 to 50 percent, and that increase is passed on in product prices. When power cuts force him onto a fuel-powered generator, his daily costs rise further.

Local deliveries in Omdurman that once cost 5,000 pounds ($0.70) now run 10,000 to 12,000 pounds ($1.07 to $1.29), and reaching customers in other states has become impossible. Ahmed said transport and distribution workers are making fewer trips, so goods are piling up at traders' premises.