Sudan Transport Union Hikes Fares as Fuel Scarcity Deepens

Sudan’s Transport Chambers Union raised intercity bus fares by 40% and minibus fares by 30% this month. The price increase follows a sharp rise in the cost of petrol and diesel across the country.

Azhari Mohamed, a 60-year-old minibus driver in Port Sudan, works seven round trips daily between the Shagar neighborhood and the city center. He burns 11 liters of petrol every day, which costs 105,000 Sudanese pounds. At the parallel market rate, that amount equals $11.30. Because fuel is hard to find, he now works two days and spends a third day waiting in line. Single waits can last more than five hours. Sometimes the petrol runs out before he reaches the pump, forcing him to go to the back of another queue.

After paying operating costs, Mohamed is left with about 50,000 pounds, or $5.40, per day to support his wife and a daughter at university. He told Al Jazeera, "We just need fuel to be available so we can work." Petrol prices have climbed with the scarcity. In Gazira State, south of Khartoum, a gallon costs 40,000 pounds, or $4.30. In Port Sudan, the same gallon costs 35,000 pounds, or $3.80.

The higher fares have forced many passengers to cut back. Aziza Ibrahim, a 38-year-old cleaner in Port Sudan, supports four children. She has reduced her work to three days a week because travel costs are too high. Before the war, her trip to the main city-center station cost 700 pounds, or $0.08. Fares on various routes are now between 2,000 and 2,500 pounds. She needs 11,000 pounds, or $1.18, for the daily round trip. Transport consumes nearly half of her 400,000-pound monthly salary, which is worth $43. She also faces costs for diabetes treatment and sometimes borrows money to get to work, repaying the loan when she is paid.

The United Nations Development Programme states that 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 reported that attacks on the Balila oil field disrupted supplies to the Khartoum refinery. That refinery used to meet about 60% of the national demand for petrol and liquefied petroleum gas.

With domestic output reduced, Sudan depends on imports while a global fuel crisis raises 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. Some could not comply and left the market. Ohaj said, "This reduced supply relative to demand," and added that the government should urgently ease import procedures. He also pointed to drone attacks that threaten infrastructure and noted that the continuing war between the United States and Iran is disrupting global energy markets.

Businesses are also feeling the pressure. Ahmed al-Haj, a trader in Omdurman market who packages skincare products, said higher diesel and petrol prices have raised the cost of moving a tonne of goods by 30 to 50 percent. That increase is passed on in product prices. When power cuts force him to use a fuel-powered generator, his daily costs rise further. Local deliveries in Omdurman that once cost 5,000 pounds, or $0.70, now run 10,000 to 12,000 pounds, or $1.07 to $1.29. Reaching customers in other states has become impossible. Al-Haj said transport and distribution workers are making fewer trips, so goods are piling up at traders' premises.