{"id":60793,"date":"2026-02-16T15:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T12:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=60793"},"modified":"2026-02-16T15:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T12:08:18","slug":"sudan-ramadan-essentials-hardship-measured-in-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/16\/sudan-ramadan-essentials-hardship-measured-in-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Sudan: Ramadan Essentials \u2014 Hardship Measured in Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><em>Report by Hafiya Nouraldeim<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Scenes of crowding and half-empty shelves are repeated daily in the markets of Omdurman and Sabreen, where the movement of shoppers blends with anxious glances and careful calculations. From sugar and cooking oil to legumes, commodity prices have become daily indicators of the mounting pressures facing households as the holy month of Ramadan approaches.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>This year, Ramadan in Khartoum State is no longer a season of early preparation. Instead, it has become a daily exercise in adaptation, with families managing their needs according to limited budgets and steadily declining purchasing power, amid continuous increases in prices and living costs.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">A Close-Up: \u201cRamadan Has Become a Month of Calculations\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>At Omdurman market, Fatima Abdullah, a housewife, stands recalculating her purchases for the third time. She says that before the war, her family\u2019s Ramadan essentials cost around 200,000 Sudanese pounds. Today, the total ranges between 400,000 and 500,000 pounds, while the family\u2019s monthly income does not exceed 300,000 pounds.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cRamadan has become a month of calculations, not preparation,\u201d she says with visible sorrow.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Crowded Markets, Limited Purchasing Power<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Despite noticeable congestion in Khartoum\u2019s markets\u2014particularly in Omdurman and Sabreen\u2014the actual volume of purchases appears limited.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mohamed Al-Amin Yousif, a trader, explains that prices of essential commodities have risen sharply. Current prices include:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A 50 kg sack of sugar: 154,000 Sudanese pounds<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>10 kg of sugar: 31,500 pounds<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>5 kg of sugar: 16,500 pounds<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>36-pound container of cooking oil: between 120,000 and 150,000 pounds<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>18-pound package of oil: 72,000 pounds<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Quarter sack of lentils: 30,000 pounds<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Quarter sack of corn flour: 20,000 pounds<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Quarter sack of onions: 5,000 pounds<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u201cEntering the market is easy,\u201d he remarks, \u201cbut leaving with full quantities has become difficult.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Household Goods: An Additional Burden<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Price increases have not been limited to food items. Household utensils, cooking tools, and storage containers have also risen by approximately 40 percent compared to previous seasons.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Amina Mohamed Ibrahim, a displaced resident living in East Nile, says: \u201cEven the simplest daily-use utensils have become more expensive. We don\u2019t know how to cover all the household needs.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Rising Production and Transport Costs<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Traders attribute the price hikes to escalating operating costs.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ali Osman Mohamed, a wholesale trader at Omdurman market, says transportation costs have increased by more than 50 percent, in addition to higher service fees and exchange rate fluctuations. These factors, he explains, have directly affected the prices of foodstuffs, consumer goods, and household items, despite weak purchasing demand.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Inflation Outpacing Incomes<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim Al-Badawi, professor of economics at the University of Khartoum, believes that what is unfolding in Omdurman and Sabreen markets reflects a clear imbalance between inflation rates and income levels.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>In remarks to Elaph, he said that the surge in Ramadan commodity prices results from overlapping factors, most notably rising transport and production costs, weakened supply chains, and declining purchasing power.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cWhen household spending exceeds 60 percent of monthly income on food and consumer goods, it is a worrying economic indicator,\u201d he said. \u201cIt places additional strain on other essential needs such as education, healthcare, and housing.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>He added that the visible congestion in markets does not reflect genuine purchasing power, as many families enter merely to compare prices or to purchase only the bare minimum.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Charitable Initiatives Under Pressure<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Community initiatives have not been spared from the impact of soaring prices. Sara Osman, a volunteer with one of the Ramadan food basket initiatives, says the cost of a single basket has risen from 50,000 to nearly 100,000 Sudanese pounds. As a result, the number of beneficiaries has declined despite growing demand, particularly among low-income families and displaced persons.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Ramadan in the Spirit of Patience<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Amid these figures, families in Khartoum State are welcoming Ramadan with resilience but limited means. A month once marked by early preparation is now managed through daily budgeting and strict consumption control, as households attempt to adapt to mounting economic pressures.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Interventions Needed<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Ramadan essentials market in Khartoum offers a stark reflection of citizens\u2019 hardship, as preparing for the holy month has turned into a difficult equation between nearly fixed incomes and rising costs. Between soaring prices and financial strain, there is an urgent need for economic and social interventions to ease the burden on families\u2014so that Ramadan does not become an additional season of pressure rather than one of peace and reassurance.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Report by Hafiya Nouraldeim Scenes of crowding and half-empty shelves are repeated daily in the markets of Omdurman and Sabreen, where the movement of shoppers blends with anxious glances and careful calculations. From sugar and cooking oil to legumes, commodity prices have become daily indicators of the mounting pressures facing households as the holy month &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60793"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60794,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60793\/revisions\/60794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}