Protest against the recent rise of electricity tariffs continues on the seventh day in Sudan’s northern state. Activists and farmers in Ed Debba set up a sit-in and closed the Sheryan El Shimal highway to Egypt.
According to the ‘Reda Al-Idris, the head of the Northern State Farmers Association’s director, the “close damage to wheat farms” following a break-in irrigation operation.
As per Abde Ali Hussein, a member of the Resistance Committees Coordination in Dongola, “the state government raised the prices of electricity tariffs without explaining the reason why they are raising the prices. Farmers are particularly suffering more in this.”
The Sudanese Transitional Sovereignty Council demanded the issues to be readdressed again.
The Ed Debba Resistance Committees Coordination planned a sit-in programme and closed the highway to Egypt for buses and lorries in answer to the authorities. However, they allowed the “Transport of wounded and ambulances for sick people and private vehicles are also allowed to pass.”
Moreover, farmers and members of resistance committees from all locations from Northern State are coming and participating in the sit-in programme.
They said that they would open the roads when the government’s decision of increasing the electricity bills would take back and other demands, including settlement for the loss of properties because of the construction of the Moroe Dam, have been met, explained Hussein.
Separately, farmers in El Golid met with the locality executive director and the agriculture director on January 30, Sunday. They gave them 72 hours to cancel the electricity tariffs, which was increasing, said activist Soheib Osman.
Moreover, farmers of Sudan also warned that this year’s winter harvest could fail, owing to the unjustified increase in agriculture fees, avoidance of cleaning canals, minimisation of production inputs and potential failure to fertilise the corps in time.
In 2021, the Federal Ministry of Finance planned significantly to increase the electricity prices for 2022. They decided to lift subsidies on consumer goods and meet the World Bank’s demands. In January 2021, the power tariffs were increased by 500 percent already.
