Petrol and diesel shortages are biting in Khartoum, Nyala, Port Sudan and other cities, Sudan Tribune reports, with gallon prices of about 46,000 to 50,000 Sudanese pounds. Farmers warn irrigation and harvests are collapsing, and aid activists say relief convoys are near-paralysed by fuel costs.
Areas controlled by Sudan's army and by the Rapid Support Forces are facing a severe scarcity of petroleum products, Sudan Tribune reported on 6 November. Eyewitnesses in Khartoum, Nyala, Port Sudan and other cities said recent airstrikes by both sides had hit civilian infrastructure. In most Khartoum stations a gallon of gasoline reached about 48,800 Sudanese pounds (about $4.80) and diesel about 45,000 pounds. In Nyala, gasoline was about 50,000 pounds and diesel about 45,000; in Port Sudan, gasoline about 46,000 and diesel about 42,000.
Three farmers in Gedaref, Gezira and Sennar told the paper that the lack of fuel and diesel had made irrigation pumps and machinery impossible to run, cutting cultivated areas and threatening sorghum and wheat. They warned that the deficit, combined with poor rainfall, could push the country toward famine. Thousands of farmers and residents have already fled villages short of food, the report said. Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim has denied that Sudan is approaching famine, calling external claims untrue and saying the government is mobilising resources for food security.
Aid and the 2027 budget
Aid activists told Sudan Tribune that United Nations and international relief convoys were near-paralysed because transport costs between states had soared beyond agencies' budgets, with fuel bought on informal markets at high prices. That strain, they said, had shrunk the response in camps and besieged areas. UNDP and World Bank figures cited in the same report put cumulative economic contraction since the war began at more than 40 per cent, with unemployment above 47 per cent.
In a related Sudan Tribune report, Ibrahim told a joint ministerial meeting chaired by Defence Minister Lieutenant General Hassan Daoud Kabroun that the 2027 budget would prioritise the war effort, reconstruction and basic services, alongside social protection and partnerships with private capital. Officials are drafting the plan amid fuel, transport and flour shortages and sharply reduced state revenues.
Image: Traders and shoppers at a market in Khartoum, Sudan. Dr Ondřej Havelka, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.