The nourishment of the Black-Market during war
By: Alaa Babiker
Markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, groceries, and every shop that provides individuals with their daily food needs is considered mandatory during their lives. In developed countries, these kinds of markets have stable prices that last for periods of more than 20 year, only minor changes are observed over those year.
On the contrary, underdeveloped countries, specially those going through difficult economical times, will have sudden unexpected and unexplainable rise of all goods prices, this rise can be observed even on a daily basis. This scenario was happening in all parts of Sudan, and it was one of the main reasons which led to the revolution back in 2018.
Now speaking of the countries going through war – Sudan is the example here – the situation is even more complicated, you don’t find sudden rise of prices, you find an unimaginable differences of all goods available compared to other non-food products, which unfortunately most of them are found to be stolen. This is an indication of the sever shortage of food goods and products. One shocking example we faced recently was that in one area inside Khartoum State, which is considered a war zone, a 1.5 liter of Oil was sold for 13,000 SDG, while next to it was a stolen refrigerator sold for 10,000 SDG, what a mess! Great areas of Khartoum, in which people are still reside, suffer the loss of electrical power for more than 6 months now, and people in those areas need to cook some food for their survival, only here comes the bad people to create a new type of black market the includes food supplies and products as a main element. This is what I call the The nourishment of the Black-Market during war. Bad people are taking advantage of the needs of others, some steal and sell their stolen goods specially of food products, others just take the advantage and multiply their prices by 100 times!
I’m sharing this photo from UNT Digital Library that says: (You can stop the Black Market, don’t buy or sell on it), but when it is about people’s nutritional needs during war, it is not possible to stop buying, or selling for some people!
In the end, my God help us all in Sudan. And may Him preserve our souls and our land.