Al-Arzaq has gathered thousands of stevedoring workers known in Port Sudan as "Al-Kalat", and their teams, the tribal conflict that has raged in the city on the Red Sea since May 2019.

Despite the paralysis that afflicted the coastal city whenever the local government imposed a state of emergency and curfew to control tribal confrontations, the work of "clubbing" in the ports continued.

And during each confrontation, residents of the poor neighborhoods of Nubia, Bani Amer and others sneak into the port and the warehouses attached to it to work, and there they are united by interests.

However, the problem remains when the exhausted workers return to those tribally divided neighborhoods in the Dar Al-Naim neighborhood, which is inhabited by the Bani Amer tribe, and the Philip neighborhood, which is inhabited by the Nuba tribe.

For about 15 months, bloody confrontations broke out between the Nuba and Bani Amer tribes, in addition to another confrontation between the Hodandawa and Bani Amer last November.

Clashes between the Bani Amer and Nuba tribes in Port Sudan left dozens of dead (Sudanese Press)

Tribal division


After the first conflict between Nubia and Bani Amer in 1986, about 20,000 "clat" workers in the ports moved to divide so that each tribe separately was a "whole" belonging to its employees.

However, recent conflicts dug deep in the souls of these workers, to intensify the division on the basis of "racism" even though injustice, the workplace and the chants of "kilat" bring them together, and the whole group is a group of 10-14 workers who are skilled in loading and unloading manually.

When we approached the Nuba "kullah", whose members were busy loading cotton bales and were peeking at us with apprehension, and as soon as we introduced them to us as journalists, they revolted and started screaming, "This is a workplace, not a place of politics ... we don't want any words."

It was noteworthy that a member of the entire Nuba community belongs to the components of the Red Sea region and not from the people of the Nuba Mountains who migrated decades ago to Port Sudan with the intention of working in the ports.

Low income


and most of the loading and unloading workers live on 3 dollars a day for the worker in the best working conditions.

Ibrahim Kurtkila Kadfour - who is the head of "kullah" from Nuba - says that his workers work on a daily basis, at best, between 600 and 700 pounds, which is equivalent to about 3 dollars.

And Kurtkila preferred to talk to Al-Jazeera Net after he moved away from his workers, saying, "We work 3 or 4 days, and then we may not find work for a week. Work is tiring and there is no social or medical insurance."

He points out that the lack of guarantees of continuing work, and the absence of fixed salaries in light of the weak income that is not sufficient for the value of transportation, breakfast and the subsistence of the worker's family makes them feel insecure.

Kurtkila says that he has been working since 1985 when he was calculating the load in the penny until the system changed to calculate the penny two years ago, and now he is struggling with the blocks to calculate the pound.

Work rhymes and


in a warehouse close to “Kulla” Nuba, “Kullah” Bunni Amer used to load sesame prepared for export, amidst enthusiastic songs glorifying “Baroot” - which is the local name for the city of Port Sudan - by chanting: “Sudan is with the heads of the high mountains .. Khartoum is a precious country.” .

According to Saleh Muhammad Mahmoud, head of Al-Bunni Amer Cluster for Al-Jazeera Net, the meager incomes of his workers make them exhausted and without adequate health care.

He says that "kullah" is a profession without social or health guarantees, because it is hard work and cruel daily, "meaning the livelihood of today and today."

Mahmoud does not seem preoccupied with the tribal conflict, given that all ethnic groups in the city work in the profession of loading and unloading, and their concern is to improve their working conditions more than the conflict.

In the same context, Kurtkila says that he has been working in this profession since 1985, and he witnessed the first conflict between his Nuba and Bani Amer tribe in Port Sudan in 1986, and he witnessed the last confrontations, but they moved away from friction with their work.

Before he cared about Kurtakila to return to his workers, he dabbed his friend Hussein from the Bani Amer tribe, then left the place.

There is a conspiracy and


in the headquarters of the Cooperative Society of Stevedoring Workers, Muhammad Nur Abdullah, an employee of the Cooperation Department, does not hide his surprise at the outbreak of tribal conflict between a group working in one place and repeating the same songs.

Abdullah expresses his conviction that what is happening between the Nuba and Bani Amer is not a tribal strife, because if it is, it must move to the workplace that brings them together.

The Secretary General of the Stevedoring Workers Association, Othman Mohamed Bel-Eid, attributes the lack of conflict between the clusters, despite the charged atmosphere in the city, to the fact that the clans, with all their nationalities and trends, take off the dress of tribe and party as soon as they arrive at the workplace.

He points out that in the past workers - whether they were Nuba, Al-Bunni Amer or Hadandawa - worked together in one "whole" and one store before the conflict flared up.

Eid, who has headed the Stevedoring Workers Association since 1967, acknowledges the lack of basic rights related to medical and social insurance, but refers to efforts with the Port Authority to improve wages.

The year of development.


The demands of improving the conditions of loading and unloading workers seem to be a luxury in light of the "clubbing" profession, which is in the wind as a result of the year of development, as all offers of foreign partnerships to develop Sudan's ports collide with the fate of the stevedoring workers.

According to Al-Eid, the association is preparing for the development winds that will inevitably blow into an agent-owned company that provides the process of loading and unloading through machinery.

The Acting Director General of the General Authority for Maritime Ports, Essam El Din Hassabo, is betting on the Stevedoring Workers Company so that "Alkat" will not be a victim of the upcoming development plans.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, he believes that the Sudanese government should be a partner in any investment or partnership to develop ports to take into account the "clashes" of the ports.

And until the company of loading and unloading workers sees the light and the tribal war ends, the condition of the "kallat" will remain with their shabby clothes clinging to their slender bodies due to excessive temperatures and humidity, as described by the late Sudanese poet Muhammad al-Hassan Salem Hamid, which was sung by the late Mustafa Sayed Ahmed:

Urban workers ... port agencies

Aggressive stupidity

Sailors of ships .. the shiglanto (coin) fire

How is the atmosphere heated up ”.