The complete closure of the land road between Sudan and Egypt threatens trade and travel

KHARTOUM - The

crisis of closing the national road linking Sudan and Egypt is rapidly escalating after the farmers' gathering announced a comprehensive escalation, starting from Sunday, banning the passage of land flights between the two countries, as well as commercial trucks.

The farmers' gathering in the northern state is demanding the cancellation of the electricity tariff approved by the government at the beginning of this year, as it is unrewarding and places a high cost on simple farmers.

Last week, the Sudanese Ministry of Energy and Finance amended the electricity tariff, according to which the kilowatt price of the local agricultural sector amounted to 9 pounds, and foreign agricultural investment 22 pounds.

universal closure

According to the group’s spokesman, Othman Khaled, an expanded meeting held last Thursday in which representatives of all northern farmers participated in the “comprehensive closure of the northern state by preventing the crossing of trucks and travel trips, with the exception of ambulances and humanitarian cases.”

Khaled told Al Jazeera Net that the assembly also decided to stop collections in all of the northern state, including the collection points located before the two closing sites, where farmers put barriers in the areas of Jisr Al-Hamdab (336 km north of Khartoum) and Al-Greer (about 347 km north of Khartoum) pending a government decision By canceling the new increase in electricity and solving the crisis of urea fertilizer, whose prices have skyrocketed, threatening the collapse of the winter agricultural season, according to the spokesman.

Dozens of trucks loaded with goods to and from Egypt and the northern cities of Sudan are piled up on both sides of the road after being prevented from passing for long days, but farmers have allowed small cars and travel buses to cross, as this road is vital in linking Sudan and Egypt by land.

With the new escalation decision, which will be implemented as of tomorrow, Sunday, travel flights will not be able to pass, which will exacerbate the situation and have negative effects on trade exchange with Egypt, and affect the incoming and outgoing movement between the two countries, as the North Road crosses more than 65% of the trade exchange. Between the two countries.

Egyptian exports to Sudan include many finished products, including chemicals, foodstuffs, machinery and equipment.

On the other hand, the Egyptian imports from Sudan come on top of live animals, sesame, groundnuts and cotton.

The volume of trade exchange between Sudan and Egypt reached more than 700 million dollars during the first half of 2021, according to a press release by the Egyptian Consul in Khartoum, Ahmed Adly, last month.

Egyptian exports to Sudan amounted to 419 million dollars, compared to 299 million dollars for imports from Sudan.

The economic advisor of the Egyptian Embassy in Khartoum, Tariq Qashua, also spoke in the same statement, saying that the figures show an increase in the volume of Egyptian exports to Sudan during the first half of the past year by 143% compared to the same period of 2020, and Egyptian imports from Sudan increased by 150.2%, and said that the volume of Egyptian imports from Sudan increased by 150.2%. The trade exchange between the two countries is supposed to not be less than 3 billion dollars annually.

An official document showing the volume of trade exchange between Sudan and Egypt during the year 2021 (Al-Jazeera)

spread rumors

Egyptian officials in Khartoum are talking about parties seeking to spread rumors and promote false information through a systematic campaign to disturb the atmosphere of Sudanese-Egyptian relations, says the media advisor to the Egyptian Embassy in Khartoum, Abdel Nabi Sadiq, in an interview with Al-Sudani newspaper.

Among the popular rumors is the use of the northern road to Sudan to smuggle, manufacture and export Sudanese raw materials as Egyptian, stressing that this is not true and is hard to believe.

And he continues, "How can Egypt manufacture and export a product without attaching a certificate of origin, for example, how can we claim the export and production of baobab in Egypt, and the whole world knows that baobab trees are not grown in Egypt, and that the laws of international trade, certificate of origin and electronic commerce are difficult to manipulate the origin of products".

And social media in Sudan was buzzing with videos and photos, showing Egyptian trucks loaded with various Sudanese goods being held on the northern road as smuggling of Sudanese goods to be re-manufactured in Egypt as a country of origin.

But Bakri Elias, one of the largest suppliers and importers from Egypt, tells Al Jazeera Net that the goods cannot leave Sudan without well-known bank documents and procedures according to a complete documentary cycle in which the customs and specifications authorities enter, without denying the existence of corruption by falsifying the issued papers by those who are called. Warraqa” who work to sell documents, which affects the economy by not returning the proceeds of the export, which should be paid attention to and combated, he says.

Elias confirms that the volume of trade exchange between Sudan and Egypt is very close, according to official reports indicating that exports to Sudan from Egypt amounted to 502 million dollars, while Egypt's imports from Sudan were 559 million during the year 2021.

severe damage

The closure of the North Road - according to Elias - severely affects the commercial movement and the economic situation, as it caused an increase in transport prices, given that the truck that arrived in Sudan within a week may be delayed for a month, and the cost of the shipment amounted to about 64,000 Sudanese pounds (a dollar equals 460 pounds), compared to about 53 thousand pounds before closing.

Elias also points out that the Sudanese product is seriously affected by the closure process, especially factories and livestock owners, especially that a large proportion of raw materials arrive from Egypt, and the latter imports large quantities of live livestock.

He expected that a noticeable gap would occur during the coming period in goods imported from Egypt, similar to what resulted in the closure of eastern Sudan, several months ago, with a noticeable scarcity of important goods, which eventually led to an increase in the prices of those available in the market.

Elias fears noticeable political effects on the movement of trade exchange between Sudan and Egypt, saying that the political agenda has begun to play a role in the escalating developments despite the just demands of farmers in the northern state and their refusal to increase electricity prices in an important agricultural season, which requires consideration of the matter wisely to prevent the country's economic collapse.

From the point of view of the spokesman for the farmers’ gathering, their expected move to comprehensive closure does not aim to achieve any political goals and does not aim in any way to trade with Egypt, but it is the only way to pressure towards implementing their demands to cancel the new electricity prices and provide fertilizer to enable farmers to catch up with the season.