Sudan’s troubled east is a microcosm of a wider crisis

In the central marketplace of Gedaref, eastern Sudan, Mohammed Siddig counts the cost of the past year’s turmoil. The price of fuel, which he needs to run his farm near the border with Ethiopia, is up by about 300%. School fees, which he pays for four of his children, have increased by 400%. Yet just as unrest at nearby Port Sudan hurt farmers’ exports, the state-owned agricultural bank cut their subsidies. “It’s totally unprofitable,” Mr Siddig laments. His sesame and sorghum harvest recently fetched about half what it had the previous year. Now he is in debt, which he underscores by slapping onto the counter a bag of chickpeas that he is buying on credit.