Obtaining a meal is no longer available to thousands of displaced people in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, after dozens of hospices (charity kitchens) were forced to stop working completely, or reduce their activities. Due to the lack of financial resources, while the number of people in need increases, in contrast to the decline in the ability of charitable initiatives to continue.
Al-Sadiq Siddiq, one of the supervisors of a hospice in the city of Omdurman, says: “We are facing increasing difficulties due to the scarcity of financial support from philanthropists and donors, which has prompted us to reduce the number of meals provided to families,” adding that “the situation is getting worse with the escalation of hunger rates among the poor and needy,” stressing that the crowding for food “has reached painful levels, with some citizens fighting with fists to get a share of beans or lentils, which are provided by the charity kitchen.” These conditions push more families to face hunger and the inability to provide the minimum amount of food.”
One meal a day
For his part, Abbas Mahjoub, who works as a supervisor of a charity kitchen in the East Nile region, says that the number of families who were benefiting from the charity kitchen exceeded 800 families before it stopped, pointing out that citizens are now relying on one meal a day, in light of the inability to provide their basic food needs.
As for Al-Bukhari Ishaq, who supervises a charity kitchen in Al-Jarif (east), he confirms for his part that he stopped working more than 8 months ago, after the decline in the support he was receiving directly from the East Nile Emergency Room, through grants allocated to charitable kitchens.
Al-Bukhari told Asharq Al-Awsat that the scarcity of donations and the decline in the contributions of donors, including the World Food Program and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), greatly affected the continuation of the kitchen’s activity, adding that the kitchen “was providing daily meals to about 400 families, which made it expected that hundreds of families would lose a basic source of obtaining food, in light of the difficult living conditions.”
In turn, Al-Touma Al-Jack, who supports a family of 9 people, told Asharq Al-Awsat that her grandchildren “left school due to the inability to provide breakfast meals and transportation fare, in addition to their inability to buy school supplies, such as clothes, shoes, books, and notebooks.”
She adds in a sad tone: “Sometimes there are days when my children do not find enough food to eat.”
According to Al-Jack’s testimony, her family relied on the charity kitchen to provide food, and therefore the cessation of these kitchens meant “slow death” for them, especially in light of the high prices, which made providing food beyond the capacity of many families.
Therefore, she expressed her hope that the war would stop, and peace would return to the country, so that people could live in dignity.
Hunger worsened
As for Salwa Abdullah Adam, whose husband died during the war after being hit by a shell, she suddenly found herself solely responsible for supporting 7 children, the youngest of whom is an infant no more than 9 months old.
Salwa, who stands in a long line in front of the charity kitchen to get a simple meal to satisfy her children’s hunger, says: “Life conditions are getting harsher day after day.”
She adds that her children go to school without money, then return home to eat whatever corn porridge is available, while the family is unable to provide for their daily needs.
Regarding health care, Salwa explains that some charitable doctors sometimes help her obtain medicines for her children from pharmacies, but when adults get sick, they have no choice but to be patient and take painkillers.
“Takiya” meal
Ali Abdullah Youssef’s suffering is not much different from other families, who rely on “hospice” to obtain one meal a day. He says: “The conditions are very difficult, and without this charitable (hospice) we would not have been able to obtain food.”
He added that the cessation of these charitable kitchens puts his family in a real dilemma in light of the absence of sources of income and the high cost of living.
The testimonies of the beneficiaries of these charitable kitchens embody the extent of the suffering caused by their cessation, especially for families who have lost their sources of income and have no choice but to wait for the meals provided by these charitable initiatives.
This increasing suffering to provide a living comes at a time when international warnings are increasing about the worsening food crisis in Sudan. On October 26, dozens of countries, including the United States and major European countries, expressed their concern about the continuing deterioration in food security in the country, and called on both parties to the conflict to remove all obstacles to the arrival of humanitarian aid.
Last June, the Integrated Interim Classification for Food Security Initiative said that about 5.1 million people in Sudan face acute hunger, in light of the repercussions of the ongoing war since 2023, the damage it has caused to the agricultural sector, and the difficulties that farmers faced in harvesting their crops. In addition to the drought that the country recently witnessed.
Israeli moves to position themselves in the separatist region of “Somaliland” with the first ambassador handing over his credentials in Hargeisa, in a move that strengthens Tel Aviv’s presence in the Horn of Africa, and presents Mogadishu with political, diplomatic, and security challenges to preserve its territorial integrity, and confront the repercussions of this expansion.
The move was met with Arab condemnation, and Somalia considered it a “violation of its sovereignty.” He stressed that he “reserves the right to take measures to preserve his country’s sovereignty.” According to experts in African affairs who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat, “the options are limited, the most prominent of which is international diplomatic action supported by Arabs, and the unification of the internal front.”
Experts warned that “any Somali military movements will exacerbate the matter, and may invite other parties to enter, and increase tensions in the Horn of Africa region.”
Michael Lotem presented his credentials as Israel's ambassador to Somaliland to the president of the separatist region, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi (Aro), last Sunday, at the presidential palace in the city of Hargeisa.
According to the Hebrew website "i24NEWS", the credentials presentation ceremony included laying the foundation stone for a future Israeli embassy in the regional capital. While Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said, “Israel is determined to develop and strengthen its relations with Somaliland.”
On Monday, Somalia's ambassador to Egypt, Ali Abdi Awari, affirmed his country's categorical rejection of Israel's accreditation of an ambassador to Somaliland, explaining in a statement at the time that his country "will continue to uphold its full sovereign rights, defend its national unity, and the integrity of its lands by all legitimate diplomatic and legal means, and will not accept any attempts to impose a fait accompli that detracts from its sovereignty, or affects the unity of its people and land."
The Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs also expressed its categorical rejection of that step, calling on Israel to “retract these steps,” adhere to the principles of international law, and respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Somalia.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the Somali government “reserves its right to take whatever diplomatic, political, and legal measures it deems appropriate,” in defense of the country’s sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity, without clarifying those positions.
Regarding Mogadishu’s options, the Somali expert in African affairs, Ali Mahmoud Kalni, believes that “the most effective option is to combine international legal and diplomatic action, unify the internal front, strengthen state institutions, and build regional and international partnerships based on common interests and respect for international law.”
He called for the Somali government to avoid any “uncalculated” military or security reactions, stressing that “turning the dispute into an open confrontation may open the way for regional and international parties to exploit Somali divisions and further complicate the crisis.”
On the other hand, the expert in African affairs, Abdel Moneim Abu Idris, believes that “Somalia does not have the tools in its hand to limit the growing Israeli presence in the region after its ambassador arrived in Hargeisa,” pointing out that “the territorial integrity of Somalia has become an unattainable dream after (Somaliland) began to gain recognition for it.”
The Arab position is still supportive of Mogadishu on the path of rejection, and the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Nabil Fahmy, condemned “the Israeli move to accredit an ambassador and the intention to open an embassy in Somaliland,” warning in a statement on Monday “against dividing Somalia and exploiting the differences of its people to strengthen Israeli military and political influence off the Gulf of Aden.”
The Arab League Council had previously announced its “rejection and condemnation of the Israeli steps aimed at dividing Somalia.”
According to Kalni, the Arab League can “strengthen Mogadishu’s position politically and diplomatically, and coordinate the actions of member states of the United Nations and international institutions, especially since the issue is linked to the security of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, in addition to its potential repercussions on Arab interests in the region.”
According to Kalni, the African Union represents “one of the most important parties that Somalia can rely on, given the organization’s historical adherence to the principle of respecting the borders inherited upon independence for fear that opening the door to unilateral recognition would encourage other separatist tendencies on the continent.”
The importance of the role of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Djibouti - along with neighboring African countries - in supporting regional stability and respecting the territorial integrity of Somalia is also highlighted, in addition to the fact that China, the European Union, and the United States can play influential roles in preventing this development from turning into a new source of security and military competition in the region, according to Kalni.
But Abu Idris believes that “the Arab League could move to support Mogadishu, although the impact of its movements will be limited,” and warns that “the growing Israeli presence will increase the intensity of competition in the sensitive region that controls important waterways, opening the door to new tensions.”
During a consultative meeting in the Libyan House of Representatives on the economic crisis in the country, the Speaker of the Council, Al-Salihin Abdel Nabi, called for “preparing a comprehensive national plan for economic and financial reform, going beyond temporary remedies, and enhancing local production.”
Abdul Nabi said during the meeting hosted by the House of Representatives in the city of Benghazi, on Wednesday, with experts and specialists in the economic and financial fields, that the current stage requires moving from diagnosing problems and exchanging views to “the stage of serious and responsible work,” calling for developing solutions based on scientific and professional foundations, and benefiting from national experiences and competencies.
In the meeting, which was coordinated with the National Planning Council, and in the presence of the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya, Fawzi Abu Khuzam, Abdel Nabi called for the formation of working teams and joint committees of experts to prepare practical visions as quickly as possible, with their outputs including executable and follow-up procedures, while specifying the entities responsible for each procedure and the timetables necessary for its completion.
Abdel Nabi painted a bleak picture of the living and economic conditions of citizens, and identified rationalizing public spending, enhancing financial discipline, and directing resources towards national priorities among the most prominent reform axes, in addition to diversifying sources of income, reducing dependence on oil, and developing productive sectors.
Within the framework of import control, the Speaker of the House of Representatives called for setting an import budget within the state’s general budget, with a specific financial ceiling not exceeded by bank credits, while directing it to the country’s actual needs, most notably food, medicine, feed, and manufacturing materials, reviewing other import aspects, and excluding non-essential and recreational goods from financing priorities.
He also stressed the need to support national factories, provide raw materials and production requirements, and direct funds to factories that engage in real production activity, taking into account the needs of the industrial sector when preparing import budgets, in a way that helps increase local production and meet market needs.
Regarding the fuel subsidy file, Abdel Nabi called for the preparation of an integrated study to reorganize the subsidy, develop mechanisms to ensure that eligible citizens benefit from it, and limit its use to the targeted groups, in a way that achieves the goals for which state resources were allocated, and contributes to improving the management of public spending.
The same official also called for addressing distortions in the exchange market, enhancing confidence in the banking sector, improving the investment environment, supporting the private sector, and creating sustainable job opportunities, in addition to enhancing transparency, governance, and oversight of the management of public money.
These moves come as an extension of Abdul Nabi’s positions during the House of Representatives session in Sebha, last Monday, when he announced that “next year’s budget will be unified, and will include the chapters stipulated by law, with the first chapter allocated to salaries only, canceling the other items from it, and allocating the fourth chapter to support and necessary needs.”
On Wednesday, Abdel Nabi expressed his hope that the consultative meeting would result in a unified economic vision and completed recommendations that form the basis of a comprehensive reform plan that can be implemented and followed up, stressing that Libya possesses the resources, capabilities and competencies that qualify it to build a strong and sustainable economy.
These calls come amid continuing pressure on the Libyan dinar, rising prices, declining purchasing power, and escalating controversy over the size of public spending, the distribution of oil revenues, and oversight of financial institutions.
Although “budget unification” represents an important step towards addressing the financial and institutional division, the implementation of the proposed reforms remains linked to consensus between the Libyan parties on managing revenues and spending, ensuring the independence of financial institutions, transparency and accountability, and preventing double spending, in light of the continuing current division in the country, according to observers.
