People queue at a fuel station in Khartoum, Sudan, June 12, 2021. The Sudanese government's recent decision to further hike the fuel prices has provoked a new round of popular protests across the capital Khartoum. On Tuesday, the Ministry of Finance directed fuel stations to increase the price of a gallon of benzene from 675 Sudanese pounds (1.58 U.S. dollars) to 1,305 pounds, and the price of a gallon of diesel from 563 pounds to 1,282 pounds. (Xinhua/Mohamed Khidir)
KHARTOUM, June 10 (Xinhua) -- The Sudanese government's recent decision to further hike the fuel prices has provoked a new round of popular protests across the capital Khartoum.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Finance directed fuel stations to increase the price of a gallon of benzene from 675 Sudanese pounds (1.58 U.S. dollars) to 1,305 pounds, and the price of a gallon of diesel from 563 pounds to 1,282 pounds.
One day later, protests broke out on most of the streets in Khartoum, where young men barricaded the roads and burned car tires to express their fury at the decision to raise fuel prices.
"This is an unreasonable increase. The fuel prices can not be doubled in such a short period of time," Ali Ibrahim, a taxi driver in Khartoum, told Xinhua on Thursday.
"This immature and disastrous decision will have negative impacts and lead the country to a difficult situation," he said, adding the increases in fuel prices will affect the transport sector and then cause the inflation across Sudan.
Ahmed Al-Tayeb, a Sudanese economic analyst, criticized the government's decision as "catastrophic."
"It is obvious that the government does not have any other solutions to increase the revenues other than seizing the people's pockets," Al-Tayeb said.
"The decision to increase fuel prices will not help tackle the economic distortions as the government has claimed, but will create a deteriorating economic reality," he added.
The Sudanese Professionals Association, a member of the Freedom and Change Alliance that played a leading role in the regime change and establishment of the transitional government, has threatened to mobilize the street protests against the decision.
It accused the government of catering to international financial institutions, saying the transitional authority gives no consideration to the impact of the policies that may push millions of people to death from starvation and disease.
The Sudanese government is seeking eligibility for benefiting from the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative. Lifting subsidies on commodities is part of a package of measures the International Monetary Fund requires of Sudan in exchange for relief from the initiative.
Sudanese Finance Minister Jibril Ibrahim thus supported the decision and described it as "a painful remedy for chronically economic distortions."
"The government of transition is implementing painful economic measures, and there is no solution but to treat the disease with painful surgery," said Ibrahim at a press conference on Wednesday evening.
In September 2020, Sudan's transitional government approved liberalization of the fuel prices with a more than 400-percent increase.
According to the latest report by Sudan's Central Statistics Bureau, the inflation rate in the country jumped to about 342 percent in April.
Sudan has been undergoing an economic crisis since the secession of South Sudan in 2011 that cost Sudan 75 percent of its oil revenues.
In 2012, Sudan approved five packages to remove bread and fuel subsidies, which sparked a series of protests.
In December 2018, worsening economic conditions sparked popular protests across Sudan, leading to the ouster of former President Omar al-Bashir in April 2019. Enditem
