Nearly three and a half years into Sudan’s war, soaring costs and a nosediving currency have left residents struggling to afford basic staples. Most bakeries in Khartoum have shut their doors because of surging wheat prices and fuel shortages.
Sawsan Mahmoud, a 44-year-old mother of three, says she and her husband spend their combined salaries on bread alone. The price of a loaf in Khartoum has doubled from 250 to 500 Sudanese pounds over the past week. Mahmoud stated that the situation has become unbearable.
She said her household has reduced bread consumption to one meal a day. They must set aside 900,000 pounds, equivalent to 88 dollars, a month to buy it. That sum matches nearly her entire salary combined with her husband’s.
International organisations warn of spreading famine, which is already declared in parts of the country, while around 20 million people suffer from severe food insecurity. Inside one of the few bakeries still operating in the capital, Abir Mohammed complained that they used to eat bread with all their daily meals, but can no longer do that.
Sudan imports most of its wheat, making prices vulnerable to the failing local currency. Over the past month, the Sudanese pound has lost about 25 percent of its value against the dollar, hitting a record low of more than 10,500 pounds before recovering slightly to around 10,200 on Wednesday. The dollar was worth 500 Sudanese pounds in 2023, when the war broke out between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army.
Inside Mohammed Al-Fateh’s bakery in Khartoum, workers mixed flour, water and yeast into thick dough, dividing it into round discs before sliding them into the oven on long wooden paddles. Fateh noted that many bakeries have closed because there is no flour in the market. He said a person can spend a whole day or two at the distribution centre and still come back empty-handed.
In Khartoum’s southern Al-Azhari neighbourhood, Mutawakil Ahmed Babiker struggles to keep his bakery afloat after the price of flour doubled. He also pointed to power cuts that force him to buy fuel for the generator. He sells a loaf of bread for 500 pounds, which is less than production cost, but cannot raise the price because of people’s circumstances.
Khartoum and parts of eastern Sudan suffer widespread power outages after repeated drone attacks on power stations. Across the capital, Sudanese have returned to lining up outside public kitchens for free meals. Many of these kitchens had stopped operating when the army retook control of the capital and expelled the Rapid Support Forces in March 2025.
The Ombada Emergency Room in Omdurman, which coordinates community kitchens in the area, warned that the circle of need is expanding to include thousands of families and displaced people. It cautioned that a shortage of food supplies and soaring prices make access to even a single daily meal a dream.
Poverty rates in Sudan have soared to 80 percent, according to data from the central bureau of statistics, while inflation registered an astounding 99 percent last year. The falling currency has weakened the government’s ability to buy fuel, most of which the country imports. More than 200,000 people in South Kordofan and North Darfur states are experiencing famine, according to United Nations-backed reports that also warn it could spread to eight cities by 2027.
