As of February 2024, 249,555 internally displaced persons (IDPs) are seeking refuge in the Red Sea state, the majority of them in Port Sudan (IOM, 2024b, pp. 2, 25). These IDPs arrived mostly from Khartoum, and include Sudanese citizens and foreign nationals, among others. The option to leave the country through Port Sudan—by air or sea—coupled with the city’s ability to issue passports, has contributed to the inflow of people.
In mid-December 2023, the war expanded into Al-Jazira state and led to a huge increase in IDPs in Port Sudan. More than half of them ended up with relatives in host communities, and just over 30 per cent sheltered in rented accommodations; others resided in schools and public buildings, or in temporary shelters erected in open spaces (IOM, 2024a, p. 25).
About 13 per cent of IDPs in Port Sudan are also refugees, including from Chad, Eritrea, Niger, South Sudan, and Syria (IOM, 2023, p. 25; Tashtankulov, 2023). Their displacement to Port Sudan poses a huge challenge to the eastern state, which is devoid of refugee camps and humanitarian infrastructure. IDPs and refugees sheltering in newly set up centres suffer from overcrowding, lack of clean water, a shortage of food, and limited electricity and sanitation services. These challenges increase their vulnerability to communicable diseases (IOM, 2023, p. 25).
Formal housing costs spiked following the initial inflow of people fleeing Khartoum, but decreased as demand waned and the Sudanese diaspora, expats, and others left Sudan. Most IDPs in Port Sudan, however, lack the means to support themselves, adding pressure on the government and aid agencies to support them.
When the war spread into Al-Jazira state in mid-December, thousands more people fled to Port Sudan, engendering an increase in the prices of basic goods and housing. The cost of renting a small house (two rooms and a kitchen) in the peripheral neighbourhoods of the city reached SDG 750,000 (about USD 650) per month. As for furnished apartments, the monthly rent reached the equivalent of USD 2,000 for a large one, and about USD 1,500 for a one-room apartment.
This war has exposed how Sudan’s centralized system of governance, combined with the rudimentary infrastructure upholding it, limits the distribution of aid—factors that further compound the current humanitarian crisis across Sudan. In Port Sudan, high temperatures just after the breakout of war intensified the impact of electricity and water shortages. Cash flow problems resulted in prolonged power outages in the city throughout May (Radio Dabanga, 2023b). Water shortages linked to limited power supply saw the price of a full jerry can of fuel reach SDG 3,000 (USD 3).[1]
The dire economic conditions in Port Sudan stem from the same national dynamics of inequality and underdevelopment that contributed to the eventual destruction of the centre of the country during this war. As the situation stands, social unrest may well materialize in Port Sudan, causing further disruption of government services and compounding challenges for the delivery of humanitarian aid. The December Revolution’s call for equal representation through democracy, in which the decentralization of services is a key component, continues to dominate public debate, and is considered even more urgent by prodemocratic groups in the face of the current crisis.
[1] Author interview with Hassan Alnaser, freelance journalist, Port Sudan, Sudan, 13 October 2023.
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