Sudan Running Out of Essential Medicine, Fuel and Wheat Due to Port Blockade

FILE PHOTO: A man stands opposite the modern port at the harbor in Port Sudan at Red Sea State February 24, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A man stands opposite the modern port at the harbor in Port Sudan at Red Sea State February 24, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
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Sudan Running Out of Essential Medicine, Fuel and Wheat Due to Port Blockade

FILE PHOTO: A man stands opposite the modern port at the harbor in Port Sudan at Red Sea State February 24, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A man stands opposite the modern port at the harbor in Port Sudan at Red Sea State February 24, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo

Sudan is about to run out of essential medicine, fuel and wheat after political protests forced the closure of Port Sudan, the main port in the east of the country, the cabinet said on Sunday.

Members of eastern Sudan’s Beja tribes have blocked roads and forced Red Sea ports to close in recent weeks in protest at what they say is the region’s lack of political power and poor economic conditions there, Reuters reported.

The cabinet acknowledged eastern Sudan’s “just cause” and stressed the right to peaceful protest, but warned that the closure of Port Sudan and highways connecting the east with the rest of the country was “harming the interests of all Sudanese.”

In a statement, it pledged to work on a political solution to the problems of eastern Sudan and called on the protesters to start a dialogue with the government.

The demonstrators agreed last month to allow the resumption of exports of crude oil from landlocked South Sudan via a terminal on the Red Sea.

They had also forced the closure of a pipeline that carries imported crude to the capital Khartoum.



Iraq Seizes More than One Ton of Captagon Pills Shipped from Syria

Pills, which according to fighters loyal to the new ruling Syrian body are captagon, lay scattered next to a container, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria December 12, 2024. (Reuters)
Pills, which according to fighters loyal to the new ruling Syrian body are captagon, lay scattered next to a container, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria December 12, 2024. (Reuters)
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Iraq Seizes More than One Ton of Captagon Pills Shipped from Syria

Pills, which according to fighters loyal to the new ruling Syrian body are captagon, lay scattered next to a container, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria December 12, 2024. (Reuters)
Pills, which according to fighters loyal to the new ruling Syrian body are captagon, lay scattered next to a container, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria December 12, 2024. (Reuters)

Iraq's security forces have seized an estimated 1.1 ton of captagon pills hidden inside a truck that entered Iraq from Syria via Türkiye, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday.

The drug shipment, the largest ever seized in Iraq, was tracked and intercepted with the assistance of "important information" provided by Saudi's drug enforcement agency, the Interior Ministry spokesperson Brigadier Muqdad Meri said in a televised statement.

Western anti-narcotics officials say the addictive, amphetamine-type stimulant known as captagon has for years been mass-produced in Syria.

Captagon - a mix of amphetamines also known as the "poor man’s cocaine" - is one of the more popular recreational drugs in the Middle East.