Kenya is one of Sudan’s most important trading partners but since last week imports from East Africa’s biggest economy to the war-torn country have been interdicted.
From a trade volume valued at $37 million a few years before the conflict in Sudan in 2023 to just $18 million last year, the import of Kenyan goods such as tea, coffee and other industrial products has witnessed a sharp drop.
Due to the conflict, the Khartoum branch of British American tobacco (BAT) was forced to close shop, incurring 2 billion Shillings in losses for Kenya.
After last week’s decision by Khartoum to ban all direct trade with Kenya, this could drop even further.
Sudan has alternative trade corridors for Kenyan goods through Egypt and some parts of the Middle East, which could guarantee the availability of food items.
The authorities in Khartoum are apparently infuriated by Kenya’s level of involvement with the Rapid Support Forces, one of the protagonists in Sudan’s ongoing civil conflict.
Cutting trade with Kenya is the Sudanese authorities way of showing their displeasure over Nairobi hosting representatives of the RSF in Nairobi last week.
As a result all imports from Kenya passing through all entry points including by sea, land and air have been interdicted.
The paramilitary group led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo have been locked in an armed conflict with the military junta under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan since April 2023.
The warring sides have fought themselves to a stalemate but thousands of people mainly civilians have been killed while millions more have been displaced in and out of the country.
Trade and finance minister Omar Ahmed Mohamed Ali last week announced a decree banning all Kenyan products bound for the country and the reason for taking such a course of action is Kenya ‘entertaining’ RSF leaders in Nairobi, where a charter for the formation of a parallel government in Sudan was signed.
Sudan sees this as a hostile act by its neighbour.
Last month Kenya called on other factions in Sudan to rally behind the RSF in an alliance with a view to establishing a unity government.
This stance did not go down well with authorities in Khartoum who believe this suggestion from Nairobi had taken the military junta out of the political equation for the future of Sudan.
The African Union and the international community have warned against the prospect of a parallel government over fears that it could split the country into two.
The situation in Libya where two parallel regimes backed by different armed factions had prolonged the country’s politico-military crisis is all too familiar.
WN/as/APA