Trade losses from S. Sudan conflict estimated at 50 million SDG: merchant

January 13, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese merchants in South Sudan’s Malakal and Bor towns have lost an estimated 50 million pounds (SDG) as a result of the ongoing conflict, which led to widespread destruction and looting of properties.

Ahmed Awad al-Seed, a Sudanese trader in Malakal, said in press statements that Malakal’s grand market was fully destroyed, saying 100 shops belonging to Sudanese merchants were completely burned and looted.

He estimated each shop’s loss at 500,000 pounds, adding that foreign traders who also lost their properties had fled town, while Sudanese merchants in Bor were also affected by the conflict.

However, Al-Seed said that Sudanese merchants in Juba were in a relatively betetr position, having not been as badly affected as their compatriots in Malakal and Bor.

The total number of merchants impacted by the ongoing conflict in South Sudan is estimated at 2,000, particularly in areas which witnessed armed clashes between the two conflicting parties.

Conflict erupted in South Sudan in med-December after fighting among a group of soldiers in the capital, Juba. The violence quickly spread to several states, cleaving the nation along the ethnic faultline of former vice-president-turned rebel leader Riek Machar’s Nuer and president Salva Kiir’s Dinka.

An analyst from the International Crisis Group (ICG) was quoted by the New York Times last Friday as saying nearly 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict. In December, the United Nations put the death toll at about 1,000.

(ST)