AFP, Aweil :
“I sell the small bottle of cooking oil for 140 SSP. Six months ago, it was 70. The customers complain,” said James Deng, an 18-year-old stallholder in Aweil, South Sudan.
In this regional market in the country’s northwest-just as at the main Konyokonyo market in the capital Juba, 800 kilometres (500 miles) to the south, and other towns across the country-prices of essential items have rocketed as a direct consequence of almost uninterrupted civil war since December 2013.
The South Sudanese Pound (SSP) has collapsed from 18.5 to the dollar in December 2015 to around 140 now in black market transactions in Juba. Inflation has reached record levels increasing by 730 percent in the 12 months up to August 2016, according to World Bank figures.
Adam Oumar, a shopkeeper in Aweil, sells red onions for 500 SSP per ‘malua’, an iron container used as a measuring unit and containing about four kilogrammes. Only six months ago, it cost 70 pounds.
“It’s now very expensive and people can’t afford it anymore, so they take little,” he said, standing in front of his shop, well-stocked like those of his neighbours, but lacking customers.
In Konyokonyo, Saturdays used to be the busiest in the hectic market, but in early June the dense maze of uneven paths contained just a few customers, shuffling between stalls dedicated to mattresses, plastic buckets and secondhand clothing in the section run by Sudanese traders.
Vegetables are sold in an area dominated by Ugandan merchants. Kamala, a 46-year-old schoolteacher, a basket of shopping in her hand, had a frustrating morning. “I came with 6,000 pounds but just see, this basket is not filled up.” She said she received her last wages in January and it was getting harder and harder to buy the basics.
Kamala should receive 2,000 pounds a month, a salary that has not increased for years. In early 2016 it was worth about $65 (58 euros). Now it’s worth just $15. This is a particular problem in South Sudan where almost everything is imported.
“This money we are pulling out now, it’s money we saved for the future, to cater for issues of children, medicine or education for children. But this money, now we are finishing it for food,” she said.
“I sell the small bottle of cooking oil for 140 SSP. Six months ago, it was 70. The customers complain,” said James Deng, an 18-year-old stallholder in Aweil, South Sudan.
In this regional market in the country’s northwest-just as at the main Konyokonyo market in the capital Juba, 800 kilometres (500 miles) to the south, and other towns across the country-prices of essential items have rocketed as a direct consequence of almost uninterrupted civil war since December 2013.
The South Sudanese Pound (SSP) has collapsed from 18.5 to the dollar in December 2015 to around 140 now in black market transactions in Juba. Inflation has reached record levels increasing by 730 percent in the 12 months up to August 2016, according to World Bank figures.
Adam Oumar, a shopkeeper in Aweil, sells red onions for 500 SSP per ‘malua’, an iron container used as a measuring unit and containing about four kilogrammes. Only six months ago, it cost 70 pounds.
“It’s now very expensive and people can’t afford it anymore, so they take little,” he said, standing in front of his shop, well-stocked like those of his neighbours, but lacking customers.
In Konyokonyo, Saturdays used to be the busiest in the hectic market, but in early June the dense maze of uneven paths contained just a few customers, shuffling between stalls dedicated to mattresses, plastic buckets and secondhand clothing in the section run by Sudanese traders.
Vegetables are sold in an area dominated by Ugandan merchants. Kamala, a 46-year-old schoolteacher, a basket of shopping in her hand, had a frustrating morning. “I came with 6,000 pounds but just see, this basket is not filled up.” She said she received her last wages in January and it was getting harder and harder to buy the basics.
Kamala should receive 2,000 pounds a month, a salary that has not increased for years. In early 2016 it was worth about $65 (58 euros). Now it’s worth just $15. This is a particular problem in South Sudan where almost everything is imported.
“This money we are pulling out now, it’s money we saved for the future, to cater for issues of children, medicine or education for children. But this money, now we are finishing it for food,” she said.
