Juba, South Sudan
April 28, 2022 — Citizens in Raja County of Western Bahr el Ghazal State decry rising prices of basic commodities saying they can hardly afford to feed their families.
Speaking to the media, Raja residents said at least 3.7 kilograms of sorghum which was sold at 700 SSP last month now costs 1,200 SSP and 3.7 kilograms of maize went up from 500 to 700 SSP.
A resident, identified as Hawa Idriss, said the cost of living is unbearable as prices of basic food items are skyrocketing.
“Food prices, especially Sorghum, maize, and groundnuts have become expensive,” she said.
According to Hawa the situation is even worst for large families saying they can’t afford to feed themselves.
“If you are ten or more family members with no money and you buy 3.7 kilograms of Sorghum, it will not be enough.”, Idriss said.
Another resident called Adam Ramadan Ahmed said many families cannot purchase food because they just returned from refugee camps in neighboring countries.
“The prices increased in just the last month. The citizens are suffering because they were refugees until recently and just returned from neighboring countries and they do not have any resources to support themselves and only try to cut firewood and poles which they sell to buy food.” , Said Ahmed.
According to Chairperson of County’s chamber of commerce , Kosho Dagigi Domoi, the problem of rising commodity prices is blamed on poor local food production and transport inaccessibility as the main cause for the inflation.
“Dura (Sorghum) prices have skyrocketed and the increment started four days ago. We are now demanding Dura but sugar and other items are imported from Western Bahr el Ghazal State and Sudan,” he said.
The Raja County Executive Director, Santino Selah, said the local authorities are aware of the dura scarcity.
“We just got the information yesterday that there is no dura, leave alone the skyrocketing prices. It is not available. Yesterday I went to the market and I got someone selling very small quantities inside the store,” Selah said.
