The lush palm groves of Karima are a long way from Sudan's battlefields, but the war's effects are all too present, leaving farmers struggling to find buyers for this year's harvest.
Sudan is the world's seventh-largest producer of dates, growing more than 460,000 tonnes per year, according to the United Nations. Photo: ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFPBut five months into the war between Sudan's rival generals, the country's economic infrastructure has been destroyed and"buyers are scared", farmer Al-Fatih al-Badawi, 54, told AFP.
But constant air strikes, artillery blasts and street battles have left the capital largely off-limits to traders, who fear for their safety or are turned back by fighters at checkpoints. Even before the war began, one in three people were in need of humanitarian aid and the country's farmers -- unable to meet domestic foodThe date sector in Karima had been in urgent need of"guidance and agricultural policy", as well as resources to reduce high rates of waste, said Al-Jarah Ahmed Ali, 45, another farmer.