Daily Times

The Sudanese government is to be commended for its swift response to the coronavirus pandemic, there being just one death to date, and 19 cases of infection. Schools and universities have been closed since Monday and the transitional government has suspended international flights to and from the capital as well as a number of domestic air services.

The measures will help to save lives given that Sudan’s health service is woefully ill-equipped to deal with patients with acute symptoms. The country has fewer than seven doctors per thousand people and only 1 per cent of patients have some form of health insurance. Most are unable to pay the fees charged by private and public hospitals.

However, the snap decision to close the borders has stranded Sudanese citizens around the world. In Istanbul, 37 Sudanese nationals refused to disembark from a Turkish Airways plane for 14 hours until the airline gave reassurances about accommodation after they left the aircraft.

In a video streamed live on social media, Turkish officials are seen trying diplomatically to get the passengers to leave. Eventually, the Sudanese Consulate intervened and confirmed that Turkey would permit the Sudanese to enter Istanbul. This wasn’t true, apparently, and reports suggest that some passengers were manhandled once in the terminal, but their fate isn’t known.

Generally, the Sudanese are doing little to protect themselves against the virus, either because of suspicion about its presence or their inability to afford the preventative measures suggested by the government. The cost of face masks has risen ten-fold from $5 to $50 in the past week, for example, and despite a call by the authorities to restrict meetings in public places and follow “social distancing” advice, life continues almost as normal under extremely harsh economic conditions.

Critics say that the government is masking its inability to find solutions to the ongoing problems which now include a lack of transport, frequent electricity cuts, a shortage of cash in the ATMs and diminishing supplies of medicines and medical disposables.

Dealing with the coronavirus issue is no doubt at the forefront in the minds of Sudan’s transitional government officials who have created, to their credit, 200 more jobs to deal with the pandemic. For obvious reasons, the implication for the well-being of Sudan’s population is of great concern, but perhaps the greatest fear is that a major health crisis in the midst of the growing general disaffection could trip the country into acute social, political and economic unrest.

Nevertheless, for now, officials hope that the state of emergency and the fight against the spread of the virus will encourage the Sudanese to work with the transitional government, rather than against it.