Since its official opening in February 2019, the Export Road (Omdurman–Bara–Al-Obeid) has served as a strategic artery linking western Sudan’s agricultural and livestock production zones (Kordofan and Darfur) with the consumption and export hubs in the capital and on the coast. Stretching roughly 341 kilometres, this vital corridor connects the capital to central and western Sudan. Cut through the desert and its sands, the route shortens the distance between Al-Obeid and Omdurman compared with the old Nile Road, which passes through the towns of Kosti and Rabak before running alongside the White Nile down to south Khartoum.
After the outbreak of the April 15 war, the road became one of the central flashpoints of the ongoing conflict, changing hands repeatedly until the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) announced last July that it had recaptured it from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), following military operations that brought Bara, Jabrat al-Sheikh and Umm Sayala, then Jerejikh and Umm Qurfa — key stops along the route — under its control.
Expectations After the Road's Reopening
Economists, traders and consumers expect the road’s reopening and the resumption of traffic along it to bring a tangible shift in the efficiency of goods and production movement. Others, however, argue that changes in production and consumption patterns will limit how quickly the route’s full benefits can be realised. Al-Numan Farouk, an economist from Jerejikh, a town along the road, and a former lecturer at the University of Kordofan, told Atar that food grain stocks in producing areas have fallen sharply this year, both because insufficient farmland was cultivated last year and because of widespread looting of the stockpiles residents had built up in previous years. He believes the road’s opening can support an urgent relief plan by bringing agricultural inputs from Khartoum, helping farmers in producing areas catch up with the growing season. Farouk says the same fate befell livestock, much of which was looted or died from disease and drought.
Still, Farouk sees the road delivering near-term benefits for the movement of exports between producing and consuming regions. He notes that it cuts the distance between Omdurman and Al-Obeid by roughly 300 to 350 kilometres compared with the old route through Kosti — a reduction of about 50 per cent in trip length. That shorter distance, he says, lowers fuel consumption and truck maintenance costs, which directly narrows the “marketing margin,” the gap between the farm-gate price and the price paid by consumers or exporters.
A Knockout Blow to an Economy of Scarcity
The recapture of the Export Road is a knockout blow to the economy of scarcity that Al-Obeid has endured.
Al-Numan Farouk, economist and former lecturer at the University of Kordofan
Farouk points out that the SAF’s recapture of the road helps reduce post-harvest losses in crops such as sesame, groundnuts, sorghum and watermelon seed, which are highly sensitive to prolonged storage and poor storage conditions. Fast transport over a paved road preserves crop quality and the standards required by international markets, while also easing traders’ and companies’ access to major exchanges such as the Al-Obeid exchange and secondary markets in Bara, Jabrat al-Sheikh and Umm Indraba. That, he says, sharpens competition among buyers, guarantees fair prices for farmers and encourages them to expand cultivated areas.
Farouk describes the recapture of the Export Road as “a knockout blow to the economy of scarcity that Al-Obeid has endured,” calling it the first and most fundamental step toward reviving commercial activity and protecting residents’ purchasing power by lowering supply costs and making goods available at reasonable prices.
The economist sees control of the road as reviving the financial cycle for herders and small producers after long stretches of stagnation and blocked outlets for their goods, since it speeds shipments to and from Khartoum. That, in turn, stabilises supply and prices in local consumer markets: an uninterrupted, season-proof flow of goods helps curb fluctuations in red meat prices in the capital and neighbouring states and ensures a steady, fairly priced food supply.
Farmers on the Road Back
We currently need improved seed stock, we lost our reserves of it, and we hope it will flow in once the road opens.
Said al-Aqib, farmer from Jabrat al-Sheikh
Farmer Said al-Aqib is preparing to end his displacement in Al-Jazirah state, where he arrived last year, and return to his hometown of Jabrat al-Sheikh in North Kordofan in time for the growing season. He tells Atar that the rains that have begun falling are a good sign for farming, and voices optimism about the arrival of production inputs that had been unavailable throughout the past period. He hopes to plant a much larger area than last year, when his family cultivated only two makhamas (Mukhmas is a traditional Sudanese unit of agricultural land measurement, roughly equivalent to 1.73 to 1.75 feddans, though its size varies locally.) of sorghum and millet; he now plans to plant 20 makhamas, if production inputs become available. “We currently need improved seed stock — we lost our reserves of it, and we hope it will flow in once the road opens,” he adds. “It will come back to Khartoum multiplied within just four months, in large shipments that help secure the capital’s food stock.”
Like al-Aqib, Shamseldin Jabara al-Ayed, who owns a farm on the outskirts of Bara, hopes, along with other farmers, that the road will ease access to fertilisers, pesticides, improved seeds, pump spare parts and solar power systems, all of which were scarce and extremely costly while the road was cut off, with most of what remained looted or destroyed. Al-Ayed tells Atar that they hope reopening the road and reconnecting them to Khartoum will benefit their farms, most of which he says were destroyed while the RSF controlled the area.
A Paved Road for Livestock
Speaking to Atar, Hassanein Fawzi, a livestock trader in Bara, says he arrived in the city a week ago to explore resuming the trade he has worked in for 27 years. He believes the road’s reopening limits livestock losses and preserves market value, since transport by modern trucks helps in ways the alternative routes people had relied on could not. He notes that driving livestock on foot over long distances used to take weeks during the fighting, exhausting the animals and causing them to lose significant weight — with some dying en route — as well as raising the risk of looting or passage through checkpoints that the RSF, which controlled the road, used to set up.
He notes that before the RSF took control, the road helped traders, brokers and exporters reach the main livestock collection markets, such as Al-Obeid, Bara and Umm Ruwaba, boosting the efficiency of initial herd assembly for sheep, camels and cattle. In sum, he says, delays along alternative routes exhausted herds, caused deaths and led to weight loss. Shorter travel times, he adds, preserve herd health and meat quality, and he expects meat prices in the capital to fall in the coming period, since the road significantly shortens the distance compared with other routes and cuts both travel time and truck fuel consumption — which lowers the per-head transport fee and reduces the overall cost of supply.
Ziyada Salah Osman, who owns a butcher shop in Khartoum Bahri, says they hope the reopened road will increase livestock flows toward markets in Omdurman, Khartoum and the northern and eastern states, helping bring down or stabilise red meat prices, which are now at record highs.
Factories Awaiting Spare Parts
The arrival of spare parts would transform the city from a mere ‘consumer market’ for supplies brought in from outside into a ‘production hub’ that relies on its own capacity.
Mohamed Khair al-Taher, owner of a cooking oil-production factory in Al-Obeid
Mohamed Khair al-Taher, who owns a cooking oil-production factory in Al-Obeid, is pinning all his hopes on the road’s reopening to bring in spare parts he has lacked since the war began, needed to service the machinery of his small oil plant. He calls for the road to be used as an artery for the return of production tools and equipment. He tells Atar that the arrival of spare parts would transform the city from a mere “consumer market” for supplies brought in from outside into a “production hub” that relies on its own capacity, noting that Al-Obeid and North Kordofan generally are major producing regions for oilseed crops such as groundnuts, sesame and watermelon seed. Mohamed Khair adds that halted factories force farmers to sell their raw produce at rock-bottom prices or bear the cost of transporting it out of the state, while Al-Obeid residents end up buying oil at high prices.
He points out that securing spare parts and getting factories running would not only produce low-cost cooking oil for residents but also generate “ambaz,” the oilseed cake used for animal feed. Running even a small oil plant, he says, helps lower feed prices, which in turn benefits meat and dairy prices in the city. He calls on banks to offer financing facilities to producers like him so they can purchase production inputs once spare parts arrive.
