KHARTOUM: Sudan on Monday announced it will no longer subsidise wheat imports nine months after promising to maintain the subsidy for 2015, and insisted that bread prices will not be affected. The move follows a drop in worldwide wheat prices, State Minister for Finance Abdelrahman al-Darar said.

“We have decreased the subsidy without affecting the people,” he said, referring to the possible knock-on effect on the cost of bread. In September 2013, Khartoum slashed fuel subsidies, sparking huge street protests — the worst urban unrest in Sudan in two decades — as retail prices soared by more than 60 per cent.