Cairo/Beirut/Amman/Khartoum (EFE) they no longer have a roof over their homes after the devastating earthquakes last month.
Although this 2023 will be able to be more social than the previous ones, which were limited by the covid-19 restrictions, this year they will have less to put on the table.
“What Ramadan?”
In Syria, where 90% of the population lives in poverty in the midst of a serious economic crisis and a prolonged armed conflict, the typical feasts of these dates are a thing of the past, especially this year due to the devastating earthquakes that shook the country on February 6 and killed almost 3,700 people, according to official counts.
What Ramadan? We badly try to buy bread and some essential products. Ramadan is about empathizing with the poor and now we are the poor, it is not us who must empathize, it is the world that must do it, “denounced Mohamed, 37 years old.
This resident of the northwestern city of Aleppo explained to EFE that many residents of the area are still displaced in the homes of relatives or shelters as a result of the earthquakes, while prices continue to skyrocket “rapidly.”
This year, his family will break their fast with what they can prepare from rice, oil and other basic products that come in a box with food aid donated once a month by a nearby Christian church.
Like all Syrians, he said, they will continue to miss the “taste of chicken and meat.”
“I remember that before we used to have feasts not only for ourselves, but for everyone, but now no one is able to feed himself. And that’s just talking about food, what about clothes for the kids and little gifts? Or even take a walk? We live in the midst of destruction,” concluded Mohamed.
Desserts in installments
In Egypt, the severe economic crisis that is shaking families hard and where the local currency has lost almost 50% of its value in just one year also marks this holy month.
Rana Abdel Wahab, a dentist and mother of two children, told EFE that “due to the economic crisis and high prices, I cannot buy freely. You have to choose what you buy well and only think about the basic needs of the house ”.
In the streets of the Cairo neighborhoods it is normal during this sacred month to find lights and handmade decorations in the shape of the moon and stars on the balconies, buildings and shops. Although this year, even in that the Egyptians need to save.
Abdel Wahab explained that he always bought new decorations for the house and lanterns for the children, but this year he used the paper ones from other years and preferred “not to hang the lights so as not to consume a lot of electricity, whose bills also went up a lot.”
The most bitter thing about this Ramadan has been that the famous pastry shops have announced the possibility of buying the famous typical “kunafa” sweets (cheese dough, angel hair and syrup) in installments, for up to 3 months without interest, which caused a great controversy in the social networks before the “ironic” economic situation of the country.
Empty markets and high prices
Sudanese, who have lived through rampant inflation and instability in recent years that they hope will soon come to an end, used to go to the markets to fill their fridges, but now those souks are “empty”.
The president of the Sudanese Society for Consumer Protection, Yasser Mirghani, told EFE that “now the markets are almost empty due to the state of economic recession and the high prices of basic products, which is reflected in the little movement of buys”.
In Jordan, citizens have been preparing themselves since the government has been raising prices in previous months so that “they don’t feel it,” Ahmed al Isa, from the Jordanian province of Mafraq (north), told EFE.
The head of the Jordanian National Society for Consumer Protection, Husein al Amush, assured EFE that the association carried out a study a month ago on the reality of prices, compared it with the two weeks prior to the study period and “it was found that there was an increase in prices between 7% and 14%” in basic products.
