Sudanese Land Grabs Contribute to Unrest

The Pulitzer Center posted on 30 May 2019 an article titled "Land Grabbing and Its Implications for Sudanese--Views from a Scholar" by Fredrick Mugira and Annika McGinnis. The article is based on an interview with Stefano Turrini, a scholar studying Sudanese dry lands agriculture as a PhD candidate at Padova University in Italy.

Since the beginning of this century, Sudan has significantly increased the number of long term leases it has granted to foreign companies for the purpose of growing and exporting food crops, animal feed such as alfalfa, and biofuels. These are often seen by Sudanese as land grabs and resulting in growing concerns. Most of the leases are obtained by companies from Qatar, Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Syria.