The Sudanese Government has announced the postponement of the World Conference on Gum Arabic scheduled to take place in Khartoum between May 1 and May 3.
The notice of the postponement was contained in a letter to Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, by the Sudanese Embassy in Abuja.
In a statement issued on the letter on Tuesday by the minister, the postponement of the conference was said to be due to the current political situation in that country.
“The letter said the conference will now take place in October, 2019.
“The Sudanese Embassy regrets the inconveniences the postponement might have caused,” the minister’s statement quoted the letter as saying.
It will be recalled that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTD) had chosen Sudan to host World Conference on Gum Arabic, because the country was ranking on top of Gum Arabic production at the rate of 80 per cent of the total international production.
Sudanese Gum Arabic belt extends in 12 states in the country bordering with Ethiopia and Eretria in the east and state of Chad and Central Africa in the west.
Gum Arabic trees cover large areas inside the African Belt in which live about 15 million person.
In Sudan there are various kinds of Gum Arabic trees such as Acacia Senegal gum that is used in reducing rates of patients with kidney failure and frankincense- gum used in manufacturing drugs for chest diseases and asthma treatment.
There are also Al-Talah Gum for producing cosmetics, Gum Arabic used in many other pharmaceutical and nutrition, while states in Western Europe are considered traditional market for Gum Arabic.
Crisis had, however, engulfed Sudan following the removal of President Omar al-Bashir by the military after months of anti-government protests against his three-decade rule.
A military council led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan is now in power and says it will oversee a transitional period that will last a maximum of two years.
The ousted president had been moved to Kobar maximum security prison, days after he was deposed in a military coup.
Demonstrators, however, are demanding that the country’s military ruler immediately hand over power to a civilian-led government.(NAN)
