Sudan junta threatens to cut tea imports from Kenya

Sudan’s military government in Port Sudan says it will announce measures of sourcing tea from other markets in a protest to Nairobi for hosting rivals in the Rapid Support Forces.

And the junta which accused Nairobi of “an act of hostility” says it will avoid Kenyan tea, just days after it said it had recalled Sudan’s ambassador to Nairobi Kamal Jabbara for “consultations.”

A statement from the junta’s ministry of culture and information said Sudan is protesting Kenya’s insistence to host RSF and its allied movements.

“A government committee has been established to explore alternative sources of tea from other African and Asian countries, and to implement a ban on the import of Kenyan tea to Sudan,” said a statement quoting Culture and Information minister Khaled Al-Aiser, who said it was a response President William Ruto's insistence to host the groups.

Sudan, Egypt, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates have been Kenya’s traditionally biggest markets for its tea. When the war between RSF and the Sudan Armed Forces began in April 2023, tea exports dropped by more than 70 percent, according to the Tea Board of Kenya.

In peace times, Kenya sent at least 1.5 million kilos of tea to Sudan every month and earned some $18 million per year.

Before Omar al-Bashir was deposed in 2019, Kenya used to earn about $30 million a year from tea to Sudan. 

Now in wartime, those revenues had dropped to $5 million, the result of difficult routes to be used for exports. 

Overall, Kenya earned a total of $1.5 billion in 2024 from tea sales.

It is unclear how the junta could impose a ban on tea imports however, given they are still battling for control of territories across Sudan with the RSF. Yet the protestations could still pass a message across of their discomfort with Kenya’s move.

Kenya insists it is providing a “a platform for key stakeholders - including political parties, civil society, and other actors - to engage in a process aimed at stopping the tragic slide of Sudan into anarchy,” according to President William Ruto. He said on Saturday this will create “a pathway towards sustainable peace.”

Sudan has used trade threats before to restore relations with Kenya. In 2010, a Kenyan High Court issued an arrest warrant on then leader Omar al-Bashir, who is under an indictment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

While Kenya didn’t arrest Bashir when he toured Kenya, Bashir himself had threatened to close the Sudanese airspace on Kenya if it went ahead to implement the arrest warrant.

The leadership of the RSF including Mohamed Hamdani Dagalo Hemedti, as well as Sudanese military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan are today under US sanctions for genocide and war crimes.

The African Union also suspended Sudan for a coup Burhan and Hemedti conducted in October 2021, toppling the transitional government of Abdallah Hamdok. The two generals later fell out but Burhan has marketed himself as representative of a legitimate Sudanese authority.