KHARTOUM, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Sudan has kicked off the 11th Khartoum International Book Fair, with the participation of over 267 local and foreign publishing houses.
"Khartoum International Book Fair represents one of the biggest cultural and intellectual projects in Sudan," Al-Tayeb Hassan Badawi, Sudan's Minister of Culture, told reporters Sunday.
Sudan pays great attention to the fair and is keen to provide all facilitations to the participants, he stressed.
The fair kicked off on Saturday evening and will run untill Oct. 29.
Meanwhile, a number of participants have expressed their satisfaction over measures taken by the Sudanese government to make the fair successful.
"We have been participating in this fair for 11 years and I can say that this session is distinguished from the previous ones," Mohamed Abdul-Hameed, owner of the International House for Printing, Publication and Distribution in Egypt, told Xinhua.
He added that the Egyptian publishing houses have managed to transported their books from to Sudan in only five days, thanks to the inauguration of land crossings between Egypt and Sudan. "It used to take about a month."
Palestinian publishing houses have drawn the attention of the fair's visitors, particularly the ones from Al Quds.
"This is our first participation in Khartoum international book fair. We are here to send messages and not to sell bools," Samir Al-Jundi, owner of Dar Al-Jundi Publishing House from Al Quds, told Xinhua.
"We came to introduce the Sudanese reader to the Palestinian literature from the depth of the suffering and from the heart of Al Quds which experiences a cultural and historical violation," he noted.
He said "the Israeli occupier is targeting our culture and aiming to tarnish our history in Al Quds."
