Sudan’s Al-Bashir announces war on corruption

Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir has announced “a war on corruption” and vowed to apply the Illegal Wealth Act to uncover suspicious money laundering and put an end to gold smuggling so that the economy can fully recover.

“We have reviewed the banking system and taken punitive measures against banks and companies involved in financial corruption,” he said. “We will continue to review, inspect and evaluate private and public banks, especially the Central Bank of Sudan, in which we will undertake structural reforms.”

President Al-Bashir pointed out that networks of corruption have sabotaged the Sudanese national economy and stolen the Sudanese people’s money.

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“We have taken a number of measures to control the foreign exchange market by eliminating the parallel market inside and outside the country and taken measures to attract cash to the banking system. We have also taken the necessary measures to prevent the smuggling of gold to ensure the state’s control over gold marketing,” he added.

The Sudanese government has been trying to control the exchange rate against the US dollar through legal and administrative procedures, in light of its rising prices in parallel markets.

Sudan has been suffering from a lack of foreign currency since the secession of South Sudan in 2011 after which it lost nearly 75 per cent of its oil revenues.