Saudi Arabia, UAE stopped economic aid to Sudan
March 11, 2020 (KHARTOUM) – Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have stopped providing announced aid to Sudan, despite previous pledges.
The assistance includes a $500 million deposit into Sudan’s central bank to strengthen the country’s monetary reserves, and the rest will be in the form of food, medicine, and petroleum products.
Officials in Khartoum confirmed to Sudan Tribune that the total amount of the assistance received from Riyadh and Abu Dhabi is about one billion dollars
The two countries sent about $500 million worth of wheat, seeds and fuel in addition to the bank deposit of the same amount. After what, they stopped providing commodities, they said.
The Sudanese Ministry of Finance recently resorted to a local private firm “Al-Fakher” to pay 28 million dollars for a wheat shipment. The country, also, experiences a severe shortage of fuel and cooking gas.
The official sources said they had been told by the Gulf countries that “the suspension of Saudi-UAE grant to Sudan was requested by Washington,” without commenting on what they heard.
In October 2019, the Sudanese finance minister said he had agreed with the Saudi and UAE ambassadors in Khartoum on a programmed schedule that would cover Sudan’s needs until the end of 2020.
The U.S. administration during the first four months after the ouster of al-Bashir had stepped up pressures on the two Gulf countries to not support the Transitional Military Council and to encourage them to hand over power to a civilian-led government.
Since Washington coordinates with the two countries and the other Gulf countries on how to relieve the Sudanese economy and picked Kuwait to host the donor conference for Sudan.
The two Gulf countries have complained from the continued open criticism by the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) who requested the return of troops from Yemen and voiced opposition the UAE plans to operate Port Sudan seaport. Also, last month the UAE was criticised for recruiting Sudanese youth to work in Libya as security guards.
(ST)