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September 24, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on the international community to provide economic assistance to the transitional government in Khartoum stressing that no one can afford to not support Sudan.
Guterres made his call in his first report about the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in the Sudan (UNITAMS) which will begin its activities i January 2021.
He pointed to the spiralling inflation, continuing shortages of key commodities, a growing public deficit and dropping revenues that Sudan is experiencing one year after the collapse of the corrupt regime of Omer al-Bashir.
"In that context, it is imperative that international support is delivered as the transitional Government strives to implement its difficult economic reform agenda".
"The question is not whether the international community can afford the support that Sudan needs, it is whether the international community can afford not to support Sudan as it strives to meet its formidable challenges," he stressed.
On 25 June, The German government hosted the High-Level Sudan Partnership Conference in Berlin where donors pledged some $1.8 billion. However, still many countries did not honour their promises.
Last week, Sudan’s Foreign Minister Omer Gamar Eldin was in Berlin to discuss the matter with the German officials and proposed to mobilise the donors to pay their contribution as a large part of these funds will finance a safety net to support poor families.
"I urge donors to release those funds as soon as possible so that the Sudan Family Support Programme can move from its pilot stage to full implementation," he said before to stress "This is a crucial element of the economic reform agenda as agreed between the transitional Government and IMF".
He further recalled that these reforms and progress in the implementation of the IMF staff-monitored programme will help Sudan to move towards debt relief and secure access to significant development funding from the international financial institutions.
"Unless addressed, economic sanctions, including the continued inclusion of Sudan on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism of the United States of America, will also have significant implications for the country’s access to international financial assistance, investment and debt relief in the short and medium terms," he said.
(ST)
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