Sudan signed a “historic” memorandum of understanding on Thursday with General Electric, the US power generation group. The deal comes after decades of US sanctions, with Sudan since 1993 on the US blacklist of countries supporting terrorism. Between 1992 and 1996, the Sudanese dictator Omar-al-Bashir had really welcomed the leader of the jihadist group al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden.
“We have not seen an interaction between such an important company and Sudan for almost thirty years.” This was stated by Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok in a statement released by the official Suna agency.
The memorandum of understanding with General Electric is expected to provide an additional 470 megawatts of electricity to cover the consumption of about 600,000 homes. For this, three plants must be rehabilitated.
Currently, 67% of the 42 million people in Sudan live without electricity. And those who have access to it often have power outages that can last up to six hours.
An important step for Sudan’s economy
This agreement should therefore help “meet the needs of energy and health throughout Sudan,” said Mai Abdelhalim, General Manager of North East Africa at General Electric.
This project between Khartoum and General Electric is an important first step for the affected economy of Sudan, whose inflation reached 212% in September over a year, which is a record.
In an attempt to lift US sanctions and encourage investment, since the fall of Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, the transitional government has agreed to pay the compensation demanded by the Americans to the victims of attacks in several countries. Africa, attack attributed to Sudan.
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