The Sudanese central bank has decided to freeze the bank accounts of 161 people suspected of participating in operations that destabilize the economy. The list would include a number of supporters of ousted President Omar al-Bashir, as well as members of his family.
This decision follows an investigation by the Sudan Committee to Dismantle the “June 30 regime”, when Omar al-Bashir took power in Khartoum in 1989. Since then, in April 2019, this committee has been responsible for highlighting the embezzlement of the National Congress Party.
The suspicious transactions were carried out on bank accounts opened from December 2018, the day of the start of the demonstration against Omar al-Bashir. Several million dollars were transferred and withdrawn in a few weeks in local currency before being converted into the black market into dollars or euros and leaving the country.
Lack of transparency For Wajdi Saleh, a representative of the Committee, this effort was a success: “We were able to put an end to the plans of supporters of the previous regime who are trying to destabilize the transitional authorities and deviate from the path of democracy. One of the weapons used by these remnants of the old regime is to sabotage the national economy. ”
But for some experts, this committee, which is responsible for tracking down supporters of the old regime and regaining control of the goods and fortunes embezzled by the National Congress Party, is not entirely transparent.
“It is not clear where the money that has been seized so far has ended up. We do not have the exact figures on the amounts repaid by the Bank of Sudan, by the Ministry of Economy, nor to what services they were redistributed, ”points out Khholood Khair from Insight Strategy Partners.
For this analyst, it is possible that this money has fallen into the pockets of the military, which is still in power, while a large part of the budget for 2021 has been allocated to the security sector.
