TEHRAN, May 21- The long-term hegemonic policies of the United States and its persisting sanctions against Sudan have had a damaging effect on the African country, plunging it deeper into an unprecedented economic crisis, Sudanese experts say.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - On April 11, the Sudanese military ousted and then imprisoned president Omar al-Bashir in a military coup after some four months of widespread protests against him over dire economic conditions and the soaring prices of basic commodities.
Bashir, 75, had taken power in a coup in 1989, eight years before Washington started imposing crippling sanctions on Khartoum after listing the African country as a purported state sponsor of terrorism.
Following Bashir’s ouster, the coup leaders established the so-called Transitional Military Council (TMC), chaired by Lieutenant General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, with the task of running Sudan’s affairs in post-Bashir era.
Since April, Sudan’s opposition Alliance for Freedom and Change (AFC) has been holding talks with the TMC on procedures concerning the formation of an interim government. On Monday, they ended their latest round of talks without a final agreement.
Khalid Alfaki, a political analyst and commentator in Sudan, believes that about two decades of US economic sanctions have left the African country with a perilously weak economic foundation, stagnating social development and creating harsh living conditions.
“Many children died due to the lack of medicine and medical equipment, which has been caused by the US sanctions and hegemonic acts. Sudan’s economy would not have been so bad without the US sanctions,” he said.
“Sudan is a country rich in oil and mineral, agricultural, and industrial resources. The policies of sanctions and hegemony have seriously damaged the economic development of Sudan, keeping the country from functioning properly,” Alfaki added.
Alfaki also said that a successful secessionist bid in southern Sudan — which was purportedly backed by Washington and cultivated in the formation of South Sudan in 2011, hence the loss of much of Sudan’s oil resources — dealt a further blow to Khartoum.
“The United States engineered and directed South Sudan’s independence. It needs to hegemonize this new country to benefit from its oil resources and strategic location. Therefore, Sudan lost more than 70 percent of its oil resources, which led to a fatal blow to Sudan’s economy and a serious economic crisis,” Alfaki said.
Back in October 2017, Washington removed some economic and trade sanctions on Sudan; however, it kept the country on the list of the so-called state sponsors of terrorism, which has put Sudan’s economic recovery on a bumpy road.
“Sudan is unable to be integrated in the international financial and banking system, which influenced the Sudanese people both in and outside the country. It’s unreasonable to list Sudan as a country supporting terrorism,” said Abu al-Gasim Ibrahim, an economy expert in Sudan.
The United Nations has already listed Sudan as one of the least developed countries in the world.
Source: Press TV
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