July 14, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s strategic reserve of wheat has declined sharply due to refusal of several banks in western countries and Gulf States to open documentary credits for importing the commodity.
Last month, France’s largest bank, BNP Paribas, agreed to pay nearly $9 billion to resolve criminal allegations that it processed transactions for clients in Sudan and other blacklisted countries in violation of the United States trade sanctions.
After months of negotiations, BNP admitted to violating US trade sanctions by processing billions of dollars in illegal transactions on behalf of clients in Sudan, Cuba and Iran.
Washington imposed economic and trade sanctions on Sudan in 1997 in response to its alleged connection to terror networks and human rights abuses. In 2007 it strengthened the embargo, citing abuses in Darfur which it labeled as genocide.
Informed sources told Sudan Tribune that officials of a major Sudanese flour mills continued to contact the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS) for a whole week in order to get the foreign exchange needed for wheat imports amid fears that its operations could stop.
Sudanese flour market is controlled by three major companies including Sayga flour mills which is owned by Osama Daoud, Weta flour mills which is owned by Ibrahim Malik, and the government-owned Seen flour mills.
Sudan imports more than 2 million tones of wheat annually at a cost of $1.5 billion dollars. The government plans for achieving self-sufficiency has failed since 1993 while domestic consumption have increased significantly.
The same sources said that commercial banks have been keeping large numbers of documentary credits for several months because they couldn’t find a correspondent bank to accept them amid government reticence and search for solutions.
The sources also pointed that several Sudanese importers are reluctant to use their accounts in foreign banks to provide foreign trade for exporters particularly as the US became increasingly active in pursuing banks which offers such service.
International financial institutions became increasingly cautious in dealing with Sudan as they do not want to risk being found in violation of US sanctions.
Following BNP Paribas penalties, the US federal and state authorities intensified investigations of other foreign banks over signs of similar infractions. At least six banks in Germany, France, Italy or Japan are among the institutions that could face fines or forfeitures for processing transactions linked to Sudan, Cuba, and Iran.
The sources also said that wheat crisis has surfaced since five days ago, pointing that Qatari banks which used to cooperate with Sudan started to face difficulties in opening documentary credits for its Sudanese counterparts since last month.
Last March, a number of Saudi and European banks took a decision to stop dealing with Sudanese banks and attributed it to pressure made by the United States.
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The effects of the oldest in the history of war in Sudan
07-14-2014 10:15 PM
French scientists discovered, working in collaboration with the British Museum, the remains of what they believe the skeletons of the oldest ethnic war in history, which may be broke by more than 13 thousand years on the edge of the Sahara in northern Sudan.
The scientists discovered that the effects that appear dead, most of them died because of arrows made of flint, that the bones discovered in Mount companions, on the east bank of the River Nile in northern Sudan, is a guide who discovers what may be considered the oldest armed conflict in human history.
Over the past two years, scientists have discovered anthropology from the University of Bordeaux French dozens of arrowheads and fragments of bones about the victims. There are also many similar effects that were found near the area in the sixties of the last century, which was re-examined again using the sophisticated technology that were not available when he discovered the bones prominent American archaeologist Fred Androf in 1964.
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