US unfreezes Sudanese bank accounts

By Mohammed Amin

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AA) - The United States has unfrozen bank accounts in Sudan after lifting decades-long sanctions on the country earlier this month, the Sudanese Central Bank said Thursday.

Sudan previously said that $48 million in assets was frozen under the sanctions that affected government accounts and assets in the U.S. since 1997.

The director of the Sudanese Central Bank, Hazim Abdul Gadir, confirmed in a press release that the frozen Sudanese accounts had been unblocked.

Gadir further noted that many global banks had started dealing with Sudanese banks since the lifting of sanctions.

He also ordered Sudanese banks to improve their banking system to bring it in line with the international banking system and to combat money laundering as well as the financing of terrorism.

On Oct. 6, the administration of President Donald Trump lifted two decades of sanctions imposed on Sudan but kept the country on its list of nations sponsoring terrorism.

Sudan’s finance minister said the U.S. has made debt relief for Sudan’s more than $50 billion of external debt conditional on its removal from the list.