Vol 53 No 24 | SUDANANALYSIS The new gold rush 30th November 2012 Khartoum’s new gold mining operations may alleviate its worsening foreign exchange crisis but they will increase financial instability in the medium term. As the world gold price moves steadily upward, old workings are coming back to life. In Sudan, gold has been mined since the time of the Pharaohs, who shifted from silver and set the first international gold standard Sudan’s economy is in a bad way since it lost 75% of its oil revenue in its quarrel with South Sudan. This week, it refused to implement September’s...
Vol 53 No 24 | EGYPTSUDAN Egyptians return in search of gold 30th November 2012 Last August, Egyptian billionaire Naguib Onsi Sawiris, 58, bought La Mancha Resources, owner of 40% of Sudan’s Ariab Mining Company. Naguib is a Coptic Christian and telecommunications captain...
Vol 53 No 24 | SUDAN The plot thickens 30th November 2012 The former security boss, Lieutenant General Salah Abdullah Mohamed ‘Gosh’, a regular interlocutor with British and United States’ spies, was the best known person arrested for coup plotting...
Vol 53 No 23 | SUDANCHINABRITAIN Sanctions bypass 16th November 2012 China has quietly joined countries implementing sanctions against Khartoum, we hear. This may not reduce Beijing’s substantial arms exports to Khartoum but it is making life difficult for...
Vol 53 No 22 | SUDANISRAEL Target Khartoum 2nd November 2012 Israel’s attack on a Khartoum arms factory highlights its tougher line in Africa and Sudan’s growing ties with Iran Taken by surprise, Khartoum officials at first offered contradictory explanations for the devastating attack on the El Yarmouk arms factory in Khartoum at around midnight on 23-24 October....
Vol 53 No 22 | SUDAN Khartoum’s military-industrial complex 2nd November 2012 Africa Confidential has identified five operational military factories in or near the Three Towns capital of Khartoum, Omdurman and Khartoum North (Bahri).
Vol 53 No 21 | SUDAN Abyei arrangement 19th October 2012 Khartoum’s National Congress Party regime wants to use the diplomatic plaudits following its compromises on the oil-sharing deal on 17 September with South Sudan to win...
Vol 53 No 18 | SUDANSOUTH SUDAN Politics over oil 7th September 2012 Another round of talks may stave off hostilities but is unlikely to yield a credible border security agreement by the 22 September deadline Much hard negotiating lies ahead between Juba and Khartoum after talks restarted on 4 September, following a month’s delay for the funeral of Ethiopian Premier Meles Zenawi and...
Vol 53 No 16 | SUDANSOUTH SUDAN The anti-sanctions race 3rd August 2012 Negotiations are likely to drag on, despite UN efforts to pressure both Juba and Khartoum and the threat of a return to all-out war As the 2 August deadline imposed by the United Nations Security Council loomed, Khartoum and Juba vied to be seen as the least obstructive government at their...
Vol 53 No 16 | SUDAN Sudan under protest 3rd August 2012 The killing of several student demonstrators in Nyala, the South Darfur capital, on 31 July has given Sudan's opposition its martyrs. That was what Khartoum had wanted to...