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Sudan Fights Corruption by Freezing ‘Suspicious’ Bank Accounts

Wagdi Salih, a member of Sudan’s Committee to Dismantle the June 30, 1989 Regime and Retrieve Public Funds. SUNA
Wagdi Salih, a member of Sudan’s Committee to Dismantle the June 30, 1989 Regime and Retrieve Public Funds. SUNA
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Sudan Fights Corruption by Freezing ‘Suspicious’ Bank Accounts

Wagdi Salih, a member of Sudan’s Committee to Dismantle the June 30, 1989 Regime and Retrieve Public Funds. SUNA
Wagdi Salih, a member of Sudan’s Committee to Dismantle the June 30, 1989 Regime and Retrieve Public Funds. SUNA

Sudan’s Committee to Dismantle the June 30, 1989 Regime and Retrieve Public Funds announced seizing several banking accounts dealing in billions of Sudanese pounds, trading on the parallel market, and involved in money laundering.

Social media users shared a circular issued to commercial banks operating in the country, ordering them to freeze 163 bank accounts mostly belonging to individuals from the ousted regime.

Frozen bank accounts belong to senior officials who served under Omar al-Bashir.

The circular, published by the Central Bank of Sudan, also covers accounts belonging to the officials’ relatives and children.

According to the circular, the central bank decided to seize the accounts based on a letter issued by the Committee to Dismantle the June 30, 1989 Regime and Retrieve Public Funds.

The Committee enjoys far-reaching jurisdiction to dismantle the former regime, its institutions, and political and economic power centers. Apart from putting former regime symbols on trial, the Committee also retrieves funds amassed by corrupt individuals who were powerful under Bashir’s rule.

Additionally, the Committee is clearing state institutions from employees assigned to their posts simply because of their political allegiance to the former regime.

Wagdi Salih, a lawyer, and politician who sits on the 18-member body, has revealed that the Committee could seize 90 bank accounts that handled over 64 billion Sudanese pounds in transactions in a short time.

Salih noted that the bank accounts belonged to individuals who were not involved in a clear economic activity or businesses in a press conference.

However, these accounts have been tied to money laundering and currency exchange schemes. Some of the owners of these accounts have been arrested with procedures pending for other account holders residing abroad.

For his part, Salih denied that the goal of the Committee’s operation was to expose people’s accounts in banks and said that his Committee only pursues suspicious accounts and according to legal and constitutional references.

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Baku Seeking to Diffuse Tensions between Israel, Türkiye in Syria

Turkish troops return after a joint US-Türkiye patrol in northern Syria, as it is pictured from near the Turkish town of Akcakale, Türkiye, September 8, 2019. (Reuters)
Turkish troops return after a joint US-Türkiye patrol in northern Syria, as it is pictured from near the Turkish town of Akcakale, Türkiye, September 8, 2019. (Reuters)
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Baku Seeking to Diffuse Tensions between Israel, Türkiye in Syria

Turkish troops return after a joint US-Türkiye patrol in northern Syria, as it is pictured from near the Turkish town of Akcakale, Türkiye, September 8, 2019. (Reuters)
Turkish troops return after a joint US-Türkiye patrol in northern Syria, as it is pictured from near the Turkish town of Akcakale, Türkiye, September 8, 2019. (Reuters)

With growing influence after its recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenian separatists in 2023, Azerbaijan is using its close ties with Israel and Türkiye to defuse tensions between the regional foes in Syria.

Azerbaijan’s top foreign policy adviser Hikmet Hajiyev told AFP that Baku has hosted more than three rounds of talks between Türkiye and Israel, who are both operating in Syria to reduce what they see as security threats.

“Azerbaijan is making diplomatic efforts for an agreement,” Hajiyev told Turkish journalists in Baku on a visit organized by the Istanbul-based Global Journalism Council. “Both Türkiye and Israel trust us.”

The overthrow of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad sparked security concerns in Israel.

It has since staged hundreds of strikes deep inside Syria, the latest on Friday, to allegedly stop advanced weapons falling into the hands of Syria’s extremists and to protect the Druze minority.

Israel has accused Ankara of seeking to turn Syria into a Turkish protectorate, raising fears of a confrontation.

In Azerbaijan, President Ilham Aliyev is considered a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He has consistently aligned himself with Ankara’s positions on key international matters, including the Syrian issue.

Azerbaijan also enjoys good relations with Israel, which is very reliant on Azerbaijani oil, and is a major arms supplier to Baku.

And now Baku, which has established contacts with Syria’s new rulers, is pushing quiet diplomacy by facilitating technical talks between Türkiye and Israel.

“We are successful if the two parties agree on a common model that respects each other’s concerns,” Farid Shafiyev, chairman of the Baku-based Center for Analysis of International Relations, told AFP.

“Syria, and especially its northern territories, is the Turkish security concern,” he said.

Türkiye wants to control northern Syria but also to “have a stronger presence” around the Palmyra and T4 airbases to ensure security around Damascus, he added.

In facilitating Türkiye-Israel dialogue on Syria, Azerbaijan is playing a “strategic role,” said Zaur Mammadov, chairman of Baku Political Scientists Club.

“(It) reflects Azerbaijan’s growing influence as a mediator... among regional actors,” he said.

Azerbaijan fought two wars with arch-foe Armenia for control of the disputed Karabakh region -- one in the 1990s and another in 2020 -- before it managed to seize the entire area in a 24-hour offensive in September 2023.