KHARTOUM, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Monday vowed to combat corruption and declared war against speculators and manipulators with the Sudanese economy.
"The economy faced many issues at the beginning of this year because of currency dealers and smugglers of gold and supply commodities. They also have insiders in the banking system to help them," said Bashir when addressing the National Assembly (parliament) Monday.
He stressed that the measures adopted by the government to restore the looted money would not stop and no one would escape from punishment.
"It is a war against corruption everywhere. It is a war at its beginning and it will not stop until its goals are achieved by ending gold smuggling, currency speculation and monopolization of essential commodities," the president said.
He said there were connected networks of corruption that targeted the national economy through looting the money of the Sudanese people, which necessitated intervention of the president by virtue of his constitutional responsibility.
The government has taken a package of measures to manage the foreign exchange market by eliminating parallel market, to attract cash into to the banking system, and to prevent the smuggling of gold and ensure the country's control over gold marketing and exporting.
On Sunday, Bashir issued a decision to change the governor of the central bank of Sudan, while the security authorities arrested a number of bankers, economists and businessmen who are under investigation on violations related to activities that harm the Sudanese economy.
Sudan has been suffering an escalating economic crisis since the secession of South Sudan in 2011 and losing around 75 percent of its oil revenues, which resulted in surging inflation rate and depreciating national currency.
