Off the US sanctions list: Is Sudan returning to the global market?

5 May 2021

The winds of change are blowing in Sudan. The country is once again engaging with the wider world, and could return to the global markets it had been cut off from since the ‘90s. But recent changes must still prove durable enough to attract foreign business. Analyst Kais Makhlouf provides a perspective.

By Kais Makhlouf, MENA analyst

Sudan has recently been removed from the US’ sanctions lists and has received US debt relief and has begun normalising ties with Israel, and will host several naval bases along its Red Sea coast. Saudi Arabia has committed 3 billion USD to the country’s agricultural sector, and FDI’s are expected to double from their 2019 level. All of this, coupled with attempts at reform, makes Sudan’s emergence as a trade destination a distinct possibility.

However, a weak infrastructure and chronic instability will be the main obstacles to Sudan’s return to the international scene. Domestic political tensions could yet derail the country’s transition. The government will have to manage those challenges while ensuring its efforts, notably to redevelop Port Sudan, stay on track.

What can Sudan do to attract investors and trade to its stretch of coast? 

Vessels have grown used to sailing by Sudan’s 750 km of coast, without calling at its ports. In April, the USS Winston Churchill became the first US warship to dock in Sudan after several decades. Tellingly, this was just the day after a Russian frigate visited the same port. 

This may all change with Sudan’s return to the international scene, and its efforts at refurbishing its trade infrastructure. Chinese construction firms are building a port to export cattle at Haidob, 60 km to the south of Port Sudan, at a cost of 140 million USD to the Sudanese government. The government has also set 300 million USD aside to develop Port Sudan’s ailing facilities while China has offered 540 million USD to finance an expansion of the historic Suakin port. 

Meanwhile, The Sudanese government is entertaining other offers from different investment funds, none of them based in the west, to further develop its maritime trade capacity.

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