World Bank chief arrives in Sudan with praise and warning

By AFP 30 September 2021, 5:15 pm

Edit

World Bank president David Malpass (L) and Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok meet in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on September 30, 2021. (ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP)

World Bank president David Malpass arrives in Sudan for the first visit in nearly 40 years by a head of the development body, and praises the country’s reforms but cautions against “political slippages.”

“Two years ago, Sudan’s transitional government inherited a deeply damaged economy and society that had suffered decades of conflict and isolation,” Malpass says in an address from Khartoum. “Yet the country pressed forward with bold reforms,” he says, making possible more than $50 billion in debt relief.

“It’s critical to avoid political slippages because there is no development without peace and stability,” Malpass adds, just over a week after Sudan’s government said it had thwarted a coup attempt.