Sudan gets new government as PM keeps finance

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Sudan's new 21-member cabinet was sworn in on Saturday, with Prime Minister Moutaz Mousa Abdallah also assuming the finance portfolio in a bid to revive the country's ailing economy.

Sudan has been grappling with an acute foreign exchange shortage and inflation above 65 percent for several months, prompting President Omar al-Bashir on Sunday to sack the previous 31-member cabinet to "fix the situation."

Bashir had initially nominated Abdallah Hamdok as the new finance minister, but Sudan's official news agency SUNA reported earlier on Saturday that Hamdok had "apologized" and declined to accept the post.

"After consultations with Prime Minister Moutaz Mousa Abdallah, President Bashir decided that the prime minister will hold the finance portfolio," the presidency said in a statement on Saturday.

Sudan's Presidential palace in Khartoum on September 10, 2018. /VCG Photo

Later the new, smaller cabinet took the oath of office at the presidential palace.

Several ministers from the previous government have been retained in the new cabinet, including the foreign and oil ministers who were appointed only months ago after an earlier cabinet reshuffle.

Mousa Abdallah himself was irrigation minister in the previous cabinet.

Sudan has been suffering from an economic crisis caused by the liquidity shortage and the depreciation of its national currency.

Source(s): AFP ,Xinhua News Agency