Sudan risks being plunged into a humanitarian disaster by Covid-19 unless sanctions are lifted and donors provide financial support, the UN rights chief said on Tuesday.
Without international backing, the country's transition towards peace and stability could swing into reverse, Michelle Bachelet said.
A year has passed since president Omar Al Bashir was made to step down by the army on April 11, 2019, after months of nationwide protests.
Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok took power as the head of a transitional government sworn in last September, but Sudan's economy remains in deep crisis.
Ms Bachelet said the promise of economic and social development, democracy, justice and peace was being threatened by acute resource constraints on the transitional government.
She said they were being exacerbated by ongoing unilateral sanctions, the failure of international institutions to provide debt relief, and a deficit of international support.
"The tipping point could be Covid-19," Ms Bachelet said.
"The health system is simply not equipped to handle an outbreak on the scale we have seen elsewhere in the world. There is only one way to prevent a humanitarian disaster, and that is for the donors to step up and extend a helping hand to Sudan."
Khartoum remains on a US blacklist as a state sponsor of terrorism, stifling investment.
It is for instance not eligible for access to the emergency financing set up by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to help countries combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
Households continue to suffer from frequent power cuts and most Sudanese still queue up for hours to buy staple foods or to fill their cars with petrol.
In response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the government announced a 24-hour curfew for three weeks from April 18 across Khartoum state.
Sudan has had 318 confirmed cases and 25 deaths, according World Health Organisation figures.
"The only way Sudan will ever be able to break out of this cycle of poverty and desperation is to be freed from the impediments of sanctions imposed at the time of the previous government," said Ms Bachelet.
The former Chilean president said that without addressing the economic and social grievances that sparked the departure of Al Bashir, "Sudan's successful transition to achieving a durable peace remains distant".
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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
