Sudan's central bank governor Hazem Abdelqader
has died of a heart attack while on a visit to Turkey, the Sudanese
presidency said on Saturday.
It was not immediately
clear whether Abdelqader was on a official visit to Turkey but the
presidency said in a statement that he died of a heart attack on
Saturday. It did not offer other details.
Born in 1960, Abdeqader was appointed head of Sudan's Central Bank in December 2016.
Since
taking over as governor, Abdelqader participated in negotiations with
the United States that helped lift decades old trade embargo imposed by
Washington on Khartoum.
In recent months the central
bank has faced an acute shortage of foreign currency that has seen the
Sudanese pound plunge against the dollar on the black market.
The central bank has devalued the pound twice against the dollar since January.
Sudan's
overall economy has been hit hard, particularly after the south
separated from the north in 2011, taking with it about 75 percent of oil
revenues.
Sudanese officials say that an economic
revival that was expected after the lifting of US sanctions has not
materialised as international banks continue to be wary of doing
business with Sudanese banks.
Although Washington
lifted the sanctions on October 12, it has kept Khartoum on its list of
"state sponsors of terrorism", which Sudanese officials say keeps
international banks away from the African country.
Washington
imposed sanctions on Khartoum in 1997 for its alleged support to
Islamist militants. Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden lived in Sudan
between 1992 to 1996.
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