Sudan’s new 21-member cabinet were sworn in on Friday and will be hard pressed to deal with a growing economic crisis.

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

Prices of food items and other products more than doubled over the past year across Sudan as the economic crisis grew, while the foreign currency market has seen the Sudanese pound plunge against the US dollar.

The ruling National Congress Party (NCP), in a late meeting Thursday, approved the ministers chosen by Prime Minister Moutaz Mousa Abdallah, who had been tasked with forming a new government after he was sworn in.

Finance minister Osman al-Rikabi was replaced by Abdallah Hamdok, while Ahmed Bilal was named new minister of interior.

Sudan’s economic crisis has deepened despite the United States lifting in October its decades old trade embargo on the African country.

Reuters