S udan’s new prime minister has said that residual US sanctions are hastening the collapse of the fragile country, warning that, should Sudan become a failed state, the destruction caused by Isis would be “small fry” in comparison.

Speaking exclusively to The Independent before flying to Washington where he is expected to meet President Donald Trump, Abdalla Hamdok urged the US to immediately de-list Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism.

He said if the international community allows Sudan to become a failed state, the ensuing chaos would spawn multiple regional “caliphates”.

Washington lifted decades of trade sanctions on Sudan in October 2017 during the rule of former president Omar Bashir, citing progress on counterterrorism and humanitarian access.

But despite a revolution that led to the overthrow of Bashir in April, the terrorism listing and restrictions related to the war-torn region of Darfur remain in place, crippling the economy.

Mr Hamdok, a well respected economist himself, said that the transitional civilian-led authorities had one chance to put the country back on its feet after the uprising, but was struggling to do so while it remained an international pariah.

He said that because of Sudan’s unique geopolitical and geographical position, bordering seven countries “in a sea of misery” within North Africa, its breakdown would be devastating.

The women at the front of Sudan’s political protests Show all 12 1 /12 The women at the front of Sudan’s political protests The women at the front of Sudan’s political protests Khadija Saleh, 41, a political activist and blogger, poses for a photograph in Khartoum, Sudan. After six years abroad, Saleh returned to her home country when people took to the streets demanding change. She was at a sit-in near the defence ministry in Khartoum on 3 June when security forces stormed the site. The area had become a centre for anti-government protests. Saleh said she was beaten with sticks, and still wears bandages on her wounds. ‘I came back from a safer place because I want a better future for this country,’ she said. Photos Reuters The women at the front of Sudan’s political protests Awadiya Mahmoud Koko Ahmed, 60, is the head of Food and Tea Sellers Union. She said: ‘I went to see the sit-in area to check what is happening there. I served them free tea with the money my daughter gave me. And we made a kitchen as a group of union members. We prepared food every day. All the people were good. They called me “mom”. When I was in America, I saw that even animals had rights. If I was the president, I would make sure that there was justice. I would treat everyone equally.’ Reuters/Umit Bektas The women at the front of Sudan’s political protests Duha Mohmed, 23, escaped the sit-in site at the beginning of the June raid, returning later to help the injured. The student said she was also motivated by a desire for a better life. ‘I don't want to wear headscarf, but it is not my choice. I want my right to wear what I want,’ she said. Reuters/Umit Bektas The women at the front of Sudan’s political protests Shems Osman, 32, is an employee at an international company. Osman studied psychology in Canada. She has Canadian citizenship but she chose to return to Sudan. She said: ‘In Sudan it is definitely different how women carry themselves and how they are treated, and I think this is because of our African culture more than our Arab culture. Sudanese women are just naturally strong. So, they are naturally on the frontline and they are naturally a part of revolution.’ Reuters/Umit Bektas The women at the front of Sudan’s political protests Mai Atya, 27, is a musician. Atya said she was beaten during the raid. She said: ‘My main objective like many others is that we believe there should be a change; a good change in a good direction. I was at the sit-in area during the raid. I heard gun shots and ran away but when I jumped over a fence a Rapid Support Force (RSF) soldier caught us. They kept beating us again and again ... they think women should stay at home.’ Reuters/Umit Bektas The women at the front of Sudan’s political protests Amel Tajeldin, 41, a housewife and mother of four. Tajeldin said she would take turns with her husband to watch the children so that she could go out to protest. ‘While it was his turn to look after the children, I took part in the demonstrations,’ she said. She used to teach songs to street children in a makeshift tent at the sit-in. On 3 June, members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces shouted at her and other protesters and told them to run, she said. ‘We ran. We were surrounded by soldiers and policemen,’ she said. Both her arms are now wrapped in bandages. ‘While we were running, they beat us. To protect my head, I used my hands. This is why my two arms are broken,’ she said. ‘The ones like us beaten by police were lucky, the ones beaten by RSF members were brutally injured.’ Reuters/Umit Bektas The women at the front of Sudan’s political protests Nagda Mansour, 39, is a translator. Mansour was imprisoned for 75 days after attending a demonstration in December. She said it was difficult for many to accept the idea of negotiating with the military because of its leadership’s involvement in the war in Darfur. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), headed by the deputy leader of the council Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, are accused of committing atrocities in Darfur – charges officials have in the past denied. ‘The finalisation of an agreement with the military council remains the beginning not the end,’ said Mansour. ‘We as human rights defenders want to have a guarantee for transitional justice in Sudan.’ Reuters/Umit Bektas The women at the front of Sudan’s political protests Hadia Hasaballah, 42, is a counsellor and political activist. Hasaballah works for an NGO dealing with the victims of the 3 June raid. She and her team are supporting more than 100 victims. ‘This regime thinks in a traditional way,’ she said. ‘They know that if they humiliate the women, they will humiliate the whole people... None of the Sudanese women will officially say that they were raped because of the stigma.’ Reuters/Umit Bektas The women at the front of Sudan’s political protests Samra Siralkhatim, 21, is a student. During the June protests, Siralkhatim hid from the military in various people’s homes for five days. She said: ‘Sudanese are almost like refugees in their own country. During the June 3 raid night, we sought refuge from the military like we did in previous attacks. That time, they let us go into the defence ministry compound. But this time, the doors were closed during the raid. Security personnel were laughing and a member of the military behind the fence told us that the military was “taking a holiday”,’ she said. Reuters/Umit Bektas The women at the front of Sudan’s political protests Mahi Aba-Yazid, 35, is unemployed. Under President Omar al-Bashir’s rule, women’s lives were tightly controlled by men, even the way they dressed. Morality laws meant that a woman could be arrested for wearing trousers. For that reason, Aba-Yazid wore trousers while she called for change at the sit-in site. She believes she was beaten more because of this choice. ‘There was already a bullet in my arm. I was bleeding but they continued to beat me,’ she said. Reuters/Umit Bektas The women at the front of Sudan’s political protests Nahid Gabralla, 53, is a human rights activist. Gabralla said she was beaten with sticks and threatened with rape at the sit-in. ‘Sudan can be better,’ she said. ‘My daughter deserves to live in a nice country... We will fight for a democratic Sudan, real change and for our rights.’ Reuters/Umit Bektas The women at the front of Sudan’s political protests Manal Farah, 49, is a housewife. Farah lost her son, a 22-year-old university student, when security forces stormed the sit-in. She said he insisted on protesting even though she asked him to stay home. ‘The aim of the government is to convince mothers of revolutionaries to prevent their sons to join the revolution, but no matter what we say to them they will never stop before achieving their objectives,’ Farah said. ‘When he started in university, he started to ask why there is corruption in Sudan. He said there must be a change, a new Sudan ... I pray for my son’s dreams to come true.’ Reuters/Umit Bektas

“Intervening in Sudan … has a very serious impact on the entire region and probably the world.

“The reverse is true. If Sudan is allowed to backslide … it will be a failed state, and you can imagine what will happen,” he told The Independent.

“If [Sudan] fails, Isis in Syria will be small fry. We have seven countries with huge lands around us. You are not going have one caliphate – there will be seven of them,” he added.

The US named Sudan a state sponsor of terrorism in 1993 under former brutal leader Bashir, who was indicted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and sparked the ire of western states for playing host to terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden in the 1990s.

As relations improved, Washington began a formal process to de-list Sudan in January 2017, but this was put on hold when Sudan’s mass protests erupted last year.

The uprising eventually forced Sudan’s military into a power-sharing agreement with civilians.

For the next three years, an 11-member supreme council will oversee the ruling of the country headed up by army chief Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, alongside five civilians including Sudan’s first Christian leader in half a century.

Mr Hamdok, the prime minister, heads up the civilian government, which works in parallel.

Despite lauding these changes, the US has yet to budge on the listing, which has locked the economy in a stranglehold, making it next to impossible for businesses to operate in dollar transactions, to work with foreign banks and access loans from international institutions.

Sudanese officials have repeatedly complained of the slow response from western governments over the issue of sanctions.

In September, Mr Hamdok said he was expecting a “big breakthrough”, but so far, nothing has changed.

He is set to land in Washington on Sunday accompanied by his foreign, justice, defence and sports ministers. There he is expected to meet President Trump to press the issue of the terrorism listing.

“After the revolution I do not see any justification for it to continue,” Mr Hamdok told The Independent.

“The current government is not only not sponsoring terrorism, but we are actually joining our hands with the rest of the world to fight it,” he added.

He warned the sanctions are weakening Sudan’s new civilian leaders, only three months after they were appointed. The sanctions, he added, were preventing them from addressing the demands of the revolution.

The uprising erupted in December last year in part because of Sudan’s dire economic situation – including soaring food prices and high unemployment.

Months on, there have been some small signs of progress, such as the opening of American fast-food chain KFC for the first time. But the country is tense.

Widespread shortages of fuel, bread and medicine remain a major issue: outside bakeries across the country there are still long queues of people waiting for loaves.

Protests over the bread and fuel shortages in the troubled region of Darfur even resulted in deadly clashes with the security forces in September.

Sudanese demonstrators march during a protest in Bahri, the capital Khartoum’s northern district, in October (AFP via Getty) (EBRAHIM HAMID/AFP via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, inflation has hit 60 per cent, according to a recent report published by state news agency SUNA. It is expected to rise.

Some economists believe the crisis is in part sparked by the authorities printing money to maintain unwieldy fuel and bread subsidies that it cannot afford.

A pertinent example of this is playing out in the capital’s shopping district of Khartoum East, where the streets are lined with black-market money changers holding brick-sized wads of cash.

This month the black-market rate climbed to 82 Sudanese pounds to the dollar, nearly double the official exchange rate.

Local businessmen told The Independent that soaring inflation is just one of a litany of woes that have gone unaddressed since the uprising.

“We are trying to operate businesses while effectively living in the dark ages; nothing has changed,” says Mohamed Salah, 48, who works for an agrochemical company importing fertiliser.

The country’s first KFC may be a sign Sudan is opening up (Bel Trew)

“No major foreign banks are willing to work with us because they fear hefty fines. Importing goods is expensive, we have to get poor quality products from China,” he added.

Down the street Ahmed Sarouji, 33, runs an electrical shop. He also has to rely on products from China and is unable to buy any goods online.

“The government has one chance to make the revolution work,” he said, echoing the prime minister’s warnings.

“But if the States doesn’t lift the sanctions, this government will fail and if the government doesn’t remain, Sudan will not survive. The region will not survive,” he added.​

No serious investor will take the gamble and invest in a country that is isolated from the international payment system Hamid E Ali, Sudanese economist

Sudanese economists say that the problem lies with the US’s continued state sponsor of terrorism listing. Even though most sanctions were lifted two years ago, investors are still extremely wary of approaching Sudan, fearing penalties.

“No serious investor will take the gamble and invest in a country that is isolated from the international payment system. It has eroded investor confidence. So many good businesses have been shattered and industries reduced to scraps throughout the years,” said Hamid E Ali, a Sudanese economy professor at the American University in Cairo.

“The US sanctions will shape the trajectory of this transitional government. If it goes wrong it will take years to reverse the damage,” he added.

Sudan is meanwhile one of the most indebted countries in the world, owing $60bn (£46bn) in foreign debt with no means of paying it back.

Sudanese demonstrators gather near Nile Street in the capital Khartoum, demanding officials be held accountable for the killings of protesters during the June 3 crackdown (AFP) (ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP)

Gulf countries have channelled some funds into the country post-revolution but last month Prime Minister Hamdok said Sudan needs a further $8 billion in foreign aid over the next two years to avert economic collapse.

He told The Independent that he is counting on Washington lifting Sudan’s terrorism designation to clear the way for much-needed investment, as well as loans from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which are technically blocked.

“Sudan is a country very rich (in resources) – we don’t need to live on grants from anyone. But lifting the sanctions would open this country for investment,” he told The Independent.

“Right now, we can’t move on investment, we can’t move on debt restructuring and that is key to everything else, [including] relationships with international financial institutions.”

He said the country cannot resume lending having “serious far-reaching implications and repercussions to the progress we could make in the country”.

“No one will touch us,” he added.

US officials have said privately the relationship between the civilian authorities and the military forces, which heads up the sovereign council, is a point of concern.

One of the main worries lies with the role of Sudan’s powerful Rapid Support Forces.

Rights groups have accused the paramilitary group, which was recently absorbed into the army, of leading a brutal attack on an anti-government sit-in in Khartoum on 3 June.

As many as 120 people were killed according to Human Rights Watch, which said forces raped, stabbed, shot at and beat protesters before dumping bodies in the Nile.

There is a new dawn in Sudan. Let us join hands. Work with us to get it right in Sudan Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok

The RSF, formed in 2013 from the remnants of the feared Janjaweed militia, has also been accused by rights groups of committing possible war crimes in Darfur.

Its chief General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo is deputy head of the sovereign council and has repeatedly denied the accusations of violence.

An investigative committee has been formed to look into the 3 June clearing of the Khartoum sit-in.

Mr Hamdok, who acknowledged concerns about the group’s history, recently travelled to Darfur and vowed to secure justice for those who were displaced by more than a decade of brutal violence.

He claimed the RSF was being reformed.

Civilians rushed into hospitals as Sudanese forces violently clear sit-in

“That is my promise. We cannot allow them to go there and kill people,” he said.

“There is no way they can do this. [The RSF] can be reformed, absolutely,” he added.

He dismissed concerns that the deep state remains in the country, saying this was “not an accurate portrayal”.

“What happened in Sudan, we are very proud to call it a revolution that measures against all the great revolutions in the world,” the prime minister concluded.

“Our message to our friends, partners, [is] that there is a new dawn in Sudan. Let us join hands. Work with us to get it right in Sudan. It has very serious strategic outcomes.”