Sudan calls for joint collaborative efforts to curb illicit gold smuggling

By Simon Deng

The Sudanese government has asked it’s South Sudanese counterpart for joint collaborative efforts to curb gold smuggling across the common border.

 “We have an open border where there is rising smuggling of minerals, this is the major problem that is facing us, we have to discourage people from smuggling gold across the border,” Omer Osman, the Director for Exploration Department in Sudan’s Ministry of Minerals told journalists on Monday in Juba.

 Osman was speaking on the sidelines of the two-day meeting of member countries of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), an intergovernmental organization focusing on peace, security, stability and development.

For his part, Cosmas Pitia, the Undersecretary for South Sudan’s Ministry of Mining, admitted that the gold is being smuggled from South Sudan to Uganda and Kenya.

 “We have record of that, we see that a lot of gold is being smuggled across the boundary,” said Pitia.

He also disclosed that minerals are being smuggled across the porous border with neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda and Sudan.

South Sudan and Sudan share the longest border line which is approximately 2000 kilometers.

There are over 10 border crossing points between the two countries.