Riad Alfatih, head of local mining company Al-Sulaj Mining, said Sudanese authorities were interrogating 36 Russians suspected of smuggling gold in 2023. The agency reported Bloomberg.
According to him, the suspected Russians are employees of a gold processing enterprise that the company bought in 2021. The company faced sanctions in 2020 for alleged ties to Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin. However, Alfatikh told the agency that Al-Sulaj Mining has nothing to do with PMCs.
At the same time, Sudanese authorities and the Russian embassy did not respond to the agency’s requests for comment.
Bloomberg estimates that Sudan exported approximately 27 tons of gold worth $1.6 billion in the first nine months of 2022. At the same time, the country officials stated that up to 80% of the extracted gold was smuggled abroad.
Previously in the Financial Times reportedHe said Prigozhin may have generated about $250 million in revenue from the activities of companies affiliated with him and from activities to extract natural resources in Africa and the Middle East. The publication analyzed the financial statements of Europolis, M Invest and Mercury up to December 2021. At the same time, Mercury has been included in the EU sanctions list since 2021.