Sudan’s president has ordered the closure of 13 Sudanese overseas missions and job cuts at the foreign ministry due to an economic crisis in his country, state media reported Thursday.
"President Omar al-Bashir issued a decree ordering the closing of 13 Sudanese diplomatic missions," the official SUNA news agency reported early Thursday, quoting the decree.
It did not name which missions were to be shuttered.
The president also ordered seven other missions to reduce their diplomatic staff to just one person, and a broader 20 percent cut to administrative staff at all missions, SUNA reported.
"The decisions have been taken in order to cut costs given the economic situation in the country," the decree said, according to SUNA.
The president's order in addition included the dismissal of the entirety of the administrative staff at the foreign ministry, with diplomats taking over their duties, the agency reported.
It comes days after Bashir fired Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour after he said Sudanese diplomats abroad had not been paid for months.
