CBK orders banks to freeze assets of Sudanese officials
The CBK said financial institutions are directly affected by the UN resolution, which means they are supposed to freeze the individuals’ assets. PHOTO | FILE
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The CBK further wants to know whether the banks had identified any funds or assets belonging to the individuals, and if at all they had already taken measures in conformity with the UN resolutions.
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has instructed commercial banks and microfinance banks to freeze assets of four top public officials in Sudan in a delayed response to a 2005 United Nations resolutions.
The officials are three commanders of warring factions and a paramount chief in the troubled North Darfur region. They are accused of involvement in human rights violations in the region.
UN Security Council resolution 1591 (Clause 3e) provided “that all States shall freeze all funds, financial assets and economic resources that are on their territories on the date of adoption of this resolution or at any time thereafter, that are owned or controlled …by persons designated (violators of human rights).”
The CBK said commercial banks, mortgage finance companies and microfinance banks are directly affected by the UN resolution, which means they were supposed to freeze the individuals’ assets, if they have not already done so.
“In this regard, institutions are required to confirm to the Central Bank of Kenya whether they have any dealings with any of the designated persons or any entity linked to them and whether they have taken measures to implement the requirements of Clause 3e of the UN Security Council resolution 1591 (2005),” said Matu Mugo, assistant director at the CBK’s supervision department, in a circular to banks.
In another resolution, 1672 of 2006, the UN Security Council named the individuals targeted for asset freezes as Major-General Galfar Elhassan, the commander of the western military region of the Sudanese Armed Forces, Adam Yacub Shant, the commander the Sudanese Liberation Army, Gabril Abdul Kareem Badri, field commander of the National Movement for Reform and Development, and Sheikh Musah Hilal, the paramount chief of the Jalul tribe in North Darfur.
The CBK further wants to know whether the banks had identified any funds or assets belonging to the individuals, and if at all they had already taken measures in conformity with the UN resolutions.
The regulator said it was acting in response to a request from Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, which wanted to know what measures the country had taken to implement the UN resolutions.
“The CBK is therefore required to advise the ministry on the measures the institutions have taken to implement the relevant provisions of the UN resolutions,” said Mr Mugo.
Sudan has been embroiled in a bloody conflict in Darfur, with accusations of mass killings, rape and other atrocities by various parties to the conflict.
The Sudanese authorities are also accused of obstructing UN investigation of the alleged atrocities and are reported to have expelled several UN officials from the country.
Early this year, the Khartoum government denied visas to senior diplomats from the US, Britain and France.
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