How to spend your oil billions

May 23 Correction: The Associated Press has issued a correction to the story referenced in this post. Sudan said the reward for Ibrahim's capture was being offered in the country's old currency, which is valued at 1,000 times less than the new notes. So AP says the bounty is actually valued at $122,000. Not a trifling sum in a poor country, but still nowhere near the figure that was originally reported, and what I had reacted to. Thanks to two readers who pointed this out. My sincere apologies for the error, and I've removed the offending text from the post.

--

Sudan is one of the world's leading oil producers, pumping out half a million barrels of crude each day (some 40 percent of it bound for China). So what does a dictatorship do with that kind of cash?

Today the Sudanese government posted a $122,000 bounty for Darfur rebel leader Khalil Ibrahim. Ibrahim is the alleged mastermind of the surprising events of the weekend, when members of his Darfur-based Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) staged a dramatic -- if short lived -- raid on Omdurman, a city just across the Nile from the heavily fortified capital, Khartoum. After a couple of tense hours of fighting, Sudanese troops drove the rebels out and began arresting political opponents. But it was the first time that the five-year-and-counting war in Darfur made it from the hinterlands to the seat of Sudanese power, and how the rebels made it several hundred miles undetected by security forces is something of a mystery.

Media and expert accounts have described the raid alternately as "daring," "quixotic" and "suicidal." As faraway as Darfur feels for many in the United States, it's just as distant to many in Khartoum, a boomtown where oil money has fueled one of Africa's fastest growing economies -- and insulated it from the crises in the far reaches of the country.

The JEM raid has deeply embarrassed the ruling party, which swiftly cut diplomatic ties with neighboring Chad, which most believe helped bankroll the attack. Those who watch Sudan closely are bracing for a military response that could put more civilian lives at risk in Darfur. The bounty on Ibrahim -- who's believed to have fled to remote northern Darfur -- is offensive to some Sudanese, but there's no clearer evidence of how ticked off the government is by this whole episode.

Daring and dramatic, yes, but JEM may have bitten off way more than it can chew.

Comments

[Andrew]

Hi - it turns out that the Sudanese government accidentally used old Sudanese pounds when it posted its reward - the country's currency lost a few zeros last year. When you convrt it all to new Sudanese pounds the final amount is actually 'only' worth $250,000. Still not bad, but they should have some oil revenues left over