Westerners ‘want to plunder Sudan’s oil and gold’

SUDANESE President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said yesterday that Western nations were exploiting the Darfur conflict to gain control of resources like oil and gold in the arid region.

Sudan is under intense international pressure to rein in Arab militias accused of looting and burning African farming villages and to provide security for those displaced in the fighting in the remote area bordering Chad.

If not, the UN Security Council says Khartoum could face unspecified sanctions.