By Omer Erdem

KHARTOUM, Sudan 

Turkey has an ongoing support in aspects of economy and diplomacy to Sudan in face of protests, a Sudanese minister said Tuesday.

“Turkey’s support to stabilization efforts in Sudan continues in the current political process,” Federal Government Minister Hamid Mumtaz told the official SUNA News Agency.

Concluding a four-day visit in Turkey, Mumtaz met with Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay to deliver a letter from Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about bilateral relations between the two countries.

Mumtaz, also a representative of the Sudanese president, said Erdogan signed 22 agreements in economic and diplomatic fields during his visit to Sudan in 2017.

Sudan has been rocked by popular protests for the last two months, with demonstrators decrying al-Bashir’s failure to remedy the country’s longstanding economic woes.

Sudanese officials say around 31 people have been killed since the protests began in December, although the opposition puts the number at closer to 50.

A nation of 40 million people, Sudan has struggled to recover from the loss of three quarters of its oil output -- its main source of foreign currency -- when South Sudan seceded in 2011.