Sudan has banned imports of Danish goods in retaliation for the reprinting of a cartoon that satirised Islam's Prophet Muhammad, the state-run news agency said.
The move came as the country was braced for a large anti-Danish protest in the capital Khartoum on Wednesday that appeared to have tacit government approval.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir announced earlier this week a plan to ban Danish imports, snub the country's officials and expel its organisations in response to the cartoon reprinted this month by 17 Danish newspapers showing Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban.
"The Customs and Duty Authorities have promptly executed the ban on the import of Danish commodities," police customs chief, General Salah Ahmed al-Sheikh, was quoted as saying by the official SUNA news agency.
Al-Sheikh said the ban was effective immediately and warned Sudanese importers "to avoid trying to circumvent it".
Loudspeakers on Khartoum's main mosques blared after Tuesday midday prayers with calls saying "all people should come to the one-million march in defence of the Prophet". Sudanese officials did not specify whether the other measures threatened by al-Bashir would be enforced.
Danish diplomats in Khartoum said they were not notified of a trade boycott. "I don't have any formal confirmation of this," Denmark's Charge d'Affaires in Khartoum, Karin Soerensen, said. She also said she "can't confirm" al-Bashir's threats to expel Danish organisations because Sudanese authorities have not contacted Copenhagen about that either. --(TPA)
The move came as the country was braced for a large anti-Danish protest in the capital Khartoum on Wednesday that appeared to have tacit government approval.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir announced earlier this week a plan to ban Danish imports, snub the country's officials and expel its organisations in response to the cartoon reprinted this month by 17 Danish newspapers showing Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban.
"The Customs and Duty Authorities have promptly executed the ban on the import of Danish commodities," police customs chief, General Salah Ahmed al-Sheikh, was quoted as saying by the official SUNA news agency.
Al-Sheikh said the ban was effective immediately and warned Sudanese importers "to avoid trying to circumvent it".
Loudspeakers on Khartoum's main mosques blared after Tuesday midday prayers with calls saying "all people should come to the one-million march in defence of the Prophet". Sudanese officials did not specify whether the other measures threatened by al-Bashir would be enforced.
Danish diplomats in Khartoum said they were not notified of a trade boycott. "I don't have any formal confirmation of this," Denmark's Charge d'Affaires in Khartoum, Karin Soerensen, said. She also said she "can't confirm" al-Bashir's threats to expel Danish organisations because Sudanese authorities have not contacted Copenhagen about that either. --(TPA)
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