NAGPUR: The US treasury department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has blacklisted CEO of a Nagpur-based company and seven others for allegedly exporting military explosives to an entity in Sudan. The US claimed that these supplies helped prolong the civil war in Sudan, leading to a humanitarian crisis.As per OFAC, 200 shipments of bombs were secretly sent to Sudan by the company. The company management, when contacted by TOI, denied the charges, saying all that was sent was 10 shipments of cartridges of ammonium nitrate-based explosives and fuses, which are used for mining/construction activities.The company now plans to file an appeal before OFAC, stopping all kinds of exports till the ban is removed.The consignments were meant for a Sudanese company, Target Multi Activities Company (TMAC), which has its address at Khartoum Bahri, Kafori-11 Kasala street, at Khartoum in Sudan.Though the consignments were sent to TMAC only, these were not of military-grade explosives, said the Nagpur company. An end-use certificate was also obtained from TMAC, it says.“The last consignment was sent in Dec. Moreover, the vessels did not entirely carry our consignments, as there were other supplies too,” said a company official.
Serious charges
However, US OFAC says TMAC is ultimately controlled by Sudan’s Defence Industries System (DIS), and the material ended up being used in bombs by Sudanese Armed Forces that continued the civil war. Armed with bombs, SAF was in a position to reject ceasefire offers, says the US.TMAC, to which the Nagpur company exported explosives, is controlled by DIS, the largest defence enterprise of Sudan. DIS maintains the arsenal of SAF, one of the factions in the civil war.It also controls numerous subsidiaries like Giad Industrial Group, also known as Sudan Master Technology, through a web of opaque sectors through which it generated billions of dollars.DIS’ acquisition of equipment enabled SAF to sustain combat operations and reject ceasefire offers. TMAC, controlled by DIS through GIAD, imported explosives from Egypt and the Nagpur company since 2024.The Nagpur company maintained it has been sending explosives to nearly 20 countries in Europe, Africa and Asia purely for commercial use. The company has plants in Raipur and Raigarh in neighbouring Chhattisgarh.
