A new city is emerging on the banks of the Nile. Khartoum’s minarets and historic souks are giving way to glass-encased office blocks and hotels as an oil-fuelled boom reshapes the skyline.

Shiny new Japanese cars fill some of the straightest roads in Africa, despite sanctions and the country’s pariah status over the genocide in Darfur.

Tomorrow tens of thousands of protesters will take to the streets in a global day of action urging world leaders to keep up pressure on a regime waging war. But campaigners fear that Sudan’s newfound prosperity is undermining the effort.

Nick Donovan, of the Aegis Trust, a British-based charity that campaigns against genocide, said: “It insulates Khartoum from some forms of economic pressure. The high oil prices and the fact that some countries are willing to buy oil from Sudan means the Government can act with impunity.” At least 200,000 people have died in the conflict in the Sudanese western region since rebels rose against the Government more than four years ago. Today four million people are dependent entirely on aid.

The International Criminal Court has issued warrants for the arrest of a government minister, Ahmed Haroun, for his role in arming and funding the Janjawid militias. This year the US strengthened sanctions imposed a decade ago. The US Treasury barred 31 Sudanese companies from international financial institutions.

Yesterday President Omar al-Bashir insisted during a controversial visit to Italy, where he met the Pope, that his Government would observe a cease-fire in Darfur after peace talks start next month. Yet the conflict and sanctions seem a long way from the glitzy shopping malls and marble floored hotels of Khartoum.

The official growth rate is nearly 10 per cent, making it one of Africa’s fastest growing economies. Signs of prosperity are everywhere. A 19-storey hotel on the riverfront is weeks from opening. Shaped like a traditional sailing dhow, the Al Fatih Tower, built with £40 million of Libyan money, resembles the Burj Al Arab in Dubai. Western aid workers sip £3 lattes at a string of new coffee shops.

The city’s first five-star hotel opened this year. Business at the Al Salam Rotana is so good, said its general manager, Muhammad Ali, that a second is being built. “The potential for growth and the lack of existing infrastructure means there is a very high demand for what we offer,” he said.

It was built largely with money from the United Arab Emirates. In all, foreign investment has quadrupled since 1996 to about $2.3 billion (£1.1 billion) last year, according the Ministry of Investment. China alone has invested $7 billion in dams, roads and bridges as it seeks to keep a hold on two thirds of Sudan’s oil.

But more investors are coming from the oil-rich Gulf states. Record prices mean they have record profits and are looking for opportunities to invest, said Eltegani Ahmed, an adviser to Sudan’s Minister of Finance.

A two-year-old peace deal between Khartoum and southern rebels, ending decades of civil war, has helped to attract money. Mr Eltegani added that while the West was obsessed by the conflict, which pits Sudan’s Arab elite against Darfur’s nonArab ethnic groups, businessmen in the Middle East were less likely to see it as a risk.

“We have the problem of Darfur and to some extent it has affected direct investment,” he said. “But I feel we are close to finding a solution and this is reflected by the foreign investors coming here.” Several Western companies have left. But for every departure there seems to be an entry. Last month South Africa’s MTN mobile network snapped up a local phone operator.

Ahmed Badawi, 39, who runs a public relations firm, said sanctions had made little difference to life in the city. “US sanctions worked beautifully up to 2003. There were petrol queues and bread was rationed. Then oil production reached a critical mass and everything changed.”

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