President Donald Trump has announced that Sudan will come off the state terror financing list if the country agrees to pay $335 million. The Sudanese President, Abdalla Hamdok, responded to the announcement saying that the funds have been transferred to the United States. However, there was no immediate confirmation from the US.
Sudan has been on the blacklist since 1993, when al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama Bin Laden, lived in the African country as the guest of the government. Moreover, the compensation relates to the 1990’s bombing of the US embassies in Africa by al-Qaeda.
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Trump further added that the deadly attacks in Kenya and Tanzania killed more than 220 people. He said that the compensation money is to be paid to US terror victims. Since last year, the relations between the Sundanese and American government have improved following the removal of former President Bashir, who ruled the country for more than three decades.
Meanwhile, political experts have maintained that the announcement by the Trump administration is very welcoming for the people of Sudan as necessities are getting expensive amid rising inflation in the country. President Trump took to Twitter and announced that the government of Sudan has agreed to pay the fund for terror victims.
Under the American constitution, the president has the power to remove any country from the terror sponsor list, and the Senate has nearly 45 days to object to the executive decision. Currently, Sudan is among the four countries on the blacklist, including Syria, North Korea, and Iran.
Soon after the announcement, President Hamdok stated that money had already been transferred, the state media reported. He further added that being on the list has been worse for the country and that it was looking forward to official notification.
In 1998, trucks loaded with explosives went off simultaneously outside the US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, killing nearly 220 people, and most of them were civilians.
