US removes Sudan from terror sponsors list

Khartoum: Sudan is being removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, the US Embassy in Khartoum on Monday officially announced.

"The congressional notification period of 45 days has lapsed and the Secretary of State has signed a notification stating rescission of Sudan's State Sponsor of Terrorism designation is effective as of today (December 14), to be published in the Federal Register," Xinhua news agency quoted the Embassy as saying in a Facebook post.

On October 23, US President Donald Trump announced his intention of removing Sudan from the state sponsor of terrorism list once the African country deposits a $335 million settlement amount for victims of the 1998 twin bombings at the two American Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

Sudan had been listed as a state sponsor of terrorism since 1993. The other three nations on the list are Iran, North Korea and Syria.

Due to the designation, Sudan faces a series of restrictions including a ban on defence exports and sales and restrictions on US foreign assistance.

The August 7, 1998, simultaneous truck bomb explosions that took place at the American Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, killed at least 224 people.

The attacks, which were linked to local members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, brought the Al Qaeda to the attention of the international community for the first time and led to the FBI designating Osama bin Laden on its list of 10 most-wanted fugitives.

Sudan, which was then under the leadership of the now-ousted Omar al-Bashir, was blamed as the country that sheltered bin Laden and to have assisted the Al Qaeda operatives.

(IANS with minor edits)