Sudan contacts Washington to remove it from list of ‘terror sponsors’

Sudan has contacted the new Trump administration in Washington to have its name removed from the list of “terror sponsors”, an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday. Mohamed Edam made his comments during a discussion panel at Khartoum University about the expected benefits of lifting the US sanctions for higher education institutions in Sudan.

“We have had contact channels with Donald Trump since before he was sworn in as US president,” Edam explained. The director of the Department of American Affairs at the ministry stressed that Sudan is committed to fulfilling its pledges regarding peace and to cooperate positively with Washington in the fight against illegal immigration and other issues.

On 13 January, former US President Barack Obama announced that he was lifting the twenty year-old US sanctions on Sudan in response to its cooperation in fighting terror groups. However, Sudan is still on the American list of states that “sponsor terror”.

“Sudan has suffered too much due to the economic sanctions,” added Education Minister Somaiya Abu-Kashwa, “especially in relation to transferring funds for Sudanese students in US universities, as well as the halting of the exchange of professors between the US and Sudanese universities.”

The Public Affairs Officer at the US Embassy in Khartoum, Caroline Schneider, said during the same discussion panel that US-Sudanese relations have been developing since the lifting of the sanctions.