Sudan welcomes its removal US list of violators of religious freedoms

Sudan yesterday welcomed the US administration’s decision to remove the country from a list of violators of religious freedoms.

On Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that “Sudan and Uzbekistan have been removed from the watch list based on significant, concrete progress undertaken by their respective governments over the past year.”

Sudan’s Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments, Nasreldin Mofreh, said: “I am very pleased that my country has been removed from the violators of religious freedoms list following the progress we have made regarding freedoms.”

He added: “Having Sudan’s name on that list is a disgrace that has been added to the former regime’s smeared history [referring to former President Omar Al-Bashir].”

Mofreh asserted: “Religious freedoms are a religious and ethical principle, and our government’s commitment toward the people has contributed to the country’s removal from the violators of religious freedoms blacklist.”

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In 1999, Washington included Khartoum on the list before moving it to the watch list in 2019.

The transitional government in Sudan, led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, has been working to improve religious freedoms in the country by reopening and restoring churches that were confiscated or demolished by Al-Bashir’s regime.