US promises Sudan ‘new chapter’ after compensating bombing victims
The US has promised what it described as a new chapter with Sudan after Khartoum completed compensation payments to American victims of terror attacks in Kenya, Tanzania and Yemen.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Sudan had settled $335 million to the US, as part of a deal to pay American victims of terror attacks which Sudan had been accused of fomenting.
“Achieving compensation for these victims has been top priority for the Department of State. We hope this aids them in finding some resolution for the terrible tragedies that occurred,” Blinken said.
“We commend the efforts of Sudan’s civilian-led transitional government to resolve long-outstanding claims of victims of terrorism and look forward to starting a new chapter in our bilateral relationship.”
The money will be shared among Americans victims of the US Embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
The August 1998 incidents by al-Qaeda saw at least 224 people killed and another 4,000 injured in both cities, majority of them Africans. A dozen of Americans also died in the attacks.
Part of The money will also be paid to the family of John Granville, the American diplomat assassinated in Khartoum in 2008, relatives of 15 sailors killed and 37 injured in the October 2000 bombing of USS Cole, the American warship, in Yemen.
Al-Qaeda claimed to have instigated the attacks and Sudan had been accused of aiding the group in the 1990s.
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden stayed in Sudan in the early 1990s, receiving training from the regime of Omar al-Bashir who was ousted in April 2019.
Edited by Olajumoke Adeleke
