A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has called on Trump Administration to deliver equitable compensations for all the American and foreign victims of the 1998 Nairobi, Kenya embassy bombing before removing Sudan from the terror list.
Eleven senators including Jim Risch chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Chris Coons, Bob Menendez, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued a joint statement on the 22nd anniversary of the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7, 1998.
“It is critical that the Trump Administration and Congress redouble efforts to deliver justice to the victims and their families and appropriately and equitably address terrorism-related claims against Sudan,” they said in a statement issued on 6 August.
The call comes as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told lawmakers on Thursday 30 July that his administration would remove Sudan from the terror list if Khartoum manages to settle claims related to 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
The transition government of Abdallah Hamdok accepted to pay $335 million for the victims of the embassy attacks carried out by al-Qaeda after paying $70 million for the victims of USS Cole.
The deal was concluded by Sudan while the international community is mobilizing to support poor and politically unstable East African countries after 30 years of oppression, war and corruption by the former regime that ruined its national economy.
Sudan’s removal from the terror list opens the way for the international financial institutions to deal with Sudan and discuss debit relief also it would reassure private investors to come to Sudan.
The stakes are high and everybody is aware of the dangers and challenges facing the impoverished 40 million Sudanese and the regional stability, say analysts and international observers pointing to the sense of urgency in this matter due to the upcoming US elections and the situation in Sudan.
A group of American victims and their families are now backing the $335 million deal as they believe the Sudanese government did more than it can do despite the collapse of the Sudanese economy.
The senators spoke in their statement about the December Revolution that delivered Sudanese from the “murderous regime” of Omer al-Bashir and put Sudan on the path towards democracy and normalization of bilateral relations between the two countries.
“We must never forget those who died in service to the United States,” they however said.
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