U.S. Lifts Sudan Listing as Terror Sponsor After Quarter-Century

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. rescinded Sudan’s almost three-decade designation as a state sponsor of terror, paving the way for the North African country to rejoin the global community and boost its ravaged economy.

“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,” the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum said Monday on its Facebook page.

The move was expected after President Donald Trump announced in October that Sudan had agreed to make a long-sought payment to U.S. terror victims and their families. Discussions also brought in Sudan’s fledgling relations with Israel, a country Khartoum had never previously recognized and with which it agreed a peace deal just days later.

It’s another step toward overturning the legacy of dictator Omar al-Bashir, who made the country an international pariah for much of his 30-year rule and was ousted by the army amid mass protests in April 2019. The U.S. named Sudan a terror sponsor in 1993, citing its links with international Islamist-militant organizations, and four years later enacted sweeping sanctions that lasted until 2017.

Sudan’s transitional government, a civilian-military coalition ruling until democratic elections, had mounted a concerted campaign for the listing to be dropped. It said the rescission was crucial to rebuilding an economy battered by mismanagement, corruption and the loss of most of its oil reserves on South Sudan’s secession in 2011.

The U.S.’s lifting of most sanctions didn’t spur an improvement in Sudan’s economic plight, which sparked the protests that eventually unseated Bashir, with the terror listing leaving international banks and other companies still wary of entry.

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