Just before leaving office President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order in effect rewarding Sudan, for taking positive actions on several priority areas for the United States.
Obama’s government said it would permanently lift those sanctions if that progress was sustained over the next six months.
The six month timeline came at a time when the Donald Trump administration did not yet have sufficient senior leadership in Africa to make a proper assessment of what they call the ‘five tracks’ – stopping hostilities in Sudan’s conflict areas; improving humanitarian access; ending Sudanese support for factions seeking to undermine South Sudan’s stability; cooperating with US intelligence on counter terrorism; and supporting ongoing regional security efforts, including a multilateral push to counter the Lord’s Resistance Army.
President Trump thus maintained the temporary lifting of sanctions for another three months, imposing a new deadline of October 12th.
At the end of last month the new head of the US Agency for International Development visited the country, saying that the five track plan “presents an opportunity for a new and closer relationship in the future,” but also calling for improved human rights, religious freedom and full adherence to UN Security Council resolutions on North Korea.
On Thursday, Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour held a meeting with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan and USAID Administrator Mark Green ahead of the UN General Assembly where there will be more opportunities for engagement.
