US mulls lifting sanctions against Sudan

ZAM ZAM CAMP: Washington’s top aid official, Mark Green, visiting Sudan’s North Darfur state, stressed on Monday the importance of unfettered humanitarian access as a key demand for easing US sanctions against the government of President Omar al-Bashir

Just two weeks into the job as US President Donald Trump’s new aid administrator, Green is on a fact-finding mission to Sudan before an October 12 deadline when the administration will decide whether to permanently lift 20-year-old sanctions.

The UN has reported progress in the opening of aid corridors by Sudan’s military to get food and medicine into once tightly controlled areas of Darfur. Last month for the first time in seven years, aid workers were allowed into Jebel Marra, a mountainous region in central, north and south Darfur. There they found acute malnutrition and high levels of child mortality, according to a USAid report.

Before sanctions can be lifted the Sudanese government needs to comply with five US demands, including improved humanitarian access, more co-operation between the US and Sudan on fighting extremism and an end to internal conflicts.

While Green acknowledged there had been progress on all fronts, the question was whether it was enough for Trump to permanently lift the sanctions, he said. Reuters