US lifts embargo on 157 Sudanese institutions: official

KHARTOUM, Sudan

The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has lifted sanctions against 157 Sudanese institutions, Sudan Central Bank's governor said on Wednesday.

“We received a letter from OFAC confirming that the executive orders of 13067 and 13412 that were issued in October 2017 has become effective and that is ending the embargo on Sudan officially,” the statement by Badur Aldin Abdul Rahim confirmed.

Accordingly, Rahim said, Sudanese institutions have been delisted from the U.S. sanctions.

He, however, added that a few individuals and institutions related to the Darfur act were still under the economic embargo.

“But that would not have any effect on banking transactions with Sudan,” the statement read.

Sudan was placed on the U.S. list of countries sponsoring terrorism in 1993 on accusations of supporting terrorist groups.

In 1997, Washington imposed economic sanctions on Khartoum and tightened them a year later after attacks against U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

In 2007, the U.S. imposed further sanctions after the outbreak of conflict in the western Darfur province.

Later in October 2017, the administration of former President Barack Obama lifted some of the economic sanctions, but left the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act (DPAA) and the terrorism list designation.

Last month, the northeast African nation announced reaching a settlement with the families of those killed in the 2000 USS Cole bombing in order to be removed from the U.S. terror listing.

The bombing was an attack on USS Cole, a guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy, on October 12, 2000, when it was being refueled in Yemen's Aden harbor. Some 17 U.S. Navy sailors were killed and 39 injured in the incident.