With U.S. Sanctions on Sudan Finally Lifted, How Will Khartoum Act?

With U.S. Sanctions on Sudan Finally Lifted, How Will Khartoum Act?
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir casts his ballot for presidential and legislative elections, Khartoum, Sudan, April 27, 2015 (AP photo by Mosa'ab Elshamy).

After several false starts over the past decade, the United States finally lifted sanctions it first levied against Sudan nearly two decades ago. The decision came late last week, after the Trump administration had extended its deadline over the summer on whether to make the Obama administration’s easing of sanctions permanent. The sanctions relief for Sudan was one of former President Barack Obama’s final, surprising foreign policy moves in office.

The U.S. has imposed the financial restrictions since the 1990s in response to the Sudanese regime’s penchant for harboring terrorists and for the atrocities it has committed, including the genocide that government forces and its allied militias carried out against people in Darfur.

The Trump administration determined that Khartoum has finally done enough to earn a reprieve. That includes curbing hostilities both in Darfur and the disputed states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan in the southeastern Nuba Mountains region, where the regime regularly dropped bombs on rebels and civilians alike. The U.S. State Department also cited the efforts by President Omar al-Bashir’s government to improve humanitarian access, to end its meddling in the conflict in neighboring South Sudan, and to assist global counterterrorism efforts. As an additional incentive, Sudan recently cut ties with North Korea.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

More World Politics Review