Sudan: Head of Sovereign Council Invited to Visit Washington

The United States (U.S.) invited Sunday the head of Sudan’s sovereign council General Abdel-Fattah Burhan to visit Washington, the council said.

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The announcement came as the latest sign of strengthening relations and increasing cooperation between the two countries since the Sudanese army toppled last year then-President Omar al-Bashir following a popular uprising against his rule.

The objective of the visit will be “to discuss bilateral relations between the two countries and ways of developing them,” the council said in a statement, without giving a date for the trip but saying Burhan “promised to fulfill it soon.”

Burhan has visited several neighboring countries and Russia, while Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and other ministers have already been to Washington since the transitional government was sworn in last September. 

One of Sudan’s transitional government top priorities is the country’s removal from the U.S. list of states sponsoring terrorism.

In 1993, the U.S. added the African nation to its list of state sponsors of terrorism over allegations Bashir’s government was supporting terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda.

A senior State Department official said in November that Washington may remove Sudan from the list and that the two countries no longer had an adversarial relationship. Congress needs to approve such a removal.

Being on the list makes Sudan ineligible for debt relief and financing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

However, since its formation in August, the transitional government agreed with the U.S. that it could start engaging with international institutions while still on the list.