SUDAN U.S. President Trump announced a normalisation agreement between Sudan and Israel on Friday, shortly after signing an order to remove Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in exchange for the country paying $335mn to the families of victims of the 1998 Al Qaeda bombings in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi. Crisis Group expert Jonas Horner says removing Sudan from the U.S. State Department’s terror list will boost Prime Minister Hamdok politically and facilitate Khartoum’s access to desperately needed international debt relief and loans to combat the country’s dire economic crisis. While the Trump administration will herald the normalisation agreement as a foreign policy victory ahead of the U.S. presidential election, the deal may catalyse a new wave of dissent among Sudanese Islamists.
