Kemi Osukoya
January 6, 2021
The United States Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin arrived in Sudan on Wednesday for a one-day visit to the Northeast African country, part of a Northeast Africa-Middle east tour.
He was welcomed by Sudanese Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Hiba Mohammed Ali, Ambassador Brian Shukan, U.S. Chief of Mission in Khartoum, and other Sudanese senior government officials.
Mnuchin will meet with Sudanese Prime Minister Dr. Abdulla Hamdok, President of the Transitional Sovereignty Council Lt.-General Abdul Fattah Al-Burhan, and other senior officials to discuss U.S.-.Sudan bilateral issues, including economy, U.S. aid to Sudan and debt relief.
Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok called the visit “a new Era” in U.S.-Sudan relations. “Today I welcome Steven Mnuchin as the first sitting U.S. Treasury Secretary to visit Sudan. His visit comes at a time when our bilateral relations are taking historical leaps towards a better future. We’re planning to make tangible strides today as our relations enter a new era,” he wrote in twitter post.
Mnuchin’s visit comes on the heels of U.S.’s decision last month to remove Sudan from the list of terrorist designated countries. The U.S. also helped broker a peace deal between Sudan and Israel, two major moves that have received praises from many in the international community.
During his visit, the Treasury Secretary signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Sudanese government to provide a bridge loan that will help Sudan to clear its arrears to the World Bank once the agreed conditions with the Bank and the under the MOU are met.
Mnuchin arrived in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan on Wednesday from Egypt where he visited Tuesday with the President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi at the presidential palace in Cairo. They mulled U.S.-Egypt bilateral issues and other mutual and regional matters, including the latest developments in discussions to revive Palestinian cause as a way to revive the peace process in the MiddleEast. They also discussed the Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia dispute over a dam in the Blue Nile River, according to the spokesman for the Egyptian President.
*This news has been updated with the MOU agreement signed between the U.S. and Sudan.
