The United States (U.S) Government on Wednesday, March 31, confirmed that it had received Ksh 33 billion from South Sudan as compensation for victims of the bombing attack at both the Kenyan and Tanzanian American Embassies in 1998.
US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said that the US and Sudan relations could start a new chapter and that the U.S looked forward to expanding the bilateral relationship.
“We are pleased to announce that the United States received the $335 million provided by Sudan to compensate victims of the 1998 bombings of the U.S Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the USS Cole in 2000 as well as the 2008 killing of USAID employee John Granville,” Antony Blinken in a statement said.
The transfer of the money was done almost 10 years after a U.S court ruled that Sudan should pay punitive damages for the 1998 bombings that left 224 people dead and 5,000 others injured.
Leading to the bombings, the Sudanese government harboured the al-Qaeda militants by providing them with Sudanese passports, and that Sudan also harboured Osama Bin Laden.
The Sudanese government is said to have also provided the militants with the opportunity to transport weapons and money across the border into Kenya.
Due to the offences, the U.S State Department placed Sudan on a list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Following Omar al-Bashir's ouster in 2019, the new government began talks with the U.S State Department to normalize diplomatic relations and have the country removed from the list.
One of the conditions that Sudan had to meet in order to be removed from the list was to compensate the victims of the attack.
Among the 224 people killed in the attack, 12 were American citizens.
In 2020, some members of U.S Congress questioned whether the compensation was fair since U.S victims would be awarded millions of dollars while non-citizens would be awarded far less.
Another challenge that will be faced is the compensation of Africans who have immigrated to the U.S and want to be compensated at the rate of American citizens and not at the rate of African Citizens.
