Obama wants to ease sanctions Sudan

washington - The Obama administration has put steps Friday to lift a twenty year old trade embargo against Sudan, to release frozen funds and to remove financial sanctions. The White House says it wants to reward the African country for its cooperation in the fight against Islamic State and other terror groups. Human rights groups reacted perplexed.

It takes 180 days to go into action. During that time Sudan must demonstrate that better deals with human rights and that the political and military conflicts tries to resolve, including in Darfur. This means that the final decision on the lifting of the sanctions taken by the new president Donald Trump and his foreign minister, former oil chief executive Rex Tillerson.

Sudan hopes to be deleted in the long run from the US list of countries supporting terrorism.

Human Rights Watch does not explain the decision. ' 'There is absolutely no progress on ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, or in other conflict zones, says HRW. Another group in Washington, The Enough Project, called the decision 'premature' because the conflicts in Darfur and South Kordofan are still unresolved and the military impedes access for aid workers.

Peter Pham of the Africa Centre of the Atlantic Council in Washington, however, called the decision wise, especially because measures are removed that affect ordinary Sudanese people and not the regime.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur.