By Hannatu Sadiq
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Chief, Samantha Power has visited Khartoum to discuss Sudan’s urgent economic and humanitarian needs.
Speaking on Sunday, she applauded the country’s transition and echoed USAID message that Western nations sought to support the civilian-backed transitional government after decades of authoritarian rule.
“My emphasis in this trip … is squarely on Sudan’s economic development needs and the ongoing humanitarian needs,” she told a news conference in the Sudanese capital.
Power said the United States aimed to help Sudan “reinvigorate the economy” and “to attract foreign investment”.
She later met the foreign minister, and will also meet other top officials before leaving on August 3.
On Saturday, Power visited Sudan’s western Darfur region where she talked to people displaced during the grisly conflict there.
Sudan has been going through a rocky transition since the ouster in April 2019 of strongman president Omar al-Bashir.
The UN says the years-long conflict which broke out in 2003, has so far killed 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million.
In a tweet on Saturday, Power said she “first visited #Sudan in 2004—investigating a genocide in Darfur”.
In December, Sudan was removed from US’ list of state sponsors of terrorism, and promised to clear the country’s arrears with the World Bank.
Sudan received tens of thousands of Ethiopian refugees since the Tigray conflict broke out in November last year.
Power is scheduled to head to Addis Ababa for talks with Ethiopian officials on humanitarian access to the conflict-ridden Tigray region.
