Sudanese gov’t reaches settlement deal with USS Cole victims

CAIRO — Sudan’s transitional government said Thursday it has reached a settlement with families of the victims of the 2000 attack on USS Cole in Yemen, in a bid to have the African country taken off the U.S. terrorism list and improve relations with the West.

At the time of the Oct. 12, 2000 attack in the Yemeni port of Aden that killed 17 sailors and wounded more than three dozen others, Sudan was accused of providing support to al-Qaida, which claimed responsibility for the attack.

Today, Sudan’s interim authorities are desperate to have sanctions, linked to its listing by the U.S. as a state sponsor of terror, lifted. Sudan’s justice ministry said the settlement was signed with the victims’ families last Friday but its statement gave no details of the settlement.

There was no immediate comment from Washington.

Sudan’s information minister and interim government spokesman, Faisal Saleh, told The Associated Press that Justice Minister Nasr-Eddin Abdul-Bari had travelled last week to Washington to sign the deal that included compensations for both the wounded and the killed.

He said the figures could not be disclosed because the government is still in the middle of negotiations to reach a similar settlement with families of victims of the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Noha Elhennawy, The Associated Press