Administrator Samantha Power paid a visit to the US Embassy on the second day of her tour to Sudan, thanking workers for their diligent efforts in supporting the country’s delicate but hopeful democratic transition and improving the US-Sudan partnership. The Administrator also paid a visit to a memorial for USAID employees John Granville and Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama, who died in an ambush in Khartoum in 2008 when gunmen ambushed their government car.
Administrator Power met with Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Foreign Minister Dr. Mariam Al-Mahdi to explore how the US can best support Sudanese citizens and the Civilian-led Transitional Government (CLTG) as they prepare for national elections in 2024. Administrator Power emphasized the persistence of bureaucratic barriers that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other international partners face in Sudan, and urged the CTLG to make it easier for external actors to provide assistance to Sudan during this critical period in the country’s history.
Administrator Power met with Alaa Salah, whose photographs of her leading slogans against then-President Omar al-Bashir went viral in 2019, helping to bring the Sudanese protests to the attention of the rest of the globe. The Administrator also spoke with young activists who were seriously injured during the protests that eventually led to the overthrow of President Bashir’s dictatorship. Transitional justice for crimes committed during the revolution was demanded by the activists.
Following that, the Administrator met with Sudan’s Sovereign Council Chairman, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and emphasized the importance of holding individuals in the security forces guilty for attacks on civilian demonstrators accountable. Chairman al-Burhan stressed the necessity of economic development and security working together, and he repeated his commitment to bringing the multiple armed entities under a single command before the end of the transitional phase.
The Administrator dined with a group of CLTG ministries, including the ministers of Cabinet Affairs, Finance and Economic Planning, Health, Justice, Water and Irrigation, and Federal Governance, in the evening. The focus of the conversation was on the Ministers’ particular plans for overcoming a 30-year legacy of corruption and mismanagement, as well as how the US and USAID might assist them.
