The US House passed a resolution condemning last October’s military coup in Sudan and calling for restoring the country’s constitutional leaders.
The bill was unanimously approved in the Senate and House of Representatives.
Democratic Representative Kathy Manning said the Sudanese junta has aligned itself with the Kremlin and given Russian President Vladimir Putin free access to the drilling sector when Russia is seeking to wage its brutal war in Ukraine.
Manning said Congress needs to send a unified message to the Military Council by condemning the October 25 coup and reaffirming the support of the Sudanese people.
She pointed out that this bill, which calls for holding the leaders of the Military Council to account, is a step in the right direction.
Republican Representative Young Kim said military leaders favored power over the people's will, noting that Congress would send an important and united message to condemn the coup.
Kim waved the binding sanctions bill she had put in the House of Representatives, calling on the Biden administration to use all its sanctions powers to demand accountability.
She also called for a review of any aid to Sudan under the leadership of the Military Council.
In detail, the bill stands with the people of Sudan in their democratic aspirations and calls for Sudan’s “military junta to immediately release all civilian government officials, civil society members, and other individuals detained in connection with the coup.”
It also calls for ensuring that “security forces respect the right to peaceful protest and hold those who used excessive force and committed other abuses accountable in a transparent, credible process.”
It urges the Military Council to cease all attempts to change the civilian composition of the cabinet, Sovereign Council, and other government bodies.
The text of the resolution calls on the US Secretary of State to “immediately identify coup leaders, their accomplices, and enablers for consideration for targeted sanctions” and coordinate with the “Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development and other Federal Government agencies to pause all non-humanitarian bilateral assistance to Sudan until the restoration of the transitional constitutional order.”
It also urges the US allies and the Troika countries to join them in imposing "targeted sanctions on the junta and other accomplices to the coup, monitor, discourage, and deter any effort by external parties to support the junta, and urge junta leaders to return to the rule of law as set forth by the transitional constitution,” in addition to suspending Sudan’s participation in all regional multilateral organizations until Sudan is returned to constitutional rule under the transitional constitution.
Meanwhile, the Senate approved the US President's nominee for the ambassador to Sudan, John Godfrey, paving the way for his official takeover of the position in the coming days, making him the first US envoy to Khartoum since 1996.
Godfrey, who speaks fluent Arabic, served as the Acting Coordinator of Counterterrorism and Acting Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS in the State Department's Bureau of Counterterrorism. He also worked as a political advisor at the US Embassy in Riyadh and as a political official at the US Embassy in Damascus.
