The European Union decided to provide $ 190 million to help poor families in Sudan, while Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok praised the efforts of US President Donald Trump to remove Sudan from the list that Washington considers a sponsor of terrorism.

The Sudan News Agency reported that the European Union and the World Bank signed an agreement to provide $ 110 million for the "fruit" program, which supports poor Sudanese families with direct cash transfers.

The program also obtained $ 78.2 million from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, bringing the total contribution of European partners to the family support program to nearly $ 190 million.

The distribution of direct financial aid is scheduled to begin next October, provided that half a million people in 11 states will benefit from it in the first stage, and then residents of all Sudanese regions over a period of two years.

The agency stated that the signing was carried out in the presence of Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok and a number of ministers.

Experts say that the program aims to mitigate the repercussions of gradually lifting fuel subsidies due to the budget deficit and the deteriorating economy.

Thanks to Trump


, for his part, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok praised on Sunday the efforts of the US President Donald Trump's administration to remove Sudan from the list of what Washington considers as state sponsors of terrorism.

This came in a speech he delivered via video technology to the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, according to the Sudanese News Agency.

Hamdok said that his government commends the steps taken by the US administration and the US Congress in support of the transitional government of Sudan, including the determination to accelerate steps to drop Sudan's name from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

On October 6, 2017, the Trump administration lifted economic sanctions and a trade embargo that had been imposed on Sudan since 1997, but it did not remove its name from the terrorism list on which it had been included since 1993 for hosting the late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Hamdok added that removing his country from this list would support Sudan's past drive to reform and strengthen foreign relations, so that Sudan would become an active player in the international community.

He called on the international community to assist Sudan in continuing its efforts aimed at forgiving it from debts (about $ 60 billion), obtaining soft loans, and "for friends and brothers to commit to fulfilling the pledges they made to support Sudan."

Winds of normalization


During the past few days, Israeli and American media reports stated that Sudan agreed to normalize its relations with Israel, in case its name was removed from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism and it obtained billions of dollars in US aid.

On Saturday, Hamdok announced his refusal to link the process of normalization with Israel with the file removing Sudan from the list of states sponsoring terrorism.

On Wednesday, the head of the Transitional Sovereignty Council in Sudan, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, said that his talks with US officials during a 3-day visit to the UAE dealt with several issues, including Arab peace with Israel.

Talk of a possible normalization of relations between Khartoum and Tel Aviv has escalated since the UAE and Bahrain signed in Washington in the middle of this month two agreements to normalize their relationship with Israel, ignoring widespread Arab popular rejection, in light of the continued Israeli occupation of Arab lands.