American lawmakers introduce bill targeting Sudan coup leaders

WASHINGTON – A Republican and a Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill aimed at supporting the democratic transition in Sudan and imposition sanctions on the coup leaders.

Representative Gregory Meeks, a Democrat from New York and Michael McCaul a Republican from Texas introduced on 4 November a concurrent resolution that would be also approved by the Senate condemning the October 25, 2021, military coup in Sudan and standing with the people of Sudan.

The bill calls on the Sudanese junta to release the government officials, and other detainees in connection with the coup and to reinstate the transitional institutions, lift the state of emergency.

The text also calls to respect the right to peaceful protests, cease attempts to change the composition of the transitional authority institutions and transfer the leadership of the Sovereign Council to the civilians.

The Sudanese military leaders seized power in Khartoum on 25 October, hours after the departure of  Jeffrey Feltman U.S. Envoy for the Horn of Africa from Khartoum. Later he said they pledged to find a compromise with the prime minister and dissimulated their plan to take over power.

Washington mobilised the regional and international community to condemn the move and to press the military leaders to restore the U.S. backed transition in Sudan. Egypt remains the only country that refused to condemn the military takeover.

To ensure that the Biden administration would punish the coup leaders, the resolution calls on the U.S. Secretary of State to “immediately identify coup leaders, their accomplices, and enablers for consideration for targeted sanctions”.

The Congressmen further request the State Department to “monitor, discourage, and deter any effort by external parties to support the coup and the military junta,” reads the resolution.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to discuss with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry the situation in Sudan during the U.S.-Egypt Strategic Dialogue which will take place in Washington on 8-9 November.

The resolution also would suspend pause all non-humanitarian U.S. assistance to Sudan until the restoration of the transitional constitutional institutions including loans or debt relief to Sudan through the international financial institutions.

The resolution went further to urge the administration to suspend Sudan’s participation in all regional multilateral organizations.