Sudan ordered to pay $4B. & Ethiopia deploys missiles
Posted: 20 May 2020, 10:31
US Supreme Court orders Sudan to pay over $4 billion over al-Qaeda bombings
The embassy bombings claimed 324 lives [Getty]
19 May, 2020
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... -escalates
The US Supreme Court has sided with the victims of the 1998 al-Qaeda embassy bombings, ordering Sudan to pay out more than $4 billion in compensation.
The US Supreme Court https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... from-sudan has ruled that Sudan https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... error-list must dish out more than $4 billion in compensation to the victims of two al-Qaeda https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... qaeda-ties bombings.
Eight justices of the court on Monday agreed to reverse a 2017 ruling arguing that Sudan was immune from litigation in the United States, https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... in-decades local media reported.
The verdict leaves the Sudanese government https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... dy-reforms with $4.3 billion in punitive damages to pay out to the survivors and family members of victims of the 1998 al-Qaeda embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
The devastating truck bombs that were detonated simultaneously outside the two US embassies on 7 August 1998 marked the first large-scale attack by the extremist group.
In Nairobi, 213 people were killed, with another 11 lives claimed in Dar es Salaam. Twelve US citizens were among the dead and thousands more injured. Al-Qaeda would go on to carry out the September 11 attacks in the US just three years later, killing nearly 3,000 people.
Sudan is accused of complicity in the embassy attacks and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole due to the harbouring of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by the country's former dictator, Omar al-Bashir.
Allegations that Khartoum provided support to the extremist group landed Sudan on the US State Sponsors of Terrorism list in the 1990s, a designation that continues to limit https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... nese-firms its access to international aid.
Groups of plaintiffs representing the victims and their families began to sue Sudan https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... e-with-icc in US courts in 2001.
While US law generally bars claims against foreign countries, a federal judge was able to find Sudan liable for $10.2 billion in damages due to its place on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list.
Critics of the case in Sudan https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... hir-to-icc and elsewhere have cast doubt on Khartoum's complicity in the bombings which occurred two years after bin Laden was expelled from the country.
In February, the Supreme Court heard arguments that it should reverse a 2017 lower court ruling that blocked victims of the attacks from receiving punitive damages.
The 2017 ruling had argued that the initial verdict had relied on the retroactive application of a 2008 law and was thus invalid.
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the law, which allowed victims of terrorist attacks to sue foreign nations, could be applied retroactively in this case.
Ties https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/i ... transition between Khartoum and Washington have warmed https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... dy-reforms since a transitional government took the place of Bashir last year.
As part of efforts to be removed from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, Khartoum https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... xtradition reached a settlement earlier this year with the families of the 17 victims of the USS Cole attack.
Sudan will not be removed from the list until it fulfils its obligations towards compensation, US have officials have said.
Previous statements by Sudanese officials indicate that the transitional https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... transition government - some $60 billion in debt and still mired in economic crisis stoked under Bashir and exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... ession-imf - may hope to negotiate the settlement down to a smaller and more manageable sum.
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Ethiopia ‘deploys missiles’ as Nile dispute with Egypt escalates
Egypt sees Ethiopia's Great Renaissance Dam as an existential threat [Getty]
19 May, 2020
Ethiopia says it plans to fill a dam on the Nile without consulting Egypt, amid reports that Addis Ababa deployed missiles to defend the dam.
Tensions dramatically escalated between Ethiopia and Egypt https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... l-nile-dam on Monday and Tuesday as Addis Ababa announced it would not postpone the filling of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... erican-dog ordered the Egyptian armed forces to be on the “highest state of alert”.
Ethiopia also reportedly deployed anti-aircraft missiles in the vicinity of the Renaissance Dam.
Negotiations between Egypt and Ethiopia over the dam, https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... r-nile-dam which is being built on the Blue Nile river, broke down in March after Addis Ababa refused to sign a US-drafted agreement regulating the filling of the dam, saying that it was entitled to fill it at its own pace.
Both Egypt and Sudan have expressed strong opposition to Ethiopia https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... l-mega-dam unilaterally filling the dam without an agreement, with Cairo concerned it will greatly reduce its supply of life-giving Nile water, causing drought and famine, especially if it is filled too quickly.
Ethiopia plans to begin filling the dam in July, when the Blue Nile river begins flooding. On Monday, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedu Andargachew said his country
In an interview with the Ethiopian News Agency, acting Foreign Ministry spokesman Amsalu Tizazu said Ethiopia was under no obligation to notify either Egypt or Sudan about when the dam would be filled.sees no reason to postpone the filling of the reservoir of its dam.
Ethiopia envisions filling the dam with 4.9 billion cubic metres of water between July and early next year, and wants to begin a trial operation of the dam in March 2021. It says that the dam is essential to its future development.
The new Ethiopian unilateralism concerning the dam stands in sharp contrast to previous agreements https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... am-dispute between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, such as the 2015 Declaration of Principles on Nile Water.
In previous years, Egypt indicated that it was prepared to take military action to secure its supply of Nile water and in 2013 Egyptian officials were recorded discussing ways to stop the building of Ethiopia’s dam, including an aerial bomb attack.
On Tuesday, President Sisi met with Defence Minister Mohammed Zaki and other military chiefs and called on the Egyptian armed forces to be
This was in response to militant activity in Sinai https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... s-in-sinai and setbacks suffered by Egypt’s ally, rogue General Khalifa Haftar, in Libya, https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/n ... val-haftar as well as the impasse with Ethiopia over the dam.at the highest level of preparedness, ready to defend Egypt’s national security.
The New Arab’s Arabic-language service quoted sources from Ethiopia’s opposition Tigray People’s Liberation Front party as saying that earlier this month, Ethiopia began deploying an anti-aircraft missile system around the Renaissance Dam in order to defend it against a possible strike.
The deployment of the missiles is expected to be completed in June. Ethiopia reportedly obtained the missiles from Russia among other countries.
However, observers believe that while Egypt considers the Ethiopian dam as an existential threat, a military conflict between the two countries is unlikely to take place in the immediate future.
Two weeks ago, Egypt sent a letter to member states of the UN Security Council complaining of Ethiopia’s actions and calling for a resumption of internationally-mediated negotiations.
