U.S. court closes USS Cole case against Sudan
April 15, 2020 (WASHINGTON) – A U.S. judge closed the case of the victims of USS Cole bombing against the Government of Sudan on Monday, nearly 20 years after the attack which killed 17 U.S. Navy sailors.
On 3 April, the families of the victims and the Sudanese government filed a joint stipulation demanding to close the case as Khartoum paid them a $30 million compensation agreed in February 2020.
Robert Doumar Senior US District Judge in Eastern Virginia signed an order close the case on Monday 13 April.
“It is so ordered” reads the decision seen by Sudan Tribune.
17 sailors were killed and dozens wounded in an attack on the destroyer USS Cole carried out by two men while refuelling in the Yemeni port of Aden on October 12, 2000.
In 2014, a U.S. court said that Sudan’s aid to al Qaeda “led to the murders” of the 17 Americans in the bombing of the USS Cole and awarded the families $35 million.
Trump administration told the Sudanese government that settlement of the cases of the victims of the terror victims was crucial before to remove the country from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Sudan now is negotiating with the victims of the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Nairobi as well as Dar es Salaam on August 7, 1998.
(ST)