US extends national emergency on Sudan

Washington, DC, US (PANA) - The US says the national emergency with respect to Sudan, declared in November, 1997, is to continue in effect beyond 3 November, 2023.

The website of the White House said on Tuesday that President Joe Biden sent letters to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and President of the Senate on the continuation of the national emergency with respect to Sudan beyond the anniversary date.

The letters said the crisis that led to the declaration of a national emergency in 1997; the expansion of the scope of that emergency on 26 April, 2006; the taking of additional steps with respect to that emergency on 13 October, 2006; the Executive Orders of 13 January, 2017, and 11 July, 2017; and the further expansion of the scope of that emergency on 4 May, 2023, has not been resolved.

"The policies and actions of the Government of Sudan, and the situation in Sudan and Darfur, continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States," the US president wrote. 

"Therefore, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13067, as expanded by Executive Orders 13400 and 14098, with respect to Sudan," President Biden said in his letters.

On 3 November, 1997, by Executive Order 13067, the US President declared a national emergency with respect to Sudan pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and took related steps to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the actions and policies of the Government of Sudan. 

On 26 April, 2006, the President determined that the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region posed an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. He expanded the scope of the national emergency declared in an Executive Order, and ordered the blocking of property of certain persons connected to the Darfur region.

Also on 4, 2023, by Executive Order, the US further expanded the scope of the national emergency earlier declared, finding that the situation in Sudan, including the military’s seizure of power in October 2021 and the outbreak of inter-service fighting in April 2023, "constituted an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States". 

-0- PANA MA 1Nov2023