KHARTOUM, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The Sudanese Justice Ministry on Monday announced the completion of a settlement deal with families of the victims of the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole which was attacked at Yemen's Aden harbor in October 2000.
"The settlement deal with the families of the victims of the destroyer USS Cole, who embarked on judicial procedures against the Sudanese government before the U.S. courts, has been fully completed," said the ministry in a statement.
All cases heard by the courts in the United States regarding the USS Cole case have ended, after a joint petition was submitted on April 3 to write off the lawsuits, according to the statement.
The ministry reaffirmed Sudan's non-involvement in the attack against the USS Cole, noting the Sudanese government agreed on the settlement for the strategic interest of the country and as part of the efforts by the transitional government to lift Sudan from the U.S. list of states sponsoring terrorism.
On Feb. 7, the Sudanese government signed a deal with the families of the victims of the USS Cole.
In 2016, a U.S. court of appeal ruled that the Sudanese government should pay around 300 million U.S. dollars for the victims of the attack on the USS Cole and additional sum as a compensation for the bombing of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.
Washington accused Sudan of contributing to the bombing of the two U.S. embassies in August 1998 and providing logistic support and training for elements of al-Qaida who attacked the USS Cole at Aden harbor in 2000.
