The United States is set to name an ambassador to Sudan for first time in 23 years, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday.

The last American Ambassador to the Sudan was Tim Carney who left his position just before the US launched missile strikes against Khartoum after the terrorist bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998.

The US has never designated an ambassador since then and has a Charge d'Affaires head its embassy.

Two years before that, the US suspended the operations of its embassy in Khartoum following concerns about Sudan's Islamist links with international terrorist organizations.

The US and Sudan have had fractious relations over the last few decades. Relations between the two countries have been negatively affected due several incidents, including the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Sudan backing Iraq in its invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the violence in Darfur among others.

Sudan was designated as a state sponsor of terrorism by the US in 1993. One of the objectives of the current Sudanese government, headed by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, is to have the country taken off that list.

Source(s): AFP, US State Department