HIGHLIGHTS OF NIF ROLE IN THE GREATER HORN OF AFRICA

Sudan supported other militias operating in the continent such as the Islamic Group (Egypt), the Islamic Salvation Front (ISF, Algeria), the Tunisian Islamic Front (TIF, Tunisia), and groups in Niger, Gambia and Senegal. These groups were trained in areas such as Damazin, Equatoria, and Hamesh Koreb, near Eritrea .
International Resistance to Sudan 's Aggression
After 1989, when the al-Bashir-led coup deposed the elected government and imposed a military-Islamist junta on Sudan , the Sudanese government became internationally ostracized for its gross human rights abuses. Over the next several years, the United States and the international community carried out a number of actions in response to Sudan 's aggression and that of Al Qaeda, which would ultimately oblige the regime to moderate its policies. U.S. actions culminated in a military strike in Khartoum in retaliations for Al Qaeda's bombing of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam .
The first U.S. actions against the al-Bashir regime were legislatively mandated votes preventing the Sudanese government from receiving aid from international lending institutions. In 1993, the U.S. State Department designated Sudan a state sponsor of terrorism, whereby additional sanctions were imposed. It was Sudan 's complicity in the assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa in 1995, however, that galvanized international opposition to Sudan and ultimately prompted Osama bin Laden's flight from Sudan to Afghanistan .
The U.S. implicated Bin Laden, Al Qaeda and elements within the Sudanese government in the 1995 Mubarak assassination attempt. Three suspected members of the Egyptian terror organization, Jama'at al-Islamiyaa, survived the foiled operation. The suspects fled to Sudan where they found safe haven. An Islamic charity operating in Sudan , Blessed Relief, which was reportedly a front for Bin Laden activities, acted as a conduit for funds that helped finance the failed assassination attempt. The son of Khalid bin Mahfouz, a controversial, Yemeni-born Saudi tycoon worth an estimated $2.5 billion, was on the board of the charity. Bin Mahfouz founded and ran the world's largest private bank until 1999, when the Saudi royal family quietly arranged for a government investment fund to buy out his 50% stake in the National Commerical Bank, then forced his dismissal. Mahouz was confined to a military hospital in Taef , Saudi Arabia . One of his sisters is married to bin Laden.
After Khartoum refused to extradite the suspects in the assassination attempt to Ethiopia , the United Nations imposed diplomatic sanction on Sudan . The UN sanction in 1996 was for Khartoum 's failure to turn over the fugitives and for general Sudanese support of international terrorism. Minor diplomatic and air travel sanction went into effect; these were not lifted until September 2001; and the extradition order was never honored. For the same reasons, the U.S. implemented additional diplomatic and economic sanctions on Sudan , including in late 1997 the imposition of sanctions that prohibited U.S. entities from doing business with the Sudanese government. The United States and Saudi Arabia pressured Sudan 's government to expel Bin Laden and his terrorist network. Bin Laden then left Sudan in 1996 and headquartered Al Qaeda's operations in Afghanistan in an alliance with the Taliban.
In response to Sudan 's regional aggression, including its sponsorship of terrorism, Ethiopia , Eritrea and Uganda entered into what amounted to an U.S.-led "Frontline States" alliance against Sudan , and shortly after the imposition of UN sanctions, the US government announced that Uganda , Ethiopia and Eritrea were to be given non-offensive military equipment worth $20 million. It was widely perceived that this gesture was aimed at Sudan . The Frontline States' strategy unraveled, however, when war broke out between Ethiopia and Eritrea in 1998, and when Uganda, the most pro-SPLM/A country in the region, became deeply embroiled in the Congo conflict and had fewer resources to share with the Sudanese rebels. To offset the shortfall in regional support to the SPLM/A, the U.S. increased significantly its commitment of humanitarian aid to southern Sudan , allowing the SPLA to spend more of its meager funds on military equipment.
Both Ethiopia and Eritrea sought to normalize relations with Sudan , each in an effort to isolate the other. On December 8, 1999 Uganda and Sudan signed a peace agreement in Nairobi , Kenya . In the agreement the two signatories renounced sponsoring or harboring any rebel group fighting to destabilize the other's country. Nonetheless, support continued to flow to armed opposition groups in both countries, if at an abated level.

Arabic Forum