Many victims of terrorism have decried a proposed deal from the Trump Administration that would remove the African nation of Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism if they pay $335 million to US victims of terrorism, the Associated Press reports.

The action is seen as an overt attempt to get Sudan to recognize the nation of Israel before the US election. It would also allow the struggling Sudanese economy to obtain loans from US financial institution, aid from the US government and trade with US companies.  It will also help the nascent democracy attract foreign investment.

Sudan’s authoritarian government, led by Omar al-Bashir, was overthrown in April 2019, and a fragile coalition of civilian and military representatives took over.

The US put Sudan on the list in 1993 after Osama bin Laden began terrorist training camps in the country.  The US launched a cruise missile attack on the country in 1998, killing up to 50 people and destroying a former pharmaceutical plant that was being used to manufacture components of the chemical weapon Vx.

Terrorists operating out of Sudan and affiliated with al Qaeda bombed US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

More than 500 of the 700 victims of the embassy bombings called on the US to reject the Sudanese offer because it offered US victims more money than the victims of other nations, who were far greater in number.

“This scheme would pay nothing at all to nearly a third of the embassy victims and categorizes naturalized U.S. citizens as non-Americans,” the letter said signed by victims and victims’ families. “It sets the value of the life of a U.S. embassy employee born in Africa at only 8% of an employee born in America.”

“The 9/11 families are counting on Congress to reject Sudan’s plea that our pending lawsuits be wiped out, and they insist it do nothing that would undermine them,” Jack Quinn, counsel for the 9/11 families that sued Sudan for supporting al Qaeda, said.