WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced Friday that it would formally lift a host of sanctions against Sudan, concluding that decades of punitive efforts had done little to encourage reforms or fully resolve a conflict in the Darfur region that once inspired protests.

The rapprochement is among the few policies of its predecessors that the Trump administration has been eager to continue. The State Department announced a new strategy for Sudan in the last days of the Obama administration that included lifting sanctions, ending 20 years of hostile relations.

The reconciliation was set back briefly when the White House initially included Sudan this year among the list of countries subject to a travel ban. But last month the Trump administration removed Sudan from the list, the only country named in the initial ban to no longer face any restrictions.

In a briefing with reporters, State Department officials emphasized that while the Sudanese government was still far from perfect, there were enough signs of progress on several fronts to move forward. Those issues included the end of Khartoum’s attacks on civilians in Darfur and other areas, curbing its destabilizing activities in neighboring South Sudan and increasing its cooperation with the United States on counterterrorism issues.