UN Security Council sanctions two generals from Sudan’s paramilitary RSF

Paramilitary group’s head of operations and West Darfur commander have been slapped with travel bans and asset freezes.

A United Nations Security Council committee has sanctioned two generals from Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for destabilising the country through violence and human rights abuses.

These are the first UN sanctions in the current war in Sudan, which erupted on April 15, 2023, as a result of a power struggle between the RSF led by Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

The UNSC’s Sudan sanctions committee on Friday agreed to a United States proposal made at the end of August to impose an international travel ban and asset freeze on the RSF’s head of operations, Osman Mohamed Hamid Mohamed, and West Darfur commander Abdel Rahman Juma Barkalla.

Diplomats said the move was delayed by Russia, because it wanted more time to study the proposal, according to the Reuters news agency. The committee operates by consensus.

In May, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Mohamed and the group’s Central Darfur commander, Ali Yagoub Gibril.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week condemned reported attacks on civilians by the RSF as Britain said it would push for a UNSC resolution on the conflict.

Famine and displacement

The conflict has displaced more than 10 million people – including 2.4 million who have fled to other countries, creating one of the worst global humanitarian crises, according to UN data.

Nearly 25 million people – half of Sudan’s population – need aid as famine has taken hold in displacement camps.

At least 20,000 people have been killed in the war, and multiple UN agencies have raised the alarm over the risk of “countless” additional deaths with the health system in “freefall” and cholera cases surging.

The UNSC created its targeted Sudan sanctions regime in 2005 in a bid to help end a conflict in Darfur. Before Friday, three people were on the list, added in 2006. The council also imposed an arms embargo on Darfur in 2004.

The UN estimates 300,000 people were killed in Darfur in the early 2000s when government-linked “Janjaweed” militias – who were the origins of the RSF – helped the army crush a rebellion by mainly non-Arab groups. Former Sudanese leaders are wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for genocide and crimes against humanity.