US Imposes Sanctions on Sudanese Army Chief Burhan
On Thursday, the United States enacted sanctions against Sudan’s leader, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, alleging that he opted for conflict rather than negotiations to resolve the warfare that has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands and displaced millions.
The U.S. Treasury Department indicated in a statement that under Burhan’s command, the army’s combat strategies have included indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure, strikes on schools, markets, and hospitals, as well as extrajudicial killings.
Washington revealed these sanctions, initially disclosed by Reuters, just a week after enacting similar measures against Burhan’s adversary in the two-year civil war, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
According to two sources familiar with the situation, one purpose of the sanctions announced on Thursday was to communicate that Washington was not favoring either side.
In remarks made earlier Thursday, Burhan expressed confidence about the possibility of being targeted. “I understand sanctions are coming against the army leadership.
We accept any sanctions for serving our country,” he stated during a broadcast on Al Jazeera television. The U.S. also imposed sanctions related to arms supply to the army, focusing on a Sudanese-Ukrainian individual and a company based in Hong Kong.
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This action on Thursday freezes their U.S. assets and generally restricts Americans from engaging with them. The Treasury Department mentioned it issued permits for specific transactions, including those involving the warring generals, to ensure humanitarian aid is not obstructed.
The Sudanese military and the RSF carried out a coup in 2021 that ousted Sudan’s civilian government, but they fell into conflict less than two years later over plans to merge their forces. The conflict that erupted in April 2023 has driven half of the population into hunger.
Dagalo, known as Hemedti, faced sanctions after the U.S. determined his forces committed genocide and attacked civilians. The RSF has conducted violent looting operations in areas under its control.
The United States and Saudi Arabia have made repeated attempts to bring both factions to negotiations, with the army mainly rejecting these efforts, including discussions in Geneva in August that were partly aimed at improving humanitarian access.
Instead, the army has escalated its military efforts, recently capturing the key city of Wad Madani and pledging to reclaim the capital, Khartoum. Human rights advocates and residents have accused the army of carrying out indiscriminate airstrikes and attacking civilians, with recent revenge attacks reported in Wad Madani. The U.S.
previously concluded that both the military and RSF had committed war crimes. In his last press briefing before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken remarked on Thursday that it was a “real regret” that Washington had not succeeded in ending the hostilities during his tenure.
While there have been some advancements in facilitating humanitarian aid to Sudan through U.S. diplomatic efforts, a resolution to the conflict, “not an end to the abuses, not an end to the suffering of people,” has not been achieved, Blinken stated.
“We will continue working here for the next three days, and I hope the next administration will pursue this as well.”
Source: Reuters
