The United States imposed sanctions on Sudan’s SAF chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Thursday, accusing him of continuing a brutal war that has devastated the country and killed tens of thousands of civilians.
Washington also accused Burhan’s SAF of using chemical weapons in the conflict, which began in April 2023.
In a statement, the U.S. Treasury Department outlined the SAF’s actions under Burhan’s leadership, which it said included indiscriminate bombing of civilian infrastructure, attacks on schools, markets, and hospitals, extrajudicial executions, and the use of chemical weapons in multiple incidents.
These actions have compounded a humanitarian crisis, displacing millions of Sudanese and plunging half the population into hunger.
The new sanctions freeze Burhan’s U.S. assets and bar American individuals and entities from engaging with him, while also targeting the supply of weapons to SAF.
The Treasury imposed similar sanctions on a Sudanese-Ukrainian national and a Hong Kong-based company. However, the measures include authorizations to allow transactions necessary for humanitarian aid to reach the country.
Washington’s decision to sanction Burhan follows similar actions taken against his rival, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), last week.
Burhan dismissed the sanctions in a defiant statement broadcast on Al Jazeera, welcoming any punitive measures as a mark of service to his country.
The two generals, who together orchestrated the 2021 coup that ousted Sudan’s civilian government, have since been embroiled in a bloody conflict over the integration of their forces.
Despite repeated attempts by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to mediate talks between the warring factions, the SAF has rejected most offers, including peace discussions in Geneva in August aimed at facilitating humanitarian access.
As fighting intensifies, the SAF captured the strategic city of Wad Madani this week and vowed to retake the capital, Khartoum, which remains contested. Rights experts and residents in conflict zones have accused the SAF of indiscriminate airstrikes and revenge attacks against civilians, particularly in Wad Madani.
In response to the escalating violence, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed regret on Thursday over the failure to end the conflict, acknowledging that efforts to improve humanitarian access had been met with limited success.
“While we’ve made some progress on humanitarian assistance, we’ve seen no end to the fighting or the suffering of the Sudanese people,” Blinken said. “This is a real regret.”
The war in Sudan has caused widespread devastation, and despite diplomatic efforts, peace remains elusive.
