The United States on Wednesday issued sanctions on two paramilitary commanders leading the war in Sudan, vowing pressure to stop the unit from an offensive on El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State.
The Treasury Department said it was freezing any U.S. assets and criminalizing transactions with Ali Yagoub Gibril, Central Darfur commander of the Rapid Support Forces, and an RSF major general involved in operational planning, Osman Mohamed Hamid Mohamed.
“The RSF military operation to encircle and besiege el-Fasher, North Darfur, has endangered the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
“We stand ready to take additional measures against those individuals and institutions that actively escalate the war — including any offensive actions on el-Fasher,” he said.
The sanctions come amid international worry about an RSF offensive on the North Darfur city of El Fasher, typically home to half a million people but sheltering more than 1 million. It’s currently controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces and is one of the only cities the paramilitary hasn’t seized in the region.
Beyond the ethnic violence, aid agencies have warned of an impending famine as harvest yields have dropped, grain prices have increased and the flow of humanitarian assistance has been stymied by the army.
“The leaders of the SAF and RSF and their affiliated militias face a choice — escalate the violence and perpetuate the suffering of their people while risking the disintegration of their country, or cease attacks, allow unhindered humanitarian access, and prepare in good faith for negotiations to end this war and restore power to the people of Sudan,” the State Department said in a statement.
The United States and Saudi Arabia have tried to broker peace talks between the warring parties, but negotiations have stalled. Tom Perriello, who was appointed in February as the US special envoy for Sudan, is in the region to push for peace efforts.
The United States has accused both parties of war crimes and charged that the paramilitary RSF has carried out ethnic cleansing in the western region of Darfur.