Britain Sanctions Fifteen Sudanese Commanders Over El Fasher
The government has imposed travel bans and asset freezes on fifteen commanders from both sides of Sudan’s war, suspected of sexual violence during the siege of El Fasher. It falls on the first anniversary of the city’s fall. The Foreign Office says it hopes the action will ensure the horrors there “will be known to the world”.
Sanctioning both sides is the notable choice: the fifteen are drawn from the Rapid Support Forces and from the Sudanese Armed Forces, which makes this a statement about conduct rather than about which side Britain prefers. The scale of what happened at El Fasher is hard to hold. Up to 10,000 men, women and children are believed to have been killed over two days as the Rapid Support Forces took the city, ending an eighteen-month starvation siege. Fewer than 70,000 people are thought to remain, against a pre-war population of more than a million. One account opens with tens of thousands killed and later says up to 10,000; the lower, specific figure is used. The foreign secretary put it on the record: “A year on from the atrocities in El Fasher, UK-funded investigations have shown that rape and starvation are still being weaponised against the people of Sudan. These are crimes against our humanity.” Alongside the designations — a sixth round — come £5m for survivors of sexual violence and £10m for the wider humanitarian response. The paramilitaries were allegedly backed by the United Arab Emirates, which denies it.