The United Kingdom announced sanctions on Monday against 15 commanders from the two forces fighting the war in Sudan — the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) — accused of involvement in rape, torture and attacks on civilians. The measures include travel bans and asset freezes, and they come a year after the fall of El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, which the RSF took in October 2025 after an 18-month siege.
Alongside the designations, London announced £15 million in funding: £5 million for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and £10 million for humanitarian operations, including water, sanitation and health services in Tawila and El Obeid — two of the towns that took in those who managed to leave El Fasher.
Who is on the list
The list draws names from both sides of the war, which the British government presents as a signal that accountability does not pick a faction. Among the designations made public are:
- Hussein Abu Jalak, an RSF colonel linked to atrocities during the siege of El Fasher;
- Al-Nour Ahmed Adam, known as Al-Qubba, a former RSF major general who played a prominent role in besieging and attacking the city and who has since defected to the Sudanese army;
- Ahmed Haj Barrir Ahmed, an army brigadier general linked to massacres in Wad Madani, in Gezira state;
- Abu Zaid Talha Al-Misbah, commander of the Al-Baraa bin Malik Battalion, an Islamist militia that fought alongside the army in Gezira.
Al-Qubba's case best illustrates the problem the sanctions are meant to address: a commander accused of taking part in the RSF's capture of El Fasher has since crossed to the opposing side. Changing sides does not erase earlier conduct, and that is precisely the bet behind the instrument — the sanction follows the person, not the uniform.
"Rape and starvation are still being weaponised"
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said "the war in Sudan has created a humanitarian catastrophe" and that "rape and starvation are still being weaponised against the people of Sudan." The perpetrators, he said, "must be held accountable," and outside support for the warring parties must end. Miliband also noted that access to aid and food is, in practice, in the hands of the RSF and the SAF.
The announcement came with a study by the UK-funded Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), which found that both sides systematically used starvation as a method of warfare and sexual violence against civilians. The centre identified five hotspots of conflict-related sexual violence and named 25 commanders for whom, in its assessment, there are reasonable grounds to consider responsibility for abuses in those places — ten more than the number sanctioned now.
El Fasher, a year on
An Amnesty International report released on 23 October, based on interviews with 25 civilians conducted in August and September, describes what is left of the city. Humanitarian organisations estimate that fewer than 70,000 people remain in El Fasher, which had more than a million residents before the war.
Of the 19 residents interviewed, 17 were detained by the RSF, most during the capture of the city, and all were held for months, freed only after ransom payments or escape. The accounts describe beatings and unlawful killings in prisons such as Shala, the use of schools as detention centres for women, children and older people, and forced labour — including collecting bodies and rubble. People of the Zaghawa and Masalit ethnic groups, according to those interviewed, were singled out.
"A pervasive pall of fear hangs over El Fasher today," said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International's Secretary General, for whom the RSF's claim that the city is safe for return "could not be further from the truth." The organisation is calling for an immediate ceasefire, an international protection force and an expansion of the UN arms embargo to cover all of Sudan.
Official food-security assessments consider it highly likely that North Darfur, El Fasher included, will enter IPC Phase 5 in the coming months — the famine classification, the most severe on the scale.
On the same day as the sanctions, Sudan's state electricity company said drone strikes attributed to the RSF hit power stations in four southeastern states. The RSF did not respond to requests for comment.
With information from The National, Radio Tamazuj, Amnesty International and Just Security.
