UN sanctions paramilitary leaders over Sudan atrocities

THE UN Security Council has announced new sanctions on four leaders of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces over atrocities committed in the western Sudanese city of el-Fasher.

The deputy commander, Abdul Rahim Hamdan Dagalo and Brigadier General Al-Fateh Abdullah Idris, more commonly called Abu Lulu, who became known as the “Butcher of el-Fasher”, are among those proscribed.

The others are RSF deputy commander Gedo Hamdan Ahmed and field commander Tijani Ibrahim.

A spokesman for Tasis, a coalition of civilian and armed groups led by the RSF, told the BBC the sanctions were “unfair”, saying they were based on what he described as “partial” and “unneutral” reports.

The RSF’s capture of the city in October was one of the most brutal chapters of Sudan’s nearly three-year civil war.

Last week a UN fact-finding mission concluded that the violent takeover bore the hallmarks of a genocide.

The RSF has admitted that “violations” were committed in el-Fasher and says it is investigating them, but insists the scale of the atrocities has been exaggerated by its enemies.

In a response to the BBC, Tasis termed the accusations of killing civilians and preventing them from leaving el-Fasher “misleading”. It said its forces had evacuated more than 800,000 civilians from el-Fasher during the military operations there, and “provided them with food and medicine”.

“All these facts showed that the sanctions imposed by UNSC are unjust,” it added.

The UN said Dagalo, brother of RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, known as “Hemedti”, had overseen operations on the day the RSF captured el-Fasher, citing atrocities carried out by his forces including mass killings and ethnically targeted executions.

This is the fourth time Dagalo has been sanctioned following earlier designations by the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union.

—BBC