UK sanctions several senior commanders of Sudanese paramilitary
The UK government announced on December 12th that it imposed sanctions on several senior commanders in the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to The New Arab plus agencies.
The British Foreign Office confirmed that amongst those sanctioned was Abdel-Rahim Hamdan Dagalo, who was sanctioned by the EU in November for the participation in, and the instruction of mass atrocities against civilians.
Abdel-Rahim is second-in-command of the RSF and the brother of the group’s notorious leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (aka Hemedti), who himself has been sanctioned and charged with several crimes.
The commanders were sanctioned due to their alleged participation in what the UK described as “heinous violence” in El-Fasher, the capital city of Sudan’s North Darfur state.
In late October, the RSF, which has been at war with the national military since April 2023, dislodged the latter’s last remaining presence in the region of Darfur after brutally besieging El-Fasher for 18 months.
What followed the group’s seizure of the city was “mass killings, systematic sexual violence and deliberate attacks on civilians”, with the main perpetrators now facing UK asset freezes and travel bans.
The British government stated that the RSF’s violence was not unplanned and sporadic, but rather “part of a deliberate strategy to terrorise populations and seize control through fear and violence.”
One of the key orchestrators of this violence was another RSF commander sanctioned by the UK known as Abu Lulu, who has been dubbed the “Butcher of El-Fasher.” He gained widespread notoriety for reportedly live-streaming himself executing unarmed civilians and bragging about his crimes on social media.
In a statement revealing the sanctions, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper declared that “the overwhelming evidence of heinous crimes – mass executions, starvation, and the systematic and calculated use of rape as a weapon of war – cannot and will not go unpunished.”
However, beneath the palatable humanitarian language of British government officials lies an uncomfortable complicity in the very same violence they condemn.
In late October, British manufactured arms and armoured personnel carrier engines were found to have been used by the RSF in combat, according to The Guardian on October 28th. This provoked renewed scrutiny over British arms exports to the UAE, a country which supplies the RSF with intelligence, arms, and financial support.
Following the revelation, secondary opposition party in the British Parliament, the Liberal Democrats, urged the Labour government to “cease all arms sales to the UAE immediately – until we can confirm without a doubt that no British weapons are going via the UAE to the RSF.”
The New Arab plus agencies, Maghrebi.org, BBC, The Independent, The Guardian, Liberal Democrats
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