UN sanctions 2 generals from Sudan's paramilitary force for key roles in war against the military

UNITED NATIONS — (AP) — The United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions Friday on two generals in Sudan's paramilitary force for their key roles in the war against the country's military that has seen ethnically motivated attacks and atrocities.

Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions, including Darfur. The U.N. says over 14,000 people have been killed and 33,000 injured, and recently warned that the country has been pushed to the brink of famine.

The council’s sanctions committee added Maj. Gen. Osman Mohamed Hamid Mohamed, head of the Rapid Support Forces' operations department, and Maj. Gen. Abdel Rahman Juma Barkalla, the RSF commander in West Darfur, to the sanctions blacklist.

Britain's U.N. Mission tweeted on X that the two generals were added for threatening the peace, security and stability of Sudan, "including acts of violence and human rights abuses."

The U.N. sanctions order all countries to freeze the asses and impose a travel ban on the generals. The United States Treasury imposed sanctions on both generals earlier in the year, freezing any assets in the U.S. and banning all financial transactions with them.

Two decades ago, Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly by the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias, against populations that identify as Central or East African. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes. That legacy appears to have returned, with the International Criminal Court's prosecutor, Karim Khan, saying in January there were grounds to believe both sides may be committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide in Darfur. The RSF was born out of the Janjaweed.

Human Rights Watch said in a report in May that attacks by the paramilitary force and its allied militias, which killed thousands in Darfur in 2023, constituted a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the area's non-Arab population.

The rights group said the RSF and its militias targeted the ethnic Masalit and other non-Arab groups in El Geneina, the capital city of West Darfur state. Masalit who were captured were tortured, women and girls were raped and entire neighborhoods were looted and destroyed, Human Rights Watch said.

Its report is entitled "The Massalit Will Not Come Home: Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity in El Geneina, West Darfur, Sudan."

The RSF controls the capitals of four of the five states in Darfur and has intensified its military campaign for control of the lone holdout, North Darfur capital El Fasher.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.