UK sanctions 15 officers and commanders on both sides of Sudan's war

The UK added 15 military, militia and police officers from both sides of Sudan's war to its sanctions list, freezing their assets and banning their travel, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said in a sanctions notice published on 26 October.

The notice identifies nine of the 15 as officers of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), two of whom it says have since defected to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). Three are SAF officers. The other three are the commanders of the Al-Baraa bin Malik Battalions and of the Abdullah Jamaa Battalion, and the director of the Gezira State Police. Each listing carries an asset freeze, a travel ban and a director disqualification sanction under the Sudan (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020.

It is the largest of the four rounds of additions the FCDO has made under the regime this year, after 6 designations on 5 February, 1 on 29 April and 11 on 16 July, its list of designations and sanctions notices shows. The FCDO said the new listings follow five earlier rounds of UK sanctions related to the conflict.

Three places named in the statements of reasons

For 14 of the 15, the notice says the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds to suspect involvement in a relevant activity under the regulations, which is the legal test for a UK designation, not a finding by a court; all 15 are UK, not UN, designations. Most of the statements of reasons name one of three places. The first is El Fasher, where the notice places two RSF officers at the takeover of the city in October 2025 and ties two more to violence there. The second is the Zamzam camp for displaced people, where it places two RSF colonels at the takeover in April 2025. The third is Gezira State, where it links SAF officers, the state police director and the two battalion commanders to what it calls a systematic campaign of violence against civilians, and two of them to events in Wad Madani.

The FCDO's announcement named two of those listed. It described Hussein Abu Jalak as an RSF colonel linked to atrocities during the siege of El Fasher, and said Al-Nour Ahmed Adam, known as Al-Qubba, was identified as present and playing a prominent role in besieging and attacking the city. The notice records that Adam has since defected to the SAF. The same announcement committed £5 million to services for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in Sudan and £10 million to the humanitarian response, including water and sanitation around Tawila and services in El Obeid.

What the listings ask of banks and companies

Anyone who knows or has reasonable cause to suspect that they hold or deal with the funds or economic resources of a designated person must freeze them, must not make them available to or for the benefit of that person unless an exception or a licence from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) applies, and must report what they find to OFSI, the notice says.

Screening is the practical task. The notice gives more than one spelling for several of those listed, Abo Jalak and Abu Jalak among them, and an alias, Al-Savana, for Ali Rizqallah, a senior RSF field commander who it says has recently defected to the SAF. Each entry has its own unique ID in the regime's SUD series, and all 15 were designated and last updated on 26 October. Several statements also tie those listed to others whom the notice calls involved persons: two RSF officers are described as associated with Gedo Hamdan Ahmed, and a third with Abdul Rahim Daglo, whom the notice describes as Deputy Leader of the Rapid Support Forces. Ownership and control checks on Sudanese counterparties should therefore cover those links as well as the new names.

The regulations behind the listings were made to keep the UK in line with its obligations under the United Nations sanctions regime on Sudan, and they allow designations for serious human rights violations or abuses, violations of international humanitarian law, attacks on or obstruction of diplomatic personnel and peace-support missions, and obstruction of humanitarian assistance, among other grounds, the FCDO's list page says. Law firms in London that act for a designated person can be paid under OFSI's reissued licence, set out in our brief on the legal services licence. The listings will be recorded in the next Sanctions and Enforcement Ledger, which follows the second edition, covering 17 to 23 October.