Washington declares both Sudanese commands illegitimate, names no measure to make it bite
The State Department said on 22 September that neither the army nor the Rapid Support Forces constitutes lawful government in Sudan and that it would raise the cost of the war. It did not say how, and the one lever already on the table expires in three weeks.
State Department spokesman Thomas “Tommy” Pigott said on Tuesday that “neither the Sudanese Armed Forces, the Rapid Support Forces, nor their respective leaders, represent legitimate, constitutional governance for Sudan — they rule through force of arms alone,” and that “the conduct of each leader of the warring factions renders them ineligible to govern the country.” Washington, he added, is prepared to work with “anyone who is a serious partner for peace.” The statement was carried same-day by The National, Arab News, Radio Tamazuj and Sudan Tribune. Radio Tamazuj noted explicitly that Pigott did not specify what measures the United States would take. Sudan Tribune reported that the statement accused both sides of failing to make serious commitments to an immediate ceasefire and of escalating combat instead — a characterisation that is State’s own and not independently established.
The instrument that already exists is running down. On 11 September the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2828 (2026), extending the 1591 sanctions regime and the Darfur arms embargo under Chapter VII for one month only, to allow further negotiation on whether to widen the measures; the Panel of Experts mandate runs to 9 November. The rollover therefore lapses around 12 October. The contested question is whether the embargo is expanded from Darfur to the whole of Sudan — something the September 2025 renewal did not do, as Human Rights Watch records, and which High Commissioner Volker Türk urged in February, citing escalating violations in Kordofan. Washington’s previous Sudan designations, in February and April 2026, hit RSF field commanders: Elfateh Abdullah Idris Adam, Gedo Hamdan Ahmed Mohamed and Tijani Ibrahim Moussa Mohamed among them.
Assessment: Read the statement as a shift in vocabulary, not in policy. Declaring both commands ineligible to govern is cheap in October and expensive later: it forecloses the recognition track that a victorious SAF has been working toward, without obliging Washington to do anything this week. The test is narrow and dated. If “raise the cost” means anything, it shows up as OFAC designations that move beyond RSF field commanders to procurement and gold networks, or to SAF-side entities for the first time, and as a US position on nationwide expansion of the arms embargo before 2828 lapses. Absent both, this is a press line. Note also that the state most often named as an RSF supplier is reported to be among those urging the wider embargo; that claim needs a primary mission text before anyone builds on it.