Britain sanctions 15 commanders from both sides on the first anniversary of El Fasher’s fall

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office announced travel bans and asset freezes on 26 October against 15 senior commanders drawn from the RSF, the Sudanese Armed Forces and allied militias, timed to the anniversary of the RSF’s October 2025 capture of El Fasher. Named designations include RSF colonel Hussein Abu Jalak, lieutenant colonel Abbas Khater Bakhit for the torture of detainees during the takeover, Khademallah Khashmin Herika, described by the FCDO as an RSF “female element” commander accused of promoting rape and sexual violence in El Fasher and Garni, and Abdelbagi Dahab Talbo and Mustafa Abdullah Ahmed Shenibat over the April 2025 assault on the Zamzam displacement camp. Two of those listed — Al-Nour Ahmed Adam, known as “Al-Qubba”, a former RSF major general during the El Fasher takeover, and Ali Rizqallah — have since defected to the army. Britain has sanctioned men now serving on the SAF’s side for what they are alleged to have done while with the RSF.

The designations followed UK-funded research by the Centre for Information Resilience, which the FCDO says documented systematic starvation and conflict-related sexual violence by both parties. “A year on from the atrocities in El Fasher, UK-funded investigations have shown that rape and starvation are still being weaponised against the people of Sudan,” Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said, adding that “the perpetrators must be held accountable and support from all external backers to the warring parties must end.” The accompanying £15 million splits into £5 million for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and £10 million for humanitarian response, directed to water and sanitation at displacement sites around Tawila in North Darfur and to health and protection services in El Obeid, North Kordofan. Human Rights Watch, marking the same anniversary, quoted a returning resident: “It is as if a tsunami had hit the city.”

Assessment: Asset freezes on field commanders inside Sudan are close to symbolic in direct effect; the two defector designations are where the policy actually bites. They tell every RSF officer weighing a switch that crossing to the army buys no immunity from Western lists, which narrows the off-ramps the Quad’s mediators need if they ever get to disarmament. Miliband’s line about external backers is the unspoken half of the announcement — Britain named commanders, not patrons. Amnesty, in its 23 October testimony release, said it was aware of no diplomatic effort to build a protection force for El Fasher’s survivors, and that is the measure against which £15 million and 15 names should be read.