London – December 12, 2025 – The United Kingdom has announced targeted sanctions against four high-ranking commanders of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for their roles in the brutal capture of El Fasher, North Darfur’s capital, in late October. The measures include immediate asset freezes and travel bans on the individuals, who British authorities say bear responsibility for systematic attacks on civilians, mass executions, sexual violence used as a weapon of war, and the deliberate terrorisation of entire communities.
The sanctioned officials are:
Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo, deputy commander of the RSF and younger brother of the paramilitary’s overall leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (“Hemedti”)
Gedo Hamdan Ahmed, another brother of Hemedti and a senior RSF field commander in North Darfur
Brigadier General Al-Fateh Abdullah Idris (also known as Abu Lulu)
Tijani Ibrahim Moussa Mohamed, a senior RSF operational commander
Announcing the sanctions, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper described the crimes committed during and after the fall of El Fasher as “so horrific they scar the conscience of the world.” She highlighted overwhelming evidence of mass executions, starvation tactics, and the systematic and calculated use of rape as a weapon of war.
“The violence we have seen is not random,” Cooper said. “It is part of a deliberate strategy to terrorise populations and seize control through fear and violence. The UK will not look away, and we will always stand with the people of Sudan.”
Satellite imagery analysed by independent monitors has revealed multiple mass graves around El Fasher, some showing signs that bodies were burned before burial in an apparent attempt to destroy evidence. Hospitals, schools, and displacement camps were deliberately targeted, and survivors have reported executions carried out on ethnic and religious grounds.
The European Union imposed similar sanctions on Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo last month, marking growing international coordination to hold RSF leadership accountable.
Darfur Governor Minni Minawi, a former rebel leader now aligned with the Sudanese Armed Forces, welcomed the UK action as “an important step toward holding accountable those responsible for the crimes and violations witnessed in Sudan in recent times.” However, he described the measures as “incomplete” without sanctions on RSF supreme commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, whom he called “the decision-maker and the direct architect of the violence system.”
Alongside the sanctions, the UK government unveiled an additional £21 million in humanitarian assistance for Sudan, focused on emergency food supplies, clean water, healthcare, and protection services for women and children in the worst-affected areas. The new funding brings Britain’s total aid contribution to Sudan in 2025 to £146 million.
The fall of El Fasher on 26 October ended the Sudanese army’s last foothold in Darfur and capped an 18-month siege that had already driven the city into famine. Since the RSF takeover, humanitarian access has been almost completely blocked, and reports continue to emerge of ongoing killings, forced displacement, and sexual violence against fleeing civilians.
The conflict between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces, which erupted in April 2023, has killed hundreds of thousands, displaced more than 13 million people, and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis. Darfur, the scene of a genocide in the early 2000s, is once again bearing the brunt of ethnically targeted violence.
Human rights organisations and Sudanese civil society groups have called on the international community to go further — including imposing sanctions directly on Hemedti, halting arms flows to both warring parties, and urgently establishing safe humanitarian corridors.
As the war enters its third year with no ceasefire is in sight, and fears are growing that the next target, South Kordofan, could see a repeat of the horrors witnessed in El Fasher.
