The United States has imposed sanctions on Abdel Rahman Joma’a Barakallah, a senior commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan, accusing him of orchestrating severe human rights abuses in West Darfur.
In a statement released yesterday, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions on Barakallah for his role in leading RSF operations, which have been responsible for widespread violence against civilians since April 2023.
The US described Barakallah’s campaign in West Darfur as marked by “credible reports of serious human rights abuses,” including violence targeting civilians, conflict-related sexual violence, and ethnically motivated attacks.
This action follows a UN Security Council committee’s decision on 8 November to blacklist Barakallah and the RSF’s head of operations, Osman Mohamed Hamid Mohamed, banning them from international travel and freezing their assets. The US Treasury Department’s decision reinforces the UN’s recent sanctions.
Previously, in September 2023, the US State Department imposed visa restrictions on Barakallah, citing his involvement in serious human rights violations, including the alleged kidnapping and murder of Khamis Abbakar, the former governor of West Darfur.
The RSF has not yet responded to the US sanctions.
