War: ‘You’re confused’ – Sudan reacts as US imposes sanctions on army chief, al-Burhan

The United States has slapped Sudan’s army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, with a sanction, accusing him of choosing war over negotiations.

The US said that al-Burhan has thwarted every effort to bring an end to the conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and driven millions from their homes.

This is coming barely a week after Burhan’s rival in the two-year-old civil war, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, was sanctioned by the US.

The US treasury department said that the army controlled by Burhan has adopted war tactics which include indiscriminate bombing of civilian infrastructure, attacks on schools, markets and hospitals, and extrajudicial executions.

Sources, according to the Guardian UK, said that one aim of al-Burhan’s sanctions was to show that the US was not picking sides.

However, the army chief was defiant when he spoke on Thursday about the prospect that he might be targeted.

“I hear there’s going to be sanctions on the army leadership. We welcome any sanctions for serving this country,” he said in comments broadcast on Al Jazeera television.

The US sanction also affected their weapon suppliers such as a Sudanese-Ukrainian national, as well as a Hong Kong-based company.

Thursday’s action freezes any of their US assets and generally bars Americans from dealing with them.

DAILY POST reports that the Sudanese army and the RSF together led a coup in 2021, removing Sudan’s civilian leadership,.

However, they fell out less than two years later over plans to integrate their forces.

The war that broke out in April 2023 has plunged half of the population into hunger.

Dagalo, known as Hemedti, was sanctioned after Washington determined his forces had committed genocide, as well as for attacks on civilians. The RSF has engaged in bloody looting campaigns in the territory it controls.

In a statement, Sudan’s foreign ministry said the latest US move “expresses nothing but confusion and a weak sense of justice” and accused Washington of defending genocide by the RSF

Sudan’s government expressed its objection to the sanctions, calling them “flawed,” “unethical” and “dubious.”

War: ‘You’re confused’ – Sudan reacts as US imposes sanctions on army chief, al-Burhan