US Envoy Perriello: Latest sanctions on RSF head Hemedti part of ‘continuing and escalating international effort’ against those fuelling Sudan conflict
U.S Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello, addresses the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington D.C., yesterday (Photo: @USSESudan on X)
The latest round of US sanctions against Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Commander Mohamed ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo, as announced by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday, and covered by Radio Dabanga earlier today, are part of a continuing and escalating international effort against those fuelling the Sudan conflict, US Special Envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello, told Dabanga – Radio TV Online in an interview today.
Perriello refutes that the USA has delayed these sanctions against RSF leaders until the final days of the Biden administration, pointing out that the USA has been imposing sanctions since the war began.
“The Biden administration has been sanctioning bad actors in Sudan since the war began,” he says. “We have been consistently increasing sanctions on both army and RSF actors, and during this year, that had included two of the brothers in the Dagalo family, as well as several companies that are involved in the weapons trade into Sudan and this week we built on those previous actions steadily up to the head of the RSF Hemedti, as well as a number of companies that are central to fuelling the war inside Sudan, so this has been a consistent and escalating effort which end with this week. These sanctions will remain in place and the US government will continue to look at how to raise the costs on those that are fuelling this conflict and these atrocities.”
Asked about the value of unilateral actions by the USA, Special Envoy Perriello assured that these are imposed in close concert with international partners.
“We first of all have been glad to see that our European partners as well as the United Kingdom have also been imposing sanctions and we believe that they will continue to work with the United States government to increase costs so that it is not just unilateral.
“We’ve also seen the United Nations with leadership from the United States, start to impose the Darfur arms embargo and put sanctions on that aspect. These sanctions have significant impacts on the ability of both Hemedti as an individual and the Dagalo family to do business anywhere around the world. It makes it difficult for these companies that have been involved in fuelling the conflict at the arms trade to operate within the international financial system. It also limits visa ability to travel in certain countries, and it also is significant in terms of showing the lack of legitimacy of the actors on either side who commit these kinds of atrocities…”
‘What we are showing is that the United States will continue to impose costs on all sides who commit atrocities against the people of Sudan…’
In response to assertions by RSF advisors who say that the new sanctions “give a green light to the army and the Islamists to continue violations and crimes, Perriello says that the effect will be just the opposite.
“What we are showing is that the United States will continue to impose costs on all sides who commit atrocities against the people of Sudan. We have previously sanctioned members of the Army. We have also recognised when the army has taken positive steps on expanding humanitarian access, so we show a consistent track record of the United States that when we see bad. We will. Those out and we will impose costs. And where we see positive steps taken, we will recognise that as well. We believe the mediation should continue and we believe that a national ceasefire could be achieved very quickly.”
and then