The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on Sudan’s Finance Minister Dr. Gebreil Ibrahim Mohamed Fediel and an allied militia for their role in the country’s civil war and ties to Iran, even as African and Arab mediators rallied behind renewed diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.
- •The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Monday designated Gebreil, who also leads the Darfur-based Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), alongside the Al-Baraa Bin Malik Brigade, a paramilitary group rooted in former President Omar al-Bashir’s Islamist regime.
- •Washington accused both of fueling Sudan’s devastating war while cultivating links with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
- •Sudan’s war, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF, has killed about 150,000 people and uprooted more than 14 million, according to U.S. estimates.
“Sudanese Islamist groups have formed dangerous alliances with the Iranian regime,” Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley said in a statement. “We will not stand by idly and allow them to threaten regional and global security.”
Dr. Gebreil has served as the country’s Finance and Economic Planning minister since 2021, a year after he joined Sudan’s Transitional Civilian Government. He joins a growing list of senior leaders from both sides of the conflict who have been sanctioned, including Sudan’s army leader Gen. Al-Burhan and RSF leader Hemedti, who were sanctioned in January.
The sanctions freeze U.S.-linked assets and prohibit American firms and individuals from engaging with the designated actors, extending also to companies majority-owned by them. Dr. Gebreil, who visited Tehran last November to deepen political and economic ties, has mobilized thousands of fighters against the rival Rapid Support Forces. The Treasury said his group contributed to mass displacement and the destruction of towns.
The BBMB, according to U.S. officials, fields as many as 20,000 combatants armed and trained by the IRGC. It has been implicated in torture, arbitrary arrests and executions of suspected RSF supporters.
Washington says Islamist figures aligned with Bashir’s legacy have obstructed peace efforts and derailed Sudan’s democratic transition.
The sanctions come as regional and international diplomacy gathers pace. The African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development said they welcomed a joint statement by the U.S., Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE that called for a three-month humanitarian truce, unfettered aid access and a roadmap to a civilian-led transition within nine months.
The two African blocs said they would convene, alongside the Arab League, the UN and the European Union, a fresh round of consultations with Sudanese civilian groups in October aimed at forging unity and laying the ground for a civilian-led constitutional order.