US to reinstate sanctions on Sudan, freeze assets of warring chiefs

GOOBJOOG NEWS | WASHINGTON: The United States Government has issued a green light for the reinstatement of sanctions on Sudan and authorized freezing of assets of all perpetrators of the violence in the country.

In an executive order issued Thursday, President Joe Biden termed the Sudan conflict an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States”.

He announced that the United States will revisit previously lifted sanctions on Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism and humanitarian atrocities, freezing any Sudanese assets on US soil.

He further directing the Treasury Secretary to determine warmongers and enablers of the ongoing conflict to be sanctioned.

The order also directed that “any foreign person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to be responsible for, or complicit in, or to have directly or indirectly engaged or attempted to engage in” assisting warring factions, looting or harming civilians will have their assets frozen and barred from transacting with US entities and proscribed individuals barred from stepping on US soil.

The latest sanctions comes as humanitarian officials in Sudan say that at least 800 people have been killed and more than 300,000 displaced, including 100,000 who have already crossed into neighboring countries.

Four ceasefire agreements have also largely been violated as the SAF led by junta leader Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF’s Mohammed Dagalo “Hemedti” fight in Khartoum.

Sanctions against Sudan that had seen the country isolated and branded as a state sponsor of terrorism had been lifted two years ago.

President Biden in his statement said the latest sanctions would prevent actions or policies that threaten the peace, security or stability of Sudan as well as actions that prevent a transition to civilian-led government and human rights abuses as well as looting of Sudanese resources.