UK Sanctions Hemedti’s Brother and Senior RSF Commanders Over Mass Killings and Sexual Violence in Darfur

London, 12 December 2025 – The United Kingdom has imposed asset freezes and travel bans on four senior commanders of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), including the brother and deputy of RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (“Hemedti”), citing their direct responsibility for mass killings, systematic sexual violence, and ethnically targeted attacks on civilians in Darfur.

The sanctioned individuals are:

• Abdul Rahim Hamdan Dagalo – RSF Deputy Commander and brother of Hemedti
• Gedo Hamdan Ahmed – RSF Commander for North Darfur
• Al-Fateh Abdullah Idris – RSF Brigadier General
• Tijani Ibrahim Moussa Mohamed – RSF Field Commander

Announcing the measures, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the RSF’s actions – including gang rapes, abductions, and the deliberate targeting of humanitarian workers around El Fasher – were “so horrific they scar the conscience of the world.”

The sanctions mark the latest international effort to hold the UAE-backed paramilitary group accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity documented by the UN, human rights groups, and multiple Western intelligence assessments.

Numerous reports, including a UN Panel of Experts findings and investigations by The New York Times, CNN, and the Wall Street Journal, have detailed how the United Arab Emirates has served as the RSF’s primary foreign backer since the war began in April 2023 – supplying weapons, drones, medical treatment for wounded fighters, and laundering gold to finance the paramilitary’s operations, often via clandestine flights to an RSF-controlled airstrip in northern Chad.

Despite growing calls from lawmakers in London, Washington, and Brussels to also sanction the UAE entities and officials enabling the RSF’s war effort, today’s UK measures deliberately stop short of targeting Emirati networks. The Foreign Office declined to comment on whether UAE-linked individuals or companies are under active review.

Human rights campaigners expressed disappointment at the omission.

“Sanctioning mid-level commanders is welcome, but everyone knows the RSF would have collapsed long ago without the UAE’s air bridge of weapons and money,” said Mohamed Osman of Human Rights Watch’s Africa division. “Real accountability requires following the evidence means confronting Abu Dhabi’s role, not just the field officers carrying out its orders.”

Alongside the sanctions, the UK pledged an additional £21 million in humanitarian aid to Sudan, with a focus on protection services for survivors of sexual violence.

The sanctions take effect immediately. Diplomatic sources indicate that further designations against UAE-based facilitators of the RSF remain under discussion within the G7, but no timeline has been confirmed.