BRUSSELS – The European Union is establishing a special sanctions mechanism for Sudan, with the goal of eventually targeting key participants in the ongoing conflict with travel bans and asset and bank account freezes, according to diplomatic sources familiar with the situation.
According to diplomatic sources, a proposed document was sent among member states late last week, and the details will be reviewed in the next weeks. The goal is to complete the framework by September, following which it will be used to construct a list of prohibited individuals and companies, according to the sources.
In early May, US President Joe Biden issued an executive order laying the framework for potential US sanctions.
The European Union has already sanctioned entities and individuals associated with Russia’s Wagner Group of mercenaries, directed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, including its Sudan operations and two gold companies.
“The establishment of the regime should act as a deterrent to Sudanese warlords.” “It’s a final warning,” one insider said, adding that the framework would focus on individual goals rather than sectoral initiatives.
The army, led by General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, deposed longstanding tyrant Omar Al-Bashir in 2019, and a paramilitary force led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, went to war in April of this year.
Hemedti made his fortune from gold mining in Darfur. Islamist Bashir supporters back Burhan’s army.
Volker Perthes, the UN Special Representative for Sudan, said in July that the violence showed no signs of ending soon and “risked morphing into an ethnicized civil war.”
Diplomatic mediation efforts have thus far failed, and both sides have utilised cease-fires to reorganise.
The International Organisation for Migration projected earlier this month that 3 million people had been displaced by the violence, with over 700,000 fleeing to neighbouring countries such as Egypt and Chad. Meanwhile, a humanitarian crisis is brewing as aid fails to reach its intended recipients.
Source: Reuters