U.N SECURITY COUNCIL SLAPS SANCTIONS ON FOUR RSF COMMANDERS OVER AL FASHER ATROCITIES. (PHOTO).

 UN Security Council slaps sanctions on four RSF commanders over Al Fasher atrocities

The UN Security Council has announced sanctions on four RSF commanders for atrocities committed in the October takeover of the Sudan’s Darfur city of Al Fasher.

The four are high-ranking members of the Rapid Support Forces, which a UN probe last week determined had committed acts of genocide in their 18-month siege and eventual capture of Al Fasher.

They are RSF deputy commanders Abdelrahim Hamdan Daglo and Gedo Hamdan Ahmed, Brigadier General Al-Fateh Abdullah Idris, and field commander Tijani Ibrahim.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by what the UN has called a "war of atrocities" between the RSF and Sudan's regular army, killing tens of thousands and creating the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.

Al Fasher under siege

For a year and a half, the RSF besieged North Darfur's state capital, Al Fasher -- the region's last major city to evade their control -- before storming the city on October 26.

The campaign, which the UN fact-finding mission described as "three days of horror", was marked by summary executions, systematic sexual violence, and mass detention -- primarily targeting the city's ethnic Zaghawa population.

Abdelrahim, brother of RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, appears in footage "giving direct orders to his fighters to not take captives but to kill everyone", according to the sanctions announcement, AFP reported.

He is already sanctioned by the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union.

‘Butcher of Al-Fasher’

Idris, commonly referred to as Abu Lulu, became known as "the Butcher of Al-Fasher" for graphic videos he himself posted of the takeover.

"Abu Lulu has filmed himself smiling and killing people while they begged for mercy, as well as videos where he makes ethnically targeted executions," the Security Council said.

He, Ahmed and Ibrahim were slapped with US sanctions last week over their roles in the "ethnic killings, torture, starvation and sexual violence" committed in Al Fasher.

A special Security Council committee with representatives of all 15 member countries makes decisions on such sanctions.