Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly speaks with journalists in Ottawa, on March 3. Joly says the leaders of both sides in Sudan’s war are being sanctioned 'for their refusal to negotiate in good faith and adhere to a permanent ceasefire.'Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
Canada has announced its toughest-ever sanctions on the leaders of both sides in Sudan’s brutal war, denouncing them for persistent atrocities against civilians that could amount to crimes against humanity.
The sanctions were imposed after fresh reports of horrific abuses in the African country, notably a United Nations report that documented the rape of hundreds of children – including infants – by armed men.
The war, which erupted in 2023, has killed thousands of people across the country, triggered famines, destroyed most of the health and education systems and forced more than 12 million people to flee their homes.
Canada said it is imposing new sanctions on seven individuals, including the two highest-ranking leaders in the war: General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and his main rival, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, the long-time commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The two leaders are being sanctioned “for their refusal to negotiate in good faith and adhere to a permanent ceasefire,” Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said in her announcement Wednesday night.
“As leaders, al-Burhan and Dagalo should be held accountable for their roles in overseeing gross and systematic human rights abuses, some of which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” she said.
“To date, the SAF and RSF have shown little willingness to engage in international mediation efforts. Despite repeated calls to cease the violence, both parties have continued to commit abhorrent human rights abuses and international humanitarian law violations and to inflict terror against the Sudanese people with complete disregard for their suffering.”
The sanctions, which also cover three Sudanese businesses with links to the two military forces, will prohibit the targets from any property or financial transactions in Canada – effectively an asset freeze – and will bar them from entering Canada.
Canada has lagged behind other countries in imposing sanctions against key leaders in the Sudan conflict. Its first sanctions were announced last April, many months after other Western governments launched similar measures. The United States and Britain announced their first Sudan-related sanctions in mid-2023.
Reports of atrocities, meanwhile, are continuing to emerge. Earlier this week, the UN children’s agency UNICEF said it had compiled data of 221 rapes of children by armed men in Sudan since the beginning of last year.
“Shockingly, there are 16 survivors under 5 years of age, including four one-year-olds,” the agency said in a report. “These figures represent only a small fraction of total cases. Survivors and their families are often unwilling or unable to come forward.”
UNICEF’s executive director, Catherine Russell, said the report “should shock anyone to their core and compel immediate action.” Millions of children in Sudan are at risk of sexual violence, which is being used as a tactic of war, she said in a statement.
The brutal reality of this violence is pushing women and girls to flee to other cities. They often end up in displacement sites, where the risk of sexual violence is equally high, Ms. Russell said. “Widespread sexual violence in Sudan has instilled terror in people, especially children.”
In a separate report released Thursday, the UN human rights office said it has evidence that tens of thousands of Sudanese people – including women and children – have been held without charge in squalid and overcrowded detention facilities by both warring parties.
The report, based on dozens of interviews, covered only a 14-month period in just one of Sudan’s states, Khartoum State, but the UN said it had documented many similar detentions in Darfur and other regions of the country.
“Former detainees shared credible accounts of harrowing torture and ill treatment, including severe and frequent beatings, in detention facilities,” the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in the report.
“They described acute overcrowding with minimal ventilation, limited access to sanitation and inadequate food and water. They also described seeing many detainees die in custody, due to lack of medical treatment, in both RSF and SAF facilities.”
In one case, the report said, a family repeatedly asked about a relative who had been detained by the RSF. “Don’t ask about him,” they were told. Months later, they learned he had died.