The United States has imposed sanctions on eight individuals and entities, including an Indian national linked to an explosives manufacturing company, over allegations that they helped fuel Sudan’s ongoing civil war.
In a statement issued on Friday, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the sanctioned networks had enabled both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to strengthen and prolong the conflict in the African country.
Among those sanctioned is Alok Choudhari of Raipur, Chief Executive Officer of SBL Energy Limited, also known as Amin Explosive Private Limited. According to OFAC, the company supplied more than 200 shipments of explosives and related materials to a firm responsible for maintaining the SAF’s weapons stockpile.
The also imposed sanctions on SBL Energy Limited and other firms based in and Egypt.
What did the US Department of State say?
“These networks supply weapons, explosives, and foreign fighters to both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces. Their support has prolonged a conflict that has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and provided space for terrorist groups to operate,” Tommy Pigott, spokesperson of the US Department of State, said in a statement.
Raipur-based SBL Energy allegedly supplied explosives and related material to Sudan-based Target Multiactivities Company (TMAC), the US Treasury Department said. The explosives were subsequently used in bombs deployed by the SAF, it mentioned.
TMAC and its general manager, senior DIS officer Tariq Hussain Muhammad Madani, have also been blacklisted.
According to the US Treasury Department, the Defense Industries System (DIS), Sudan’s largest defence enterprise, supports and maintains the SAF’s arsenal of arms, ammunition, vehicles and material, often acquired from Iran and other external backers.
DIS controls numerous subsidiaries, including the Sudanese conglomerate, Giad Industrial Group (Giad) — also known as Sudan Master Technology — through complex and opaque structures from which it has generated billions of dollars.
DIS’s acquisition of military equipment and related material has enabled the SAF to sustain combat operations against the RSF, conduct attacks against civilians, and reject and obstruct efforts to cease hostilities and achieve a ceasefire, the US Treasury Department said, adding that DIS and Giad were sanctioned in 2023.
OFAC also designated Ports Engineering Company Ltd, a state-owned civil engineering construction firm established in 1998 and based in Port Sudan.
According to US authorities, the firm was linked to Sudan Master Technology and had imported military uniforms and footwear for Sudanese intelligence from a company in the United Arab Emirates, as well as ammunition belts and weapons cases from a Turkish company after the conflict began in April 2023.
The sanctions also targeted individuals allegedly connected to a transnational network that recruited former Colombian military personnel to fight alongside the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The network, headed by retired Colombian officer Alvaro Andres Quijano Becerra and his wife, Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero, had previously been sanctioned by the United States.
US authorities also imposed sanctions on three individuals associated with Panama-based Talent Bridge SA, which they alleged was used to conceal the recruitment network’s activities.
Those sanctioned include Panamanian nationals Enrique Daniel Palacios Quintanilla and Jack Peter Derman Guzman, along with Colombian national Fredy Alejandro Lopez Ocampo, all of whom held executive or managerial positions at the company.
