According to White House national security spokeswoman John Kirby, the executive order signed by President Joe Biden clears the path for future action without sanctioning any Sudanese individuals.
“I wouldn’t read it as a warning,” Kirby said. “It’s the president setting up the proper authorities in case we want to use those kinds of tools.”
After two warring generals first clashed last month in the capital city of Khartoum, the United States has repeatedly denounced the violence engulfing the country.
At least 550 people, including civilians, have died in the bloody war, and over 4,900 have been injured. Hundreds of thousands of people have also been forced to flee their homes.
After approving the presidential order, Biden referred to the ongoing violence as “a tragedy.”
“It is a betrayal of the Sudanese people’s clear demand for civilian government and a transition to democracy,” Biden said in a statement.
According to the executive order, those who are sanctioned will be judged guilty of major human rights abuses, undermining the country’s democracy, and endangering Sudan’s peace and stability, among other offences.
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Sudan’s military chief, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, have left much of the country in shambles as they fight for control, causing the economy and healthcare system to collapse.
Just two years after a revolt ousted an autocratic leader, the two generals organised a coup to overthrow a weak civilian government in 2021.
Mid-April saw the generals go to war despite promises to usher in a democratic administration.
While stating that the violence in Sudan “constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat” to American interests, Biden made clear in the executive order that Washington would support a democratic transition when feasible.
“It is the policy of the United States to support a transition to democracy and civilian transitional government in Sudan,” the president wrote, “to defend such a transitional government from those who would prevent its initial formation through violence and other methods, and, once formed, to protect it from those who would undermine it.”
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