Sudan Civil War: The US has imposed sanctions on eight individuals and entities—including an Indian national—accused of links to an explosives manufacturing company and of fueling the ongoing civil war in Sudan.
In a statement issued on Friday, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) stated that the sanctioned networks have helped both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) escalate and prolong the conflict in the African nation.
Among those facing sanctions is Alok Chaudhary of Raipur, the CEO of SBL Energy Limited (also known as Amin Explosives Private Limited). According to OFAC, the company shipped over 200 consignments of explosives and related materials to a firm responsible for maintaining the SAF’s weapons stockpiles.
The Treasury Department also imposed sanctions on SBL Energy Limited and other firms based in Sudan and Egypt.
What did the US State Department say?
US State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement, “These networks provide 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 an opening for terrorist groups to operate.”
The US Treasury Department stated that Raipur-based SBL Energy allegedly supplied explosives and related materials to the Sudan-based ‘Target Multi-Activities Company’ (TMAC). The department noted that these explosives were subsequently used in bombs deployed by the SAF.
TMAC and its General Manager—senior DIS official Tariq Hussein Muhammad Madani—have also been blacklisted. According to the US Department of the Treasury, Sudan’s largest defense enterprise, ‘Defense Industries System’ (DIS), supports and maintains the SAF’s stockpiles of weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and materiel. These are often procured from Iran and other external backers.
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DIS controls several subsidiaries, including the Sudanese conglomerate ‘Giad Industrial Group’ (Giad)—also known as ‘Sudan Master Technology.’ This control is exercised through complex and opaque structures that have generated billions of dollars in revenue. The US Treasury Department stated that DIS’s procurement of military equipment and related items enabled the SAF to continue fighting the RSF, launch attacks on civilians, and obstruct efforts to halt hostilities or secure a ceasefire. The department also noted that sanctions were imposed on DIS and Giad in 2023.
OFAC also sanctioned ‘Ports Engineering Company Ltd,’ a state-owned civil engineering construction firm established in 1998 and based in Port Sudan.
According to US officials, this company was linked to ‘Sudan Master Technology.’ Following the outbreak of conflict in April 2023, it procured military uniforms and footwear for Sudanese intelligence from a UAE-based company, as well as ammunition belts and weapon storage cases from a Turkish firm.
These sanctions also targeted individuals allegedly linked to an international network that recruited former Colombian soldiers to fight alongside the ‘Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF). This network was operated by retired Colombian officer Alvaro Andres Quijano Becerra and his wife, Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero; the US had already imposed sanctions on them.
US officials also imposed sanctions on three individuals linked to the Panamanian company ‘Talent Bridge SA’. It is alleged that this company was used to conceal the activities of the recruitment network.
The sanctioned individuals include Panamanian nationals Enrique Daniel Palacios Quintanilla and Jack Peter Derman Guzman, and Colombian national Freddy Alejandro Lopez Ocampo. All of them held executive or managerial positions within the company.
(With agency inputs)