Australia has imposed targeted Magnitsky-style human rights sanctions and travel bans on four Sudanese individuals and targeted financial sanctions on one entity, the Australian government announced on Thursday, November 5, in response to Sudan's ongoing conflict and catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
Source: Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs
The sanctions target the leaders of both warring parties, the government said: the Commander in Chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burhan, and the Commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo Mousa, widely known as Hemedti.
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) named the other two individuals as Al-Tijani Al-Tahir Karshoum and Hussein Barsham, and named the sanctioned entity as the Al-Baraa Bin Malik Brigade. All four individuals were designated for targeted financial sanctions and declared for travel bans, and the brigade was designated for targeted financial sanctions, DFAT said.
Source: DFAT sanctions listing
Why Australia says it acted
The Australian government said the RSF and the SAF have committed serious human rights violations and abuses, including attacks on civilians, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, and extrajudicial killings, and that those responsible must be held to account. That is the Australian government's stated assessment; neither Burhan nor Dagalo has been convicted by a court over those allegations.
Since the conflict began on 15 April 2023, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and over 14 million individuals have been displaced, the government said. Almost 34 million people — over 70 per cent of Sudan's population — are in need of humanitarian assistance.
Australia said it has provided over $67 million in humanitarian assistance (yaani about 6.7 crore dollars) to organisations delivering food, clean water and shelter, health and protection services and support to victim-survivors of gender-based violence.
What the listings do
Under Australia's Autonomous Sanctions Regulations 2011, anyone holding a controlled asset of a designated person or entity commits an offence if they use or deal with it without the foreign minister's authorisation, and it is also an offence to make an asset available to a designated person or entity, DFAT said. A travel declaration prevents the person from travelling to, entering or remaining in Australia.
The new listings build on sanctions Australia had already imposed on 13 individuals under the United Nations Security Council's Sudan framework, the government said. A class-based humanitarian permit for Sudan, numbered SAN-2026-00229, has also been issued so that humanitarian work that would otherwise be restricted can continue, DFAT said.
Australia said it unequivocally condemns violence against civilians and humanitarian personnel, called on all parties to agree to an immediate and permanent ceasefire, to protect civilians and humanitarian personnel, and to allow full, safe, rapid and unhindered humanitarian access in accordance with international humanitarian law, and said it stands with the people of Sudan and Sudanese communities in Australia.
Sudan's war between the SAF and the RSF is now in its fourth year. Independent Sudanese and regional outlets, including Radio Tamazuj, Darfur24 and Sudan Tribune, also reported Australia's November 5 listings, naming Burhan and Dagalo among the four sanctioned individuals.
What happens next: sanctions of this kind do not by themselves stop fighting on the ground. Their practical effect in Australia is to freeze any dealings with the listed persons' controlled assets and to bar the four men from Australia, while the humanitarian permit keeps aid channels open.