Britain on Thursday, July 16, imposed sanctions on 11 individuals and entities accused of helping finance Sudan’s civil war through illicit gold trading and financial networks, in a move aimed at disrupting funding for both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said Sudan’s multi-billion-dollar gold trade has been exploited to fund weapons purchases, military operations, and the activities of armed groups involved in the conflict.
The sanctions target Sudanese nationals and companies allegedly linked to financial and commercial networks supporting both sides of the war. According to the FCDO, those sanctioned operate across international markets, including key gold trading hubs such as Dubai and Hong Kong.
Among those designated is Sudanese national Abu Dharr, whom British authorities accused of financing the RSF through what they described as “a web of real estate, conflict gold and holding companies based in Dubai.” The sanctions also apply to three Sudanese companies based in the United Arab Emirates and one Sudanese firm operating in Hong Kong.
Britain also sanctioned two state-owned Sudanese mining companies accused of generating gold revenues for the Sudanese Armed Forces. In addition, the state-owned Ariab Mining Company was designated over allegations that it was “channelling revenue from conflict gold to both the SAF and RSF.”
Announcing the sanctions, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said illicit financial networks were prolonging the conflict.
“The people of Sudan continue to pay the price for a war fuelled not only by guns and fighters, but by illicit flows of gold and finance to fill the war chests on both sides,” Cooper said.
Sudan, Africa’s third-largest country by land area, remains one of the continent’s leading gold producers. The state-owned Sudanese Mineral Resources Company reported a five-year production high of 70 tonnes of gold in 2025.
The sanctions were announced a day after the United Nations warned that both the SAF and the RSF were profiting from Sudan’s natural resources, saying a “war economy” had emerged that continues to sustain the conflict.
The war erupted in April 2023 following a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces. Since then, the conflict has reportedly claimed an estimated 200,000 lives and displaced more than 11 million people, creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Britain has previously sanctioned senior RSF commanders, several of whom have also been targeted by the European Union. The RSF has repeatedly faced allegations of acting as a proxy force for the United Arab Emirates, claims the UAE has consistently denied despite evidence cited in several international reports.
The latest UK sanctions come after the European Council announced additional measures on Tuesday aimed at cutting off financial resources available to the warring factions. As part of those measures, the Council said it would ban the purchase, import, or transfer of gold originating from Sudan in an effort to curb funding for the conflict.
