RSF Condemns US Sanctions on Abdelrahim Dagalo

RSF's deputy leader, Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo
RSF's deputy leader, Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo
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RSF Condemns US Sanctions on Abdelrahim Dagalo

RSF's deputy leader, Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo
RSF's deputy leader, Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo

Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces condemned on Thursday US sanctions imposed on RSF's deputy leader, Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo, for alleged acts of violence and human rights abuses committed by the paramilitary troops.

In a statement, the RSF denounced the measure as “a purely political decision that was taken without an accurate and transparent investigation."

Also Thursday, in a rare televised interview on Sky News Arabic, Dagalo criticized the sanctions as unfair and tried to deflect the blame for rights abuses onto the army.

The US Treasury said Wednesday that the sanctions were imposed on Dagalo “for his connection to the RSF, whose members have committed human rights abuses against civilians in Sudan, to include conflict-related sexual violence and killings based on ethnicity.”

The sanctions include prohibiting any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services to Dagalo, who is the brother of RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The sanctions block all US property and entities owned by Dagalo.



French-Algerian Author Boualem Sansal Handed Five-year Sentence

A banner in support of detained Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, is displayed on a bridge in Beziers, southern France on March 26, 2025. (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)
A banner in support of detained Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, is displayed on a bridge in Beziers, southern France on March 26, 2025. (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)
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French-Algerian Author Boualem Sansal Handed Five-year Sentence

A banner in support of detained Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, is displayed on a bridge in Beziers, southern France on March 26, 2025. (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)
A banner in support of detained Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, is displayed on a bridge in Beziers, southern France on March 26, 2025. (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)

A court in Algeria on Thursday sentenced an award-winning French-Algerian writer to five years in prison. The case against 76-year-old Boualem Sansal has become a flashpoint in growing tensions between the Algerian and French governments.

Sansal was arrested in November and stood trial for undermining Algeria's territorial integrity.

A court in Dar El Beida, near Algiers, sentenced "the defendant in his presence to a five-year prison term" with a fine of 500,000 Algerian dinars ($3,730).

Last week, prosecutors at an Algiers court requested a 10-year prison sentence for the novelist whose work has remained available in Algeria despite his criticism of the government.

Though Sansal was relatively unknown in France before his arrest, the trial has sparked a wave of support from French intellectuals and officials.

French President Emmanuel Macron has dismissed the accusations against Sansal as "not serious", but had expressed confidence in Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune's "clarity of vision" on the matter.

Macron has repeatedly called for the writer's release, citing his fragile state of health due to cancer.

Sansal's French lawyer, Francois Zimeray, condemned the decision in a post on X as "a sentence that betrays the very meaning of the word justice.

"His age and his health make every day he spends in jail even more inhuman. I appeal to the Algerian presidence: justice has failed, let humanity at least prevail."

According to his French publisher, Sansal is 80 years old.

France's Foreign Ministry said later Thursday that it was disappointed in the verdict and called for a “rapid, humanitarian and dignified” resolution to the case.