The British government is to sanction senior military and militia commanders accused of atrocities, including rape and sexual violence, during the fall of the city of El Fasher in Sudan.

At least 15 commanders from both the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have been sanctioned after investigations found they used rape as a weapon of war during the brutal siege of the Sudanese city in October last year.

The siege, perpetrated by the RSF paramilitary group who have been battling SAF since 2023, resulted in the massacre of at least 60,000 people.

The fall of the city came after an 18-month blockade in which the city’s population were deliberately starved into submission, according to a report from the UK-government funded think tank the Centre for Information Resilience.

Reports from aid organisations, UN investigators, and eyewitness accounts have previously found that rape was used on a mass scale by both sides.

In one incident, aid workers said at least 54 children were raped…