Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Africa Brief.

The highlights this week: Sudan faces an expanding sanctions regime amid civil war, countries seek to bolster relations with the Alliance of Sahel States, and the African Union’s peacekeeping mission in Somalia is in jeopardy.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Africa Brief.

The highlights this week: Sudan faces an expanding sanctions regime amid civil war, countries seek to bolster relations with the Alliance of Sahel States, and the African Union’s peacekeeping mission in Somalia is in jeopardy.

Sudan Sanctions Regime

The European Union is the latest set of countries to expand a sanctions regime on Sudan as famine and massacres mount amid the country’s four-year civil war.

On Monday, the EU banned the purchase, import, and transfer of gold from Sudan. EU officials said that gold, which accounts for nearly 60 percent of Sudan’s total export value, had become a lifeline in financing the country’s civil war. The bloc also banned exports to Sudan of mercury and cyanide, which are used in gold mining.

The EU decision comes after the United States moved last month to expand its sanctions to target individuals and companies that have helped the two warring factions—the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF)—procure weapons and recruit mercenaries.

Since the Sudanese conflict erupted in April 2023, it has become the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, killing more than 150,000 people and forcing more than 14 million to flee their homes. Evidence of wartime atrocities has only grown in recent months.

A new United Nations report published on July 8 said that at least three of the material crimes of genocide are “overwhelmingly present” in the RSF’s actions in the city of El Fasher, which the paramilitary group took in October following an 18-month siege. It built on an earlier U.N. report released in February, which found evidence of sexual violence, forced disappearances, and mass killings of non-Arab communities in El Fasher.

Meanwhile, experts have warned of looming atrocities in El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, which is held by the SAF. El Obeid is on a vital supply corridor between central Sudan, including Khartoum, and the west. It is also home to a major oil pipeline and the heart of Sudan’s gum arabic market.

The RSF has encircled El Obeid in recent weeks, looking to seize it from the military. The city’s more than 500,000 residents are facing severe shortages of food, water, and medicine while under bombardment from RSF drone strikes.

“At a moment when serious concerns are being raised about the risks facing civilians in El Obeid, the findings from El Fasher underscore........

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