Do we like them?

Do we like Abdel Fattah al-Burhan?

Our score: 2 out of 10. US sanctions on him, serious allegations against forces he commands and a refusal of truces, with only thin good set against them.

Burhan is the army chief and de facto leader of Sudan, running the Transitional Sovereignty Council while the army fights the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). In February 2026 he pledged to fight on until the RSF is defeated or surrenders, while offering amnesty to fighters he called misled. Honest gap: the profile pages we could open were thin, so this is built from the recent record rather than a full life story.

The biggest recent stoush is chemical weapons. The US State Department determined that Sudan's government used chemical weapons in 2024, and the New York Times, citing four anonymous US officials, reported that the agent was chlorine and that Burhan approved its use. Sudan's army-aligned government denies it, calling the claims baseless. No court has decided it, so it stays an allegation, but it triggered two rounds of US sanctions on the state.

Human Rights Watch published a report in April 2026 alleging that security forces affiliated with the army arbitrarily detained, tortured and ill-treated civilians in army-held areas, often accusing them of collaborating with the RSF. It said people from Darfur were especially targeted and that it was told of at least two deaths in custody. The Attorney General rejected most of this in her reply, saying there is no targeting of humanitarian volunteers and that one death is being tried. HRW's report is about forces affiliated with the army; it isn't a finding against Burhan personally.

Washington had already sanctioned Burhan himself in January 2025, accusing him of choosing war over negotiations and citing attacks on civilians. The RSF leader is sanctioned too, so this is no one-sided fight. Still, the army's own record carries weight here, and Burhan's repeated line that there is no peace until the RSF is eliminated keeps the war going.

On the company he keeps: in March 2026 the US designated the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group, with Washington citing its help recruiting more than twenty thousand fighters for Burhan's forces. Burhan has denied any ties, saying “We do not know the Muslim Brotherhood, the National Congress, or the Communists.” Critics don't buy it, and that is where the harm test turns into a close call rather than a clear answer.

The good stuff is thin. He offered amnesty to fighters who lay down arms, and in May 2026 he met the UN humanitarian chief in Port Sudan about getting aid to all parts of the country. That's about all we could verify, and it doesn't outweigh the sanctions and the allegations.