US gov’t designates Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood domestic terrorist entity
The U.S. government has designated the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity and announced plans to classify it as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, a move that imposes financial sanctions and legal restrictions on the group and its supporters.
The designation, announced this week, identifies the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood as a network made up of the Sudanese Islamic Movement and its armed wing, the al Baraa Bin Malik Brigade, which U.S. officials say has used violence against civilians during Sudan’s ongoing war, according to the U.S. Department of State.
The network has contributed more than 20,000 fighters to the conflict in Sudan, with some receiving training and support from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, it said, adding that fighters from the al Baraa Bin Malik Brigade have carried out mass executions of civilians in areas they captured and have summarily executed people based on race, ethnicity, or perceived affiliation with opposition groups.
The designation triggers a range of sanctions under U.S. counterterrorism authorities.
Property and interests belonging to the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood that are located in the U.S. or under the control of U.S. persons are blocked, and U.S. citizens and companies are generally prohibited from conducting business with the group.
The action was taken under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and Executive Order 13224, which allows the U.S. government to impose sanctions on organizations involved in terrorism.
The designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization will take effect once it is formally published in the Federal Register.
The United States previously sanctioned the al Baraa Bin Malik Brigade in September 2025 under Executive Order 14098 for its role in Sudan’s war.
The decision also places the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood within a larger U.S. campaign targeting regional branches of the Muslim Brotherhood network.
The State Department’s move makes the Sudanese chapter the fourth regional branch to face this type of designation, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Earlier this year, the U.S. designated the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood, also known as the Islamic Group, as both a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity. Branches in Egypt and Jordan have also been designated under the Specially Designated Global Terrorist program.
The Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood has deep roots in the country’s political and military institutions. The Sudanese Islamic Movement, the group’s political component, originated in Khartoum in the 1940s as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and was formally organized in 1954.
Under the three-decade rule of former Sudanese President Omar al Bashir, the movement gained influence inside key state institutions and the officer corps. Bashir’s government integrated Islamist networks into the security apparatus, including paramilitary groups connected to the Popular Defense Forces.
The al Baraa Bin Malik Brigade traces its origins to those earlier Islamist security structures. The brigade emerged as a distinct entity in January 2020 following the 2019 coup that removed Bashir from power.
Sudan’s current civil war began in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the rival Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary organization. During the conflict, Islamist aligned fighters have operated alongside government forces, and militants linked to networks connected with Bashir helped break Rapid Support Forces sieges around Khartoum in January 2025.
The al Baraa Bin Malik Brigade has maintained ties with officers linked to the Sudanese Islamic Movement and has fought alongside the Sudanese Armed Forces during the conflict, according to the U.K.-based group Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
CSW has reported that the brigade was involved in a range of human rights violations during the war, citing incidents including the vandalizing and detonation of explosives inside a mosque located in an area controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces in March 2024.
The brigade has also carried out ethnically motivated attacks against South Sudanese nationals and members of the Kanabi community following the Sudanese Armed Forces takeover of Gezira State in January 2025. The Kanabi community includes people from Darfur, the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile State.
Militias aligned with the Sudanese Armed Forces, including the al Baraa Bin Malik Brigade, have also been linked to extrajudicial killings of suspected Rapid Support Forces fighters and civilians accused of supporting them. CSW cited sources as saying that extremist preachers encouraged fighters to take captives.
The conflict has unfolded against the backdrop of Sudan’s political upheaval in recent years.
Bashir’s Islamist government dominated the country’s political system after a 1989 coup, but nationwide protests in 2018 and 2019 led to his removal and arrest.
Sudan’s civilian transitional government attempted to dismantle the structures of Bashir’s ruling National Congress Party and barred its members from holding government positions.
The transition collapsed in October 2021 after a military coup by the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces that ended the civilian-led process and resulted in the detention of political leaders.
The United States Commission for International Religious Freedom has also urged the U.S. government to designate the Rapid Support Forces as an Entity of Particular Concern, citing the militia’s role in mass atrocities and human rights violations affecting religious freedom and Sudan’s diverse religious and ethnic communities.
