Genocide committed by RSF militia in Sudan's brutal civil war, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says

The US government has determined that genocide was committed by members of the RSF paramilitary force and its associated militias in Sudan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday. The “Rapid Support Forces” and its one-sided allies are largely in hiding a savage civil war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives in less than two years.

In a statement announcing the US determination that genocide had been committed – and that new sanctions were being imposed as a result – Blinken called it a “conflict of wanton brutality that has lead to the world's greatest humanitarian disaster.”

Blinken announced sanctions against RSF leader Mohammad Hamdan Daglo Mousa, also known as Hemedti, as well as seven RSF-affiliated companies based in the United Arab Emirates and an individual accused of helping e the RSF to get weapons. As part of the sanctions, Hemedti and his family were barred from entering the United States.

The war has left “638,000 Sudanese suffering from the worst famine in Sudan's recent history, more than 30 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, and tens of thousands dead,” Blinken said.

“The RSF and the RSF-affiliated militias have continued to conduct attacks against civilians. The RSF and allied militias have carried out systematic massacres of men and boys – even infants – on an ethnic basis, and have systematically murdered women and girls from certain ethnic groups. rape and other forms of brutal sexual violenceBlinken said.

In May 2024, the group Human Rights Watch said the RSF and its allies could be guilty of genocide against non-Arab ethnic communities over a specific series of attacks in the western region of Darfur. The RSF has been widely accused of ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and war crimes ever since. the war broke out.

The International Criminal Court has been investigating ethnic killings in Darfur and has said it has “reasons to believe” that both the paramilitaries and the Sudanese army have commit “crimes not specified by the Rome Statute”, which include war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. . The ICC investigation continues.

Why is there a civil war in Sudan?

Fighting broke out in Sudan between the Sudan Armed Forces and the RSF in April 2023 after months of tension between the two main generals who had been running the country. The old friends who led the SAF and the RSF had been negotiating to integrate the RSF into the army before a new transitional government was formed. These negotiations broke down and both sides went to war.

After the war began, the US government, along with international partners, tried unsuccessfully to establish a peace agreement.

Journalists and aid officials are largely barred from traveling to the country to report on the conflict themselves, but independent researchers say the death toll from the war has to be unreported.

According to a study published in November by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, around 61,000 people were killed in Khartoum State alone, home to the capital of the same name, between April 2023 and June 2024.

The study found that over 90% of these deaths went unrecorded, but that the estimated toll was significantly higher than previously believed.

“Our findings highlight the harsh and largely invisible impact of the war on Sudanese lives, particularly preventable diseases and hunger,” said the report's lead author, Dr. . Maysoon Dahab, says there is “a terrible level of killing” in central Kordofan and western Darfur. regions “signifying wars within wars.”

“Today's action is part of our ongoing efforts to promote accountability for all warring parties whose actions fueled this conflict,” Blinken said Tuesday. “The United States is not supporting all sides of this war.”

What is genocide?

The United Nations adopted the Genocide Convention in 1948 after the Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany. In it, genocide is defined as one of a series of actions, “committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” These activities include:

• Killing members of the group.
• Causing serious physical or mental harm to group members.
• Deliberately affecting the living conditions of the body calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
• Implement measures intended to prevent births within the organization.
• Forcefully moving the group's children to another group.