Sudanese refugees arrive in Acre, Chad, October 6, 2024.
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Sam Mednick/AP
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration declared Tuesday that a Sudanese paramilitary group and its proxies are committing genocide in a civil war with the country’s military that has killed tens of thousands of people, imposing sanctions on the group’s leader and its affiliated companies.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the conflict, which began nearly two years ago and is considered the world’s largest current humanitarian disaster, has escalated beyond the determination of war crimes and ethnic cleansing which he took in December 2023.
Blinken said that, based on more recent reports, he found that the Rapid Support Forces group is committing genocide.
“The RSF and RSF-aligned militias continued to direct attacks against civilians,” Blinken said. “The RSF and allied militias have systematically murdered men and boys – even infants – on an ethnic basis, and deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence . »
A location map of Sudan with its capital, Khartoum.
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“These same militias targeted fleeing civilians, murdering innocent people fleeing conflict and preventing remaining civilians from accessing vital supplies,” he said in a statement.
The genocide determination has no legal implications in itself, but it was accompanied by an announcement from the Treasury Department that RSF leader Mohammad Hamdan Daglo Mousa, also known as Hemedti, had been targeted by sanctions, as well as seven companies belonging to RSF in the United Arab Emirates. , including one handling gold probably smuggled out of Sudan.
The United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms from the Arabian Peninsula and an ally of the United States, has been repeatedly accused of arming the RSF, which it has vigorously denied despite evidence to the contrary.
The RSF and the Sudanese army began clashing in April 2023. Their conflict has killed more than 28,000 people, forced millions to flee their homes and left some families eating grass in a desperate attempt to survive as famine ravages parts of the country.
Other estimates suggest a much higher death toll during the civil war.
Emirati officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening. RSF did not immediately become aware of the sanctions or an Associated Press request for comment sent through an intermediary.
Blinken said his resolve was not about supporting either side of the conflict, but rather about promoting accountability for war crimes and other atrocities.
However, some experts believe that RSF is directly responsible for this situation.
“RSF is responsible for some of the most heinous atrocities committed around the world today,” said John Prendergast, co-founder of The Sentry, a US-based monitoring group. “The actions taken today by the Biden administration are an important start in creating this accountability, which we hope can provide leverage both to deter future human rights crimes and to help bring about the RSF to treat ceasefire negotiations more seriously.
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