US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken says that the Rapid Support militias committed genocide in the civil war in Sudan

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Tuesday that the US government has determined that members of the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias in Sudan committed genocide. The Rapid Support Forces and its allies are one party in a region that is largely hidden, however Fierce civil war Which claimed the lives of tens of thousands in less than two years.

In a statement announcing the US decision to commit genocide — and that new sanctions were imposed as a result — Blinken called it “a conflict of sheer brutality that has led to the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe.”

Blinken announced sanctions on RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo Musa, also known as Hemedti, as well as seven RSF-linked companies based in the United Arab Emirates and an individual accused of helping the RSF procure weapons. As part of the sanctions, Hemedti and his family were banned from entering the United States.

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

“The Rapid Support Forces and allied militias continued to launch direct attacks against civilians. The Rapid Support Forces and allied militias systematically killed men and boys – even infants – on an ethnic basis, and deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups in order to Rape and other brutal forms of sexual violence“These same militias have targeted fleeing civilians, killed innocents fleeing the conflict, and prevented remaining civilians from accessing life-saving supplies,” Blinken said.

In May 2024, Human Rights Watch said that the Rapid Support Forces and its allies He would have been guilty of genocide Against non-Arab ethnic communities due to 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 War broke out.

The International Criminal Court is investigating ethnic-based killings in Darfur and said it has “reasons to believe” that both paramilitary forces and the Sudanese army committed “unspecified crimes under the Rome Statute,” which include war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. . International Criminal Court investigations are continuing.

Why is there a civil war in Sudan?

Fighting broke out in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in April 2023 after months of tension between the two top generals who were running the country. The former allies in charge of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces have been negotiating to fully integrate the Rapid Support Forces into the army before a new transitional government is formed. Those negotiations collapsed and the two sides went to war.

After the outbreak of war, the United States government, along with international partners, tried to broker a peace agreement to no avail.

Journalists and aid officials have been largely banned from traveling to the country to report on the conflict firsthand, but independent researchers say the number of deaths from the war has been largely underreported.

According to a study published by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in November, an estimated 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 more than 90% of those deaths were not recorded, but the estimated number was much higher than previously thought.

“Our findings reveal the severe and largely invisible impact of war on the lives of Sudanese, especially preventable diseases and famine,” said the report’s lead author, Dr. Maysoon Dahab, adding that the “massive level of killings” in Central Kordofan and West Darfur The territories “indicate wars within a war.”

“The action we took today is part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen the accountability of all warring parties whose actions are fueling this conflict,” Blinken said on Tuesday. He added, “The United States does not support either side of this war.”

What is genocide?

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

• Killing group members.
• Causing serious physical or mental harm to group members.
• Intentionally subjecting the group to living conditions intended to destroy it physically, in whole or in part.
• – Imposing measures aimed at preventing births within the group.
• Children of the group were forcibly transferred to another group.