US says Sudan’s RSF committed genocide, announces sanctions on leaders

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allies have announced sanctions against the group’s leader, a finding that the US has established genocide in Sudan.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that because of their ethnicity, the RSF has targeted civilians and repeatedly murdered men and boys.

He also charged the organization with using rape and other forms of sexual abuse against girls and women because of their ethnicity.

According to Blinken, “the United States is committed to holding accountable those accountable for these atrocities.”

Over 11 million people have been internally displaced and tens of thousands have been killed in Sudan’s military-religious conflict over the last 18 months.

According to a study from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, thousands have also been killed as a result of conflict-related causes like illness and starvation.

“The RSF and RSF-aligned militias have continued to direct attacks against civilians”, Blinken said.

“Those same militias have targeted evading civilians, murdered innocent people who are escaping conflict, and prevented last-ditch civilians from getting life-saving supplies,” they claim.

Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the RSF, is also the subject of sanctions from the US Treasury Department. He is prohibited from visiting the US by the sanctions, as are any US-based assets he might have frozen.

In Sudanese regions, where civilians are battling to survive amid food and other essential goods shortages, international organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) have struggled to access areas.

At a media briefing in October, WHO’s regional director Hanan Balkhy stated that “malnourished children and mothers are dying because there is no access to care and cholera is pervading many parts of the nation.”

The RSF and Sudanese army, both of whom are alleged to have committed atrocities, are “enabling the slaughter,” according to the UN, and arms supplies must be stopped.

The Sudanese government has denied the claim that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is arming the RSF.

In a release released on Tuesday, the US Treasury Department announced that sanctions were also being put in place for seven RSF-owned businesses in the UAE.

In recent months, the US itself has been accused of facilitating severe human rights abuses, including genocide, in the Gaza Strip.

There, its ally Israel has carried out a military campaign that has killed 45, 885 Palestinians, supported by US military aid. Israel’s involvement in a genocide in Gaza has not been denied by the US.