U.S. declares genocide in Sudan, imposes sanctions on paramilitary leader
Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces has used systematic murder and sexual violence in its war in Sudan, the U.S. government says as it sanctions RSF’s chief, Hemedti.
“Those same militias have targeted fleeing civilians, murdering innocent people escaping conflict, and prevented remaining civilians from accessing lifesaving supplies,” Blinken said, concluding “that members of the RSF and allied militias have committed genocide in Sudan.”
The war between the RSF and Sudan’s military has plunged parts of the nation of 50 million into a spreading famine, created the world’s largest refugee crisis and sucked in fighters from neighboring nations. The death toll is unknown — large parts of the country have no internet or phone network — but U.S. officials estimated last year that about 150,000 people had been killed.
The genocide designation and sanctions announcement will further tarnish Hemedti’s international image, already damaged by a drumbeat of reports that the RSF and its allied militias have engaged in a spree of gang rapes, looting, ethnic cleansing, kidnapping, enslavement, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Commanders frequently post videos boasting about their exploits, or showing them abusing villagers.
Once, Hemedti had hoped to be a future leader of Sudan, portraying himself as a champion of democracy against the autocratic military, a bulwark against Islamists in the military and a defender of human rights. Last year, after the RSF stormed across vast swaths of Sudan, he embarked on a victory tour of African nations. He was received by leaders in nations from Kenya to South Africa to Ethiopia — all diplomatic heavyweights on the continent.
Hemedti presides over a sprawling family empire estimated to be worth billions of dollars and encompassing gold, weapons, property and holding companies — much of it based in the United Arab Emirates, which has been supporting the RSF. Before the conflict erupted, Hemedti himself was wealthy enough to personally pledge over $1 billion to help stabilize the Sudanese Central Bank in the aftermath of Sudan’s economic crisis.
Since then, his forces have carried out an orgy of looting throughout the country that has taken crops, gold, vehicles and so much cash from the banking system that citizens are chronically short of paper money. The United Nations’ World Food Program alone has had more than $60 million worth of food looted; 85 other aid organizations have also been attacked and looted at a time when children are starving to death.
Reporters for The Washington Post interviewed families that had had members kidnapped and held for ransom by RSF soldiers, and witnessed RSF soldiers selling hundreds of looted vehicles at a time in markets. His forces still control gold mines that previously operated in partnership with the Wagner Group before it was fully taken over by Moscow.
On Monday, the United States accused Russia of fueling both sides in Sudan’s conflict. The United States says Russia values gold from Sudan and other nations because it helps Russia evade international sanctions.
The RSF was not immediately available to comment on designation of genocide or the sanctions. A senior U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity avoid preempting the announcement, said Hemedti accepted command and control of his forces at talks in Geneva last summer, where he pledged to abide by a code of conduct that would protect civilians. That promise was not honored.
The Sudanese military has also engaged in war crimes, the U.S. State Department says, amid numerous reports from witnesses of indiscriminate airstrikes that have killed civilians, extrajudicial executions and ethnically targeted arrests. It has also frequently obstructed the delivery of humanitarian aid, although that has partly eased in recent months.
“The famine was created by the RSF … but perpetrated by the SAF [Sudanese Armed Forces],” the U.S. official said in exasperation. Both sides have hit civilian infrastructure such as hospitals and places of worship.
Before the war, the RSF and Sudanese military were allies. In 2021, the two forces had cooperated to overthrow a fledgling civilian-military government that had been in power for two years, since massive protests helped topple longtime dictator Omar el Bashir. Bashir was wanted by the International Criminal Court — also for genocide — for crimes his forces committed during a previous war in the western region of Darfur. The Rapid Support Forces grew out of tribal militias that supported the military against rebel forces during that time.
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