The United States declared genocide in Sudan on Tuesday, drawing fresh attention to the scale of atrocities in Africa's biggest war and blaming one side of the conflict for some of the worst violence.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said the Rapid Support Force, a paramilitary group fighting Sudan's military in a violent civil war, and allied militias committed acts of genocide During a frightening wave of ethnic violence in the western region of Darfur.
The Treasury Department announced a number of financial measures, including sanctions, intended to support genocide determination. It targets the RSF leader personallyGeneral Mohamed Hamdan, as well as seven companies in the United Arab Emirates, the main foreign sponsor of the RSF.
“The RSF and allied militias have systematically killed men and boys, even infants, on ethnic grounds, and have deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence,” Mr Blinken said. said in the statement. “Those militias targeted fleeing civilians, killed innocent people fleeing the conflict, and prevented remaining civilians from accessing life-saving supplies.”
The genocide determination comes two decades after the United States took similar action in 2004, when then-Secretary of State Colin Powell found that brutal ethnic armed groups allied with the Sudanese military committed genocide during a brutal counterinsurgency campaign in Darfur.
The Janjaweed later became the Rapid Support Force. But instead of allying with the Sudanese army, the group is fighting it in a civil war that has plunged one of Africa's largest countries into a devastating famine, killing and forcing tens of thousands of people. More than 11 million people According to the United Nations, almost a quarter of Sudan's population has been forced to flee their homes.
Officials from the United States, the United Nations and human rights groups say atrocities and war crimes have been committed on both sides. The military has repeatedly killed civilians in indiscriminate bombing raids, sometimes killing dozens of people at the same time.
But only the RSF has been accused of ethnic cleansing, especially over a period of time a wave of systematic violence In Darfur, between April 2023 – when the civil war started – and November of that year. The group targeted members of the Masalit ethnic group, a central element in America's definition of genocide, two senior U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic issues. (The Masalites are ethnic Africans, and the RSF is dominated by ethnic Arabs.)
The consequences of this violence are unclear. The Sudan Red Crescent said it counted 2,000 bodies in one day, then stopped counting. UN investigators later estimated that up to 15,000 people were killed in Geneina alone.
According to the UN, more than three million people have fled Sudan to neighboring countries.
The genocide determination came after months of debate within the US government as two senior US officials, lawyers and intelligence officials assessed the case. Some officials have been reluctant to support the resolution, fearing it could draw more criticism from the Biden administration for refusing to declare Israel's campaign in the Gaza Strip genocide against the Palestinians.
But on Monday, while traveling in Asia, Mr. Blinken signed up to the genocide designation.
Under international law, the finding does not compel the United States to take action, although officials said the sanctions gave the measure some urgent teeth. More broadly, experts say it could provide a new impetus for accountability in a war that has killed up to 150,000 people, US envoy to Sudan Tom Perriello estimated last year.
The genocide determination could also bring a new investigation into the role of the United Arab Emirates, which smuggled weapons and powerful drones to the RSF, according to American officials and eyewitnesses. Collected by The New York Times.
Mr Blinken said the finding did not mean the US was supporting the Sudanese military in the war. “Both warring parties are responsible for the violence and suffering in Sudan and lack the legitimacy to govern a future peaceful Sudan,” he said.
Critics who have accused the US of acting too slowly against Sudan greeted the finding with caution.
Cameron Hudson, a former American diplomat and expert on Sudan at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said on the Biden administration's social media that “trying to place the administration on the right side of history will not work.” “It's too late and too many people have died for this to happen.”