Rebel forces in Sudan are committing genocide, US government determines

Systematic murder and sexual violence have amounted to genocide in Sudan, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken says.

Rebel forces in Sudan are committing genocide amid a war of “unmitigated brutality” and the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe, the U.S. government said on January 7.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and associated militias were accused of systemic murder of men and boys, as well as rape and sexual violence towards women and girls, from certain ethnic groups, in a statement released by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

The role of these militias in targeting fleeing, innocent civilians and “preventing remaining civilians from accessing lifesaving supplies” factored into Blinken’s genocide determination.

The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted after World War II, defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

Anthony Blinken determined genocide and ethnic cleansing is taking place in Sudan. Picture: Takashi Aoyama/Getty Images

Blinken said that the U.S. government is placing sanctions on RSF leader Mohammad Hamdan Daglo Mousa, known as Hemedti, “for his role in systematic atrocities committed against the Sudanese people.”

“We are also sanctioning seven RSF-owned companies located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and one individual for their roles in procuring weapons for the RSF.”

The UAE has been accused of arming the RSF by the Sudanese government, an allegation an Emirati official denied, in an interview with the Financial Times.

Sudan’s civil war began in April 2023 when fighting erupted in the nation’s capital between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the nation’s capital, Khartoum.

(SRSF commander General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (Hemedti) has had sanctions imposed by the U.S. government. Picture: Ashraf Shazly/AFP

Since then, the warring parties have been deadlocked in a violent power struggle in which 61,000 have died in the capital alone, according to a study by the Sudan Research Group.

The effect on local communities has been catastrophic, with the imminent threat of famine looming over the 12 million displaced.

However, Blinken’s sanctions of the RSF do not mean that the U.S. government supports the SAF.

“The United States does not support either side of this war, and these actions against Hemedti and the RSF do not signify support or favour for the SAF.

“Both belligerents bear responsibility for the violence and suffering in Sudan and lack the legitimacy to govern a future peaceful Sudan,” he said.

Notably, a “genocide” designation by the US State Department is rare.

Tuesday’s determination against the RSF is only the ninth instance – including the Holocaust -that it has been made.

-With additional reporting from AFP.