Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
The Biden administration on Tuesday sanctioned the top general of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces and determined that the paramilitary group has committed genocide in the country, as well as crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.
While US sanctions target RSF, it also accuses the opposition Sudanese Armed Forces of committing war crimes and described the nearly nine months of fighting across the country as a “conflict of unmitigated brutality” and which caused the world’s greatest humanitarian catastrophe.
“The RSF and allied militias have systematically killed men and boys, even infants, on the basis of ethnicity, and have deliberately targeted women and girls of certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence,” said the secretary of Antony Blinken said in a statement.
“These same militias have targeted fleeing civilians, killed innocent people fleeing the conflict, and prevented remaining civilians from accessing life-saving supplies. Based on this information, I have now concluded that members of the RSF and allied militias have committed genocide in Sudan.”
The United States issued sanctions against the RSF’s top general, Mohammad Hamdan Daglo Mousa, known as Hemedti, for his role in the systematic atrocities committed against the Sudanese people. Hemedti was also sanctioned for “involvement in serious human rights violations in Darfur, namely the mass rape of civilians by RSF soldiers under his control.”
Under the sanctions, Hemedti and his immediate family members are ineligible to enter the United States
Sanctions were also imposed on seven RSF-owned companies located in the United Arab Emirates and one individual for their role in procuring weapons for paramilitary forces.
The Biden administration’s actions are part of an 11th-hour push to address the war in Sudan, which has fallen in priority on the world stage behind efforts to address Russia’s war in Ukraine and the war in Israel vs. Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and beyond. conflicts in the Middle East.
The war in Sudan broke out in April 2023 between Hemedti and his RSF forces with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and has become one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with 638,000 Sudanese suffering from hunger; 30 million need humanitarian aid and tens of thousands dead, according to the State Department.
Blinken said that despite the sanctions targeting Hemedti and RSF, the US does not support or favor the SAF.
“Both belligerents are responsible for the violence and suffering in Sudan and have no legitimacy to govern a future peaceful Sudan,” he said.
