Sudan: Washington accuses paramilitaries of “genocide”

The US government on Tuesday formally accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of committing “genocide” in Sudan and imposed sanctions against the leader of the paramilitary group.

The classification of “genocide” was established on the basis of reports of the “systematic” killing of men and young boys as well as targeted rapes of women and young women “because of their ethnic origin”, a US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

This is the ninth time that the American government has spoken of genocide, the first corresponding to the Holocaust during World War II.

“The systematic atrocities committed against the Sudanese people”

Since then, the United States has spoken of genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, Iraq, Sudan’s Darfur region, as well as attacks targeting minorities, such as those by the Islamic State against the Yazidis, those targeting the Rohingya Muslim minority in Burma or the treatment inflicted on the Uighurs by China.

The United States has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which notably requires signatory states to punish those responsible for genocide.

Washington also announced a series of sanctions targeting the boss of the FSR, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, known as “Hemedti”, for “his role in the systematic atrocities committed against the Sudanese people”.

“Acts committed with the intent to destroy”

The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.”

The war, which broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF, pushed the country into famine. Tens of thousands of people have been killed. More than eight million people have been internally displaced, which, on top of the 2.7 million people displaced before the war, has caused the world’s largest internal displacement crisis.

According to the UN, more than 30 million people, more than half of them children, need help after twenty months of devastating war.

“The United States does not support either side”

“The United States does not support either side, and our actions against the RSF or Hemedti do not mean support for the Sudanese armed forces,” the Secretary of State stressed. “The two belligerents bear responsibility for the violence and suffering” in the country.

For its part, the Treasury Department justifies the sanctions against Hemedti by his role as “principal belligerent” and by the fact that “the war crimes and atrocities” noted by the United States were committed under his command.

“Hemedeti bears major responsibility through his command for the heinous and illegal actions of his forces,” the Treasury Department added.

The ban on American companies trading with those sanctioned

Seven companies linked to the RSF are also sanctioned and accused of participating in their financing and the purchase of military equipment, and thus “continuing the conflict in Sudan”.

The sanctions result in a freezing of assets held directly and indirectly by the people and companies targeted as well as a ban on American companies and citizens from trading with those sanctioned.

They also limit the possibility for Hemedti and the companies concerned to use the dollar in their transactions, at the risk of seeing the companies which would receive such payments falling in turn under sanctions. The war broke out in April 2023 when the army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, attempted to integrate the RSF of its former ally and deputy Hemedti.

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