US says Sudanese rebel force has committed genocide and imposes sanctions on the group's leaders

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Tuesday that a Sudanese paramilitary group and its proxies are committing genocide in a civil war with the country's military that has killed tens of thousands of people, leveling sanctions on the group’s leader and affiliated companies.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the conflict, which began nearly two years ago and is considered the world’s biggest current humanitarian catastrophe, had escalated beyond a war crimes and ethnic cleansing determination he made in December 2023.

Blinken said that based on more recent reporting, he found that the Rapid Support Forces group is committing genocide.

“The RSF and RSF-aligned militias have continued to direct attacks against civilians,” Blinken said. “The RSF and allied militias have systematically murdered men and boys — even infants — on an ethnic basis, and deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence.”

“Those same militias have targeted fleeing civilians, murdering innocent people escaping conflict, and prevented remaining civilians from accessing lifesaving supplies,” he said in a statement.

The genocide determination has no legal implication by itself, but it was accompanied by a Treasury Department announcement that RSF leader Mohammad Hamdan Daglo Mousa, also known as Hemedti, had been targeted for sanctions as well as seven RSF-owned companies in the United Arab Emirates, including one handling gold likely smuggled out of Sudan.

The UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula and a U.S. ally, has been repeatedly accused of arming the RSF, something it has strenuously denied despite evidence to the contrary.

The RSF and Sudan’s military began fighting each other in April 2023. Their conflict has killed more than 28,000 people, has forced millions to flee their homes and has left some families eating grass in a desperate attempt to survive as famine sweeps parts of the country.

Other estimates suggest a far higher death toll in the civil war.

Emirati officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night. The RSF did not immediately acknowledge the sanctions nor a request for comment from The Associated Press passed through an intermediary.

Blinken said his determination was not intended to support either side in the conflict but rather to promote accountability for war crimes and other atrocities.

However, some experts believe the RSF is directly to blame for the situation.

“The RSF is responsible for some of the most heinous atrocities being committed anywhere in the world today," said John Prendergast, co-founder of The Sentry, a U.S.-based watchdog group. "Today’s actions by the Biden administration are an important start to creating that accountability, which hopefully can provide leverage both for deterring future human rights crimes as well as for helping to drag the RSF into treating ceasefire negotiations more seriously.”

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum said the decision is “a somber acknowledgment of the horrific crimes endured by people who have been neglected for so long.”

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Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed.