WASHINGTON (CN) — The State Department has determined that the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary and its allied militia committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in Sudan’s Darfur region.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the determination Wednesday, also accusing the RSF and the Sudanese Army of war crimes.
At least 9,000 people have been killed, more than 6.7 million were driven from their homes and at least 25 million have been in need of aid since conflict broke out April 15 between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary.
The bloodshed has origins in a 2019 popular uprising which, once the army and RSF intervened, led to the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, an authoritarian ruler who held power for 30 years.
The army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and RSF, controlled by Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, shared power in a transitional government with civilians for two years. Hemedti and al-Burhan ousted the civilians in 2021.
The scale of the conflict has continued to widen, engulfing more and more of the country of roughly 48 million people. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia led ceasefire talks in late spring and early summer, but they broke down and other international efforts to end the bloodshed have ended in failure.
Activists and media organizations have been sounding the alarm over ethnic violence in the conflict for several months, but the crisis has faded from political discourse in the United States as the Biden administration has loudly and persistently focused on the war in Ukraine and the recent escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine.
The RSF controls most of Darfur because it evolved out of the janjaweed Arab militias recruited by al-Bashir to brutally suppress an uprising that resulted in the infamous Darfur genocide, which generated a worldwide outcry in the mid-2000s.
“It has been horrifying to witness history repeating itself in Sudan nearly two decades later, especially following a civilian-led revolution in 2019 that offered hope for the peaceful, prosperous democracy the Sudanese people deserve,” Samantha Power, administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, said in a press release. “Until a transition to civilian leadership takes place in Sudan, this pattern of needless violence will continue.”
In a press statement, Blinken said detainees “have been abused and some killed” at RSF and army detention sites. He specifically called out the RSF for “terroriz[ing] women and girls through sexual violence, attacking them in their homes, kidnapping them from the streets, or targeting those trying to flee to safety across the border.”
Blinken said a particular target of violence has been the Masalit people, a darker-skinned ethnic-African tribe. The RSF is largely composed of Arab people.
“In haunting echoes of the genocide that began almost 20 years ago in Darfur, we have seen an explosion of targeted violence against some of the same survivors’ communities,” Blinken said. “Masalit civilians have been hunted down and left for dead in the streets, their homes set on fire, and told that there is no place in Sudan for them.”
Blinken said the determination “provides force and renewed urgency” to end the conflict and address the growing humanitarian and human rights crisis.
“The United States is committed to building on this determination and using available tools to end this conflict and cease committing the atrocities and other abuses that are depriving the Sudanese people of freedom, peace, and justice,” Blinken said.
Power said up to 80% of the country’s health facilities have been closed because of the war, leading to outbreaks of cholera and malaria.
“The ongoing war has fueled a near-collapse in the social fabric and physical infrastructure of Sudan, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation,” she said. “Over the last eight months, it is Sudanese civilians who have borne the brunt of this needless and unconscionable conflict, as the SAF and RSF deny their demands for peaceful, democratic civilian rule and drive one of the largest internal displacement crises in the world.”
Daniel Sullivan, director of Africa, Asia and the Middle East for Refugees International, applauded the announcement, but called on President Joe Biden to take stronger action to end the conflict. He said Biden should appoint a presidential envoy to lead diplomatic efforts, make commitments to fund evidence collection and surge humanitarian support for civilians.
“Today’s announcement is a first step. But more must be done,” Sullivan said in a statement. “Now, it is more important than ever for President Biden to speak out about the violence and back up this recognition of atrocities with action.”
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