The US has accused Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces and aligned militias of committing “genocide”, and put sanctions on their head, the paramilitary leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Washington blacklisted Dagalo, a warlord and former camel trader known as Hemeti, “for his role in systematic atrocities committed against the Sudanese people” in the country’s vicious civil war, and barred him and his immediate family members from entering the US.
The paramilitary force has been accused by Washington of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, but while the US has imposed sanctions on other members of the RSF and some of Hemeti’s family members, this is the first time Washington has targeted him directly.
“The RSF and allied militias have systematically murdered men and boys — even infants — on an ethnic basis, and deliberately targeted women and girls for brutal sexual violence,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as he announced the measures on Tuesday.
Sudan has been in the grip of a brutal conflict since April 2023, with both the paramilitary RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by de facto President General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, accused of atrocities.
Joe Biden’s administration has repeatedly tried and failed to mediate between the SAF and the RSF, a descendant of the Janjaweed horseback militia accused of genocide in Darfur 20 years ago, since the hostilities first erupted.
The US Treasury has also targeted SAF leaders and organisations helping to support them and fuel the conflict. On Tuesday it placed sanctions on seven RSF-owned companies located in the UAE for their part in procuring weapons for the RSF. The UAE has repeatedly denied the accusation that it allegedly fuelled the Sudanese civil war by helping to arm the RSF. Brig Gen Omar Hamdan Ahmed of the RSF also denied receiving backing from the UAE.
But a report in October by the Sudan Conflict Observatory, an independent monitoring platform funded by the US State Department, “concluded with near certainty” that the UAE was facilitating weapons to the RSF in Sudan.
Last year, a UN panel of experts presented what they described as “credible” evidence that Abu Dhabi had been supplying arms to the RSF via Chad.
Sudan’s brutal conflict has triggered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. It has also attracted profiteers, mercenaries and several foreign powers — including Russia and Iran — hoping to capitalise on the upheaval for financial or geopolitical gain, hindering the efforts of UN agencies to provide much needed aid to those caught in the crossfire.
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