The United States has determined that Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have "committed genocide" in Sudan and has imposed sanctions on the paramilitary group's leader. While conflict resolution NGOs have welcomed the decision, many organisations and analysts fear that the move may be 'too little, too late.'
The announcement was made on Tuesday and deals a setback to the RSF's efforts to improve its image and assert its legitimacy, including attempts to establish a civilian government.
The paramilitary group aims to expand its territory beyond the area it currently controls, which amouts to about half the country.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the determination was based on information about the RSF's systematic murder of men and boys and the targeted rape of women and girls from certain ethnic groups.
"The United States is committed to holding accountable those responsible," Blinken said. He also announced sanctions against RSF leader Mohammad Hamdan Daglo, known as Hemedti, for his role in what he describes as systematic atrocities committed against the Sudanese people.
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Accept Manage my choices Avaaz, Refugees International, and other NGOs welcomed the decision.
The genocide determination will substantially impact the RSF's ability to continue fighting, Mohammed Suliman, a Sudanese researcher and writer based in Boston, told Avaaz, particularly given the Emirati lobby's efforts to neutralise US involvement in the Sudanese conflict.
Call to action
The US Treasury Department unveiled its own sanctions against Daglo on Tuesday, accusing the RSF of engaging in a brutal armed conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces for control of Sudan.
"Through its campaign in Darfur, Gezira and other combat areas, the RSF has committed a litany of documented war crimes and atrocities," a Treasury Department statement said.
As the overall commander of the RSF, Daglo "bears command responsibility for the abhorrent and illegal actions of his forces," it added.
The Treasury has designated seven companies and one individual linked to the RSF for their roles in procuring weapons for the group.
"The United States continues to call for an end to this conflict that is putting innocent civilian lives in jeopardy," said D Secretrary of the Treasury, Wally Adeyemo, said.
In response, the RSF has accused the US of double standards, saying it is failing to effectively address the ongoing crisis.
Criticisms
The announcement had been expected by many in Sudan and in the humanitarian workers community. But for most of them, it is "too little too late," as Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in DC, wrote on social media.
"It's too late to fix a failed (non-existent) Sudan policy and it's too late to get on the right side of history," he added.
"The fact is that this Administration had all the evidence they needed to make these announcements months ago when they could have had an impact on this war and they chose not to make them. With less than 2 weeks left in power, this is nothing more than a reflection of a guilty conscience."
Blinken's announcement is only as meaningful as the actions taken to address it, civil society groups also said.
Lauren Fortgang is executive director of Preventing And Ending Mass Atrocities (PAEMA), a US-based organisation working with communities in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burma, and Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, dedicated to preventing and ending mass atrocities by amplifying the integral role of community centered solutions.
The genocide determination by the US Secretary of State "reaffirms the daily reality of millions of Sudanese living through hell on Earth due to the brutality unleashed by the RSF and SAF," she wrote in a statement, but "it must be accompanied by stronger policies that match the severity of the worst humanitarian crisis the world has ever seen, as well as the severe protection crisis which worsens by the day."
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Sudan war sparks 'biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded' - IRC
The group called for the long overdue sanctions against Hemedti to be coordinated and truly effective.
The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted after World War II, defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."
But legal experts started to question the ability of Secretary Blinken to determining genocide, especially as the UN, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have declared an ongoing genocide in Gaza, which the US refuses to recognise let alone address.
War in Sudan leaves 13 million people displaced and more than half the population malnourished
(with newswires)
