WASHINGTON — 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 202