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The Biden Administration has been criticized by the incoming Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, for “waiting” until the outgoing President had only 13 days left in office before declaring rebel actions in Sudan to be “genocide.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the declaration earlier this week, stating that members of the Sudanese rebel group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), “have committed genocide in Sudan.”
Blinken stated that the RSF and RSF-aligned militias have continued to direct attacks against civilians, have systematically murdered men and boys, and deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence. He also noted that the African nation is suffering through “a conflict of unmitigated brutality that has resulted in the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe, leaving 638,000 Sudanese experiencing the worst famine in Sudan’s recent history, over 30 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, and tens of thousands dead.”
Risch has long been critical of the situation in Sudan, which he views as catastrophic, and called into question the timing of Blinken’s declaration. He stated that it has been nearly a year since he introduced a resolution calling the atrocities in Sudan “a genocide” and that he first called for global Magnitsky sanctions to be imposed against the RSF and Hemedti 263 days ago. However, these sanctions have not yet been levied.
Risch also expressed his disappointment with the Biden administration’s handling of the crisis, stating that “the Biden Administration waited until it had less than two weeks in office to sanction RSF-affiliated companies and Hemedti for their crimes and to call atrocities in Sudan a genocide.” He added that “this delay has weakened America’s influence in the region and the world, and more lives could have been saved and foreign proxies exacerbating this conflict could have been kept at bay if the Biden administration had backed its rhetoric with action.”
The United States has also designated seven RSF-owned companies located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and one individual for their roles in procuring weapons for the RSF. The Treasury Department stated that the RSF’s ability to acquire military equipment and generate finances continues to fuel the conflict in Sudan. The UAE has denied providing any support to either of the warring parties in Sudan, stating that its primary focus remains on addressing the humanitarian crisis and calling for an immediate cease-fire and peaceful resolution to the conflict.