JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – The Biden administration has been criticized by the new 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, a torn country by labeling 21 months of bitter war as ‘genocide’.
Earlier this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared that members of the Sudanese rebel group, the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, “have committed genocide in Sudan.”
In a statement, Blinken said: “The United States is committed to holding accountable those responsible for these atrocities. We are sanctioning RSF leader Mohammad Hamdan Daglo Mousa, better known as Hemedti, for his role in the systematic atrocities committed against the Sudanese people.”
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks with Secretary of State Antony Blinken (R) during a trilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos in the East Room of the White House on April 11, 2024 in Washington, DC. Three countries are meeting at a first-ever trilateral summit in a show of solidarity as China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea has increased tensions in the region. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images.)
Blinken made his statement, he said, because “the RSF and RSF-affiliated militias continue to target civilians, have systematically murdered men and boys – even babies – on an ethnic basis, and have deliberately targeted women and girls . certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence.”
The Secretary continued, “These same militias have targeted fleeing civilians, killed innocent people escaping the conflict, and prevented remaining civilians from accessing life-saving supplies.”
Blinken added that the African nation is suffering “a conflict of unmitigated brutality that has resulted in the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe, leaving 638,000 Sudanese experiencing the worst famine in Sudan’s recent history, more than 30 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and tens of thousands of deaths.”
Risch has insisted that the situation in Sudan has been catastrophic for over a year, and has questioned the timing of Blinken’s statement. In a statement earlier this week, he wrote: “It has been almost a year since I introduced a resolution calling the atrocities in Sudan what they are: a genocide. Furthermore, I first called for the imposition of Global Magnitsky sanctions against the RSF and Hemedti 263 days ago – and yet these sanctions have still not been applied.”
Fighters from the Sudan Liberation Movement, a Sudanese rebel group active in Darfur state and backing army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, attend a graduation ceremony in the southeastern state of Gedaref on March 28, 2024. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images.)
Risch spoke to Fox News Digital and stated: “The Biden administration has waited until less than two weeks into office to sanction RSF affiliates. and Hemedti for their crimes and for calling the atrocities in Sudan a genocide.”
Risch said: “This failure to address the crisis in Sudan weakened America’s influence in the region and the world years ago. If the Biden administration were to back its rhetoric with action, Sudan would be in a better position today, more lives would be saved, and more lives would be saved. the foreign proxies exacerbating this conflict would be kept at bay.”
Risch added: “This war must end. Further instability in Sudan will only fuel terrorism and regional unrest, threatening global security. The U.S. and our allies must work to end the killings and atrocities, end the malign actions of proxies, the migratory pressures of mass displacement, and protect strategic interests such as the Red Sea Corridor.”
UAE, OTHER COUNTRIES REMOVED FROM INTERNATIONAL MONEY LAUNDRY WATCHLIST
People board a truck as they leave Khartoum, Sudan, on June 19, 2023. The UN Human Rights Office said in a new report on Friday, February 23, 2024, that dozens of people, including children, have been victims of rape and rape. other forms of sexual violence in the ongoing conflict in Sudan, attacks that could amount to war crimes. (AP photo, file)
In his statement, Blinken announced new sanctions, stating: “We are also imposing sanctions on seven RSF-owned companies based in the United States. United Arab Emirates (UAE) and one person for their role in the procurement of weapons for the RSF.”
The Treasury Department also sent a statement, almost simultaneously with the state’s, saying that “the RSF’s ability to acquire military equipment and generate finance continues to fuel the conflict in Sudan.” The Ministry of Finance stated that a certain company in the UAE, owned by a Sudanese national, “supplied money and weapons to the RSF”.
Other UAE companies sanctioned in the past week have been accused by the Finance Department from handling financial transactions, from being “an essential part of the RSF’s efforts to finance its activities”, and from importing IT and security equipment.
One gold company in the UAE has been sanctioned for allegedly “purchasing gold from Sudan, allegedly for the benefit of the RSF, and then transporting it to Dubai”. In addition, the Treasury Department alleged that “the RSF purchasing director and brother of RSF leader Hemedti had access to (the gold company’s) bank account in the UAE, which contained millions of dollars.”
Women from El Geneina, West Darfur, cry after receiving news of their missing relatives in Ardamata, as they waited for them in Adre, Chad, November 7, 2023. Ardamata was the last site of an ethnic cleansing led by the RSF and allied Arabs. militias against the ethnic African Masalit tribe. (Reuters/El Tayeb Siddig.)
“The United States continues to call for an end to this conflict that endangers the lives of innocent civilians,” said Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo. “The Ministry of Finance remains committed to using every available tool to hold accountable those responsible for violating the human rights of the Sudanese people.”
In response to Fox News Digital questions involving UAE-registered companies, a State Department official fired back and stated. “The UAE’s primary focus in Sudan remains addressing the catastrophic humanitarian crisis. We continue to call for an immediate ceasefire and a peaceful resolution to this man-made conflict. In this regard, the UAE has already made it absolutely clear that it will not provide any support or supplies to either of the two warring factions in Sudan.”
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The official continued: “The UAE takes its role in protecting the integrity of the international financial system very seriously. We remain committed to fighting financial crime globally, strengthening international cooperation and developing strategies to address emerging risks.”
