Genocide in Sudan: How did this crisis come about?

Genocide in Sudan: How did this crisis come about?

This week, the United States accused the RSF militia in the brutal civil war in Sudan that they had committed genocide. It is the second time in two decades that in the Northeast African country the genocide was explained where thousands died and millions of people suffer from a humanitarian crisis.

The way into the crisis

For 20 months, two of the most powerful generals of Sudans-Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the leader of the Sudanian Armed Forces (SAF), and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, who leads the paramilitary rapid support forces (RSF)-brutally for territory in a country that is still under the massacre of tens of people suffered and in which millions were sold.

The two men, once allied, have President Omar al-bashir in 2019 . Together they also contributed to the second in 2021 took over. Today the Sudan is torn from conflicts, whereby the RSF is the ruler of large parts of the western and central regions of the country, including Darfur and parts of the capital of Khartum.

The humanitarian disaster

Over 11 million people have been sold internally since the fights began in April 2023, according to the United Nations, while millions of others have fled Sudan. Hunger is widespread and hungry conditions have already been determined in several areas of the country, warn the UN.

responsibility for the atrocities

US Foreign Minister Antony Flasch said that the RSF and its Arab militias had committed “direct attacks on civilians”, including the systematic murder of “men and boys-even infants-on an ethnic basis.” In addition, they "consciously targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence," added blinking. "The same group attacked the fleeing civilians and murdered innocent people who wanted to escape the conflict and refused to access life -saving aid goods to the remaining civilians."
"Based on this information, I came to the conclusion that members of the RSF and allied militias have committed genocide in Sudan," said flashing.

The RSF rejected the US decision as "illegal" and said in a message on her Telegram channel that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the RSF had committed in Sudan was inaccurate. "The decision does not specify the group against which the alleged genocide was committed, or the place of the genocide ... The decision vaguely refers to the Sudanese people, to which the fighters and supporters of the RSF form an integral part," says the RSF declaration.

history and current violence

The RSF is said to have a story of ethnically motivated violence. The paramilitary group emerged from the Arab Janjawed militia, which was responsible for the genocide in the early 2000s, in which an estimated 300,000 people died. Since the outbreak of the fights in April 2023 between the RSF and the SAF, ethnically motivated killings have increased particularly in the western region of Darfur, which resembles the pattern of the targeted killings that shaped the first genocide.

In 2023, some of the worst ethnic killings occurred in 2023 as hundreds of people from non-Arab ethnic groups from the RSF and their associated forces Massacrated . On Tuesday, the United States imposed sanctions against its guide Hemedti, "for his role in systematic atrocities against the Sudanese people" and sanctioned seven companies associated with the RSF and an individual "for their role in the procurement of weapons for the RSF".

The role of the parties to the conflict

In September last year, a UN examination mission Both the SAF and the RSF of complicity in war crimes. In his explanation, flashing accomplished the responsibility for the atrocities. "The United States does not support any of the two sides in this war, and these measures against Hemedti and the RSF do not mean that we support or favor the SAF," he said. "Both parties to the conflict are responsible for violence and suffering in Sudan and do not have the legitimacy to rule a future peaceful Sudan."

The humanitarian crisis and its consequences

epidemics and hungery have become omnipresent in Sudan. Before the fatal power struggle between SAF and the RSF, the Sudan was already one of the poorest countries in the world, since decades of conflicts disabled economic growth. The existing war drove more than 11 million people in Sudan, while around 3.2 million others fled to neighboring countries, according to the UN numbers. Many of those who could not flee live in the Zanzam camp in Darfur, where famine was called out last month.

hunger in Darfur forced some to eat "grass and peanut shells" to survive how the then regional director of the WFP for East Africa, Michael Dunford, reported last year, while the UN warns that around 26 million Sudanese suffer from acute hunger. The food aid for Darfur was resumed after an important border crossing was reopened by the authorities to To bring relief supplies to Sudan. However, aid organizations are still hindered by restrictions in parts of Darfurs, and the famine is spreading to additional areas.

international reactions

The conflict in Sudan was largely overshadowed by the conflicts in other parts of the world, such as in Ukraine and Gaza, as the head of the International Monetary Fund, crystalina Georgieva, stated last year. Nevertheless, the fighting parties in the African country also have global efforts for peace ignored . Last month, Blinking told the UN Security Council that foreign actors are fueling the war in Sudan, but did not give any names.

"to foreign supporters who send drones, rockets and mercenaries- enough! To those who benefit from the illegal oil and gold trade who finances this conflict!" He said. The military government of Sudans has often accused the United Arab Emirates of arming the RSF, which the golf nation denies. The seven companies sanctioned by the United States on Tuesday are all based in the VAE.

the future and hope for peace

The Sudanese lawyer Mutasim Ali told CNN that the US classification of the genocide in Sudan was "long overdue" and should have been done earlier. Nevertheless, it is "a form of justice because it recognizes the complaints of the victims". He added: "It is a step towards peace and responsibility by paving the way to hold the actors responsible, not only the perpetrators themselves, but also the actors who have participated in the genocide."

For the activist al-Karib, the US sanctions against Hemedti and the explanation of the genocide could be decisive in order not only to keep his militia in chess, but also to reduce the support he receives from foreign actors. "We do not think that the extent of these atrocities in Sudan and Darfur would have been so great if the VAE support was not for the RSF," she said.
"We hope that the US decision to sanction Hemedti will send a strong message to VAE to rethink their position and to start a serious political process to end these atrocities and genocide acts across the country."