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US Declares Genocide in Sudan But Refuses to Acknowledge Genocide in Gaza
One journalist told the secretary of state that all the crimes cited for Sudan are "being committed by Israel in Gaza; the very genocide YOU have been proudly funding, arming, and covering up."
Jan 07, 2025
While welcoming the United States' recognition that paramilitaries in Sudan have committed genocidal acts during the country's devastating civil war since 2023, human rights advocates on Tuesday said the declaration underscored the Biden administration's refusal to acknowledge what experts said is also clearly taking place in Gaza at the hands of the U.S.-backed Israel Defense Forces.
Both the mass killing of civilians in Sudan and Palestinians in Gaza "should be recognized and stopped," said Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch.
Biden administration officials reportedly hesitated to move forward with the declaration that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is fighting Sudan's military in a bloody civil war, is committing genocide, saying it could intensify criticism of continued U.S. support for Israel.
But U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed off on the declaration on Monday, saying the RSF's acts of genocide include systemic violence against the Masalit, a non-Arab ethnic group, between April-November 2023 in the western region of Darfur.
Humanitarian workers reported that they counted 2,000 bodies in a single day during that attack, while the United Nations estimated as many as 15,000 people were killed in one city.
Hundreds of thousands of Masalit people have fled to overcrowded camps in neighboring Chad.
The RSF, said Blinken on Tuesday, has "targeted fleeing civilians, [murdered] innocent people escaping conflict, and prevented remaining civilians from accessing lifesaving supplies."
The paramilitary group has also blocked aid from getting to some areas, contributing to what the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) identified as famine in at least five districts in Sudan last month.
Palestine-based journalist Muhammad Shehada demanded to know how the Biden administration could determine genocide is taking place in Sudan while repeatedly denying the same in Gaza—even as the International Court of Justice has found Israel placed at risk Palestinians' right to be protected from genocide and numerous human rights groups have accused Israel of acts of genocide.
"Literally every single one of the crimes you [cite] to conclude a genocide is happening in Sudan are all being committed by Israel in Gaza; the very genocide YOU have been proudly funding, arming, and covering up," said Shehada.
More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the IDF began bombarding the enclave in October 2023, with hospitals, schools, refugee camps, and residential buildings among the places targeted. A majority of those killed have been women and children, according to the U.N., even as Israel and the U.S.—the largest international funder of the IDF—have insisted they are targeting Hamas fighters.
Israel's near-total blockade on aid has also pushed parts of the enclave into famine, according to experts.
"Blinken finds genocide in Sudan but not in Gaza," said Mark Seddon, director of the Center for United Nations Studies. "Really, you can't make this crap up."
Along with the State Department's determination, the U.S. Treasury Department announced Tuesday that it was sanctioning RSF leader, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, and seven companies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the main international funder of the paramilitary group.
Roth pointed out that while private companies in the UAE were sanctioned, the U.S. did not name the government of the Middle Eastern country.
Last January, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) led a push to block a U.S. sale of $85 million in military equipment to the UAE, warning the country had "been violating the U.N. arms embargo in Darfur to support the RSF."
"Good to see the U.S. officially determine that the brutal RSF militia is committing genocide in Sudan," said journalist Nicholas Kristof. "But accountability is impaired when the U.S. fails to publicly call out the RSF's backer, the UAE, which enables the genocide."
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Summer Lee Leads Call for US Action to Aid Civilians in War-Torn Sudan
"Without decisive global engagement, violent conflict in Sudan threatens to destabilize the entire region, with devastating implications for countless lives and communities," argued Lee and two other Democrats.
Dec 31, 2024
With only a few weeks left of President Joe Biden's administration, the progressive Squad member Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) is spearheading a call urging Biden to increase U.S. humanitarian aid to the war-torn country of Sudan, among other requests.
In a letter sent Monday, Lee—as well as Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.)—warned that "without decisive global engagement, violent conflict in Sudan threatens to destabilize the entire region, with devastating implications for countless lives and communities."
Sudan has been racked by violence since fighting erupted between the between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)—the nation's official military—and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023. The civil war has also led to widespread hunger in the country. According to the letter, roughly half of Sudan's population is in acute need of food, and over the summer, famine was declared in a refugee camp in Sudan's Darfur region. The letter notes that nearly 12 million people have been displaced due to the conflict.
The letter writers are asking Biden to act swiftly, including through "multilateral fora" to protect civilians by establishing safe zones and setting up humanitarian corridors. They are requesting an increase in U.S. humanitarian aid, specifically that a portion of that funding go toward supporting Sudanese organizations and entities that are aiding civilians on the ground.
The trio is also urging the U.S. to renew Temporary Protected Status for Sudan, a program that gives migrants whose home countries are deemed unsafe the ability to live and work in the U.S. for a period of time, and are asking for an update to the December 2023 "atrocity determination" to include new crimes committed by both the RSF and SAF.
The atrocity determination that the three lawmakers reference was issued by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in December 2023, declaring "that members of the SAF and the RSF have committed war crimes in Sudan. I have also determined that members of the RSF and allied militias have committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing."
Lee of Pennsylvania, Meeks, and Lee of California are not the only leaders urging more action. In September, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said during a visit to Sudan that "the scale of the emergency is shocking, as is the insufficient action being taken to curtail the conflict, and respond to the suffering it is causing."
The insufficient global action in the face of such warnings has caused many observers to call the conflict the world's "forgotten war," according to the think tank the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). "As the humanitarian situation deteriorates, sorely needed aid is not arriving, signaling a historic failure in the global aid system," wrote CFR in September 2024.
The three Democratic lawmakers also point out that "the massive refugee flows from Sudan have placed extraordinary burdens on neighboring countries—Chad, Egypt, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, and Ethiopia—each already struggling with their own domestic challenges."
"We therefore believe it is critical to continue our diplomatic work to secure a cease-fire, protect civilians, and ensure unobstructed humanitarian access," they conclude. "We urge you to take these bold and immediate actions."
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'Tragic': Sudan Ditches Global Hunger Monitor as War Expands Famine
The government accused the monitor of "issuing unreliable reports that undermine Sudan's sovereignty and dignity" as aid and human rights experts called for global action to boost humanitarian assistance.
Dec 24, 2024
The Sudanese government suspended cooperation with a global hunger monitor on Monday, on the eve of the initiative announcing that the African country's civil war has driven the expansion of a famine first declared at a refugee camp earlier this year and expected to keep growing next year without a cease-fire.
Alarm over widespread
hunger in Sudan has mounted since fighting erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)—the nation's official military—and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023. The famine declaration for Zamzam camp, which houses hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in North Darfur, came in August.
Reuters—which reported on Sudan's Monday letter to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) and its Famine Review Committee (FRC)—noted that its "investigation found that the Sudanese government obstructed the IPC's work earlier this year, delaying by months a famine determination for the sprawling Zamzam camp."
The government's new letter accuses the monitor of "issuing unreliable reports that undermine Sudan's sovereignty and dignity," according to Reuters. "It says the forthcoming IPC report lacks updated malnutrition data and assessments of crop productivity during the recent summer rainy season. The growing season was successful, the letter says. It also notes 'serious concerns' about the IPC's ability to collect data from territories controlled by the RSF."
The IPC report, released Tuesday, states that "the FRC classifies famine (IPC phase 5) for the period of October to November 2024 in Zamzam, Abu Shouk, and Al Salam camps, as well as in the Western Nuba Mountains, affecting both residents and IDPs. Between December 2024 and May 2025, famine (IPC phase 5) is projected to continue in the same areas and expand in the North Darfur localities of Um Kadadah, Melit, El Fasher, At Tawisha, and Al Lait."
"There is a risk of famine in the Central Nuba Mountains and in areas likely to experience high influxes of IDPs in North and South Darfur," the report notes. It adds that "the population in areas of intense conflict in Khartoum (Mayo and Alingaz in Jebel Awlia) and Al Jazirah (Medani Al Kubra and Sharg Al Jazirah) might be experiencing the same conditions as that of the areas classified in famine," but "the lack of recent data prevents the FRC from confirming whether famine thresholds have been surpassed."
The document stresses that "the current analysis reflects the situation during the harvest period, a time when hunger and acute malnutrition are typically at their lowest. From December onwards, there will be few seasonal mitigating factors that could improve conditions on the ground. Only a halt to the conflict, and significant scale-up and scale-out of assistance can prevent an even greater catastrophe."
According to experts, 24.6 million people in Sudan—or half the nation's population—face "high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC phase 3 or above)" and more than 12 million have been displaced by the current conflict, including over 3.2 million who have fled to neighboring countries.
Leaders at the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and World Food Program (WFP) expressed concern over the Tuesday report and renewed calls for action.
"We must stop famine in the Sudan—it can be done," said Rein Paulsen, FAO's director of emergencies and resilience. "We need immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access to deliver food, water, health, and lifesaving emergency agricultural assistance to pull people from the brink. Above all, the immediate cessation of hostilities is an essential first step. We must act now, collectively, and at scale, for the sake of millions of people whose lives are at risk."
Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP's director of food security and nutrition analysis, emphasized that across Sudan, "people are getting weaker and weaker and are dying as they have had little to no access to food for months and months."
"WFP is doing everything we can to get a steady and constant flow of food assistance to the hungriest and hardest-to-reach places in Sudan," Bauer continued. "We are constantly adapting our operations as the conflict evolves, delivering assistance where and when we can. But recent operational progress is fragile as the situation on the ground is volatile and dangerous."
UNICEF's director of emergency operations, Lucia Elmi, pointed out that "the ongoing conflict, continuous displacements, and recurrent disease outbreaks have created a dangerous breeding ground for malnutrition in Sudan."
"Millions of young lives hang in the balance," Elmi warned. "The delivery of lifesaving therapeutic food, water, and medicine can help stop the deadly malnutrition crisis in its tracks, but we need safe, sustained, and unimpeded access to reach the most vulnerable children and save lives."
Human Rights Watch also took note of the new data and called out the warring parties for "willfully" obstructing aid. As Belkis Wille, an associate director in the crisis, conflict, and arms division of the U.S.-based group, wrote Tuesday:
In South Kordofan's Nuba Mountains, we witnessed famine for ourselves.
In October, we traveled to the Nuba Mountains to interview people displaced by attacks by the RSF and its allies. Witnesses described killings, rape, and destruction in the South Kordofan towns of Habila and Fayu, just 20 km away.
The impact of starvation was clear to see. Almost every person we spoke to bore the marks of hunger. One 8-year-old boy I met, died of starvation during our five-day visit. We saw no international organizations or U.N. agencies providing food assistance during our time there and kept wondering whether some of the people would survive more than a couple of months without aid.
"Before more civilians, including children, die of starvation in Sudan, governments should impose consequences on those responsible. The U.N. Security Council meeting on Sudan on December 19 again contained powerful speeches but little in the way of concrete action," Willie added. "The U.N. and donors should make a concerted push for immediate aid access throughout Sudan and massively increase support to local responders. The U.N. should also be much clearer and public about the scale of the challenges they face. Civilians in the Nuba Mountains and North Darfur cannot wait till the new year."
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