It was surprising that the current US administration, days before the end of its term, imposed sanctions on the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan and its leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti). Washington has always taken moderate positions on the Sudanese conflict and has mostly turned a blind eye to serious violations committed by the rebel forces. Its positions have been limited to calls for a ceasefire, direct negotiations between the military establishment and the rebel forces, and facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid. This has been a source of criticism for the Sudanese government, which is struggling to defeat the military rebellion and ward off the spectre of famine and epidemics from millions of Sudanese who have suffered from war since it broke out on April 15, 2023. By imposing these sanctions on Hemedti and seven companies linked to supplying weapons to his forces, the Biden administration has classified the crimes committed by the Rapid Support Forces as “genocide.”
In this regard, Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the statement that “the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias continued to launch direct attacks against civilians. The Rapid Support Forces and allied militias have systematically and ethnically killed men and boys (even infants).”
This tone of outrage over the crimes committed against civilians seems somewhat strange to Secretary Blinken and his boss. Since late 2023, the administration has shown complete disregard for these crimes in our Middle East region, except for what happened on October 7 (2023) in the settlements surrounding Gaza. As for the development that followed it, which the Gaza Strip was exposed to, they were met with disdain from Washington and with generous financial and military support given to the war criminals. The political history of conflicts in our world will witness that Washington, under Democrat Joe Biden, engaged in supporting a war of extermination.
It was indeed strange for Blinken to address a genocide taking place in our world and in our time, while he, his boss, and the administration’s staff persisted for 15 months in contradicting the assessment of the United Nations and its agencies and the positions of the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and human rights and humanitarian organizations, which classified Israeli crimes against civilians and civilian facilities as war crimes, genocide, and a form of ethnic cleansing. This is what National Security Advisor John Kirby did, who recently denied that the comprehensive destruction of the Gaza Strip on the heads of its people was a war of extermination, a position that, to say the least, belittles human minds. Although, on the other hand, the Biden administration’s staff was able to note that shameful crimes are taking place in Sudan, claiming the lives of thousands of innocent people, with the risks of famine spreading, the health system collapsing, and millions being displaced from their areas of residence.
The political history of conflicts in our world will witness that Washington, under Democrat Joe Biden, engaged in supporting a war of extermination waged by the far-right government in Tel Aviv against more than two million people in Gaza. Washington left the victims and their families without any aid or support in the face of the brutal war, and that it was only concerned with releasing the Israeli prisoners held by Hamas, without mentioning the Palestinian prisoners held by the Israeli occupation, or the besieged residents of the Gaza Strip, who are subjected to the war and killing machine around the clock, which the Sudanese and Americans know, like the rest of the world.
[by Mahmoud al-Rimawy in Al-Araby Al-Jadeed]
Compiled and translated by Faizul Haque