Understanding the U.S. State Department’s genocide determination in Sudan
In another grim turn of events, the U.S. State Department has declared that certain atrocities in Sudan meet the threshold of the crime of genocide. We break down what this means, dispel common misconceptions, and examine what happens next.
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On January 7, 2025, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement saying that, based on available information, “members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias have committed genocide in Sudan.”
A quick recap for those who are new to this situation. Sudan is the world’s largest human rights and humanitarian catastrophes. Since April 2023, a war for power between the army and a powerful militia called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has unleashed a wave of violence so extreme that some regions of the country are becoming uninhabitable. Mass atrocities, gross human rights violations, and manmade famine have forcibly displaced more than 15 million people.
Khartoum is mostly destroyed, as are countless towns and villages the war has blasted through. Famine is spreading and over half the country is in dire need of humanitarian assistance. The death toll is unknown. Some estimates earlier this year were already surging past 150,000 Sudanese killed.
It has been clear from the outset that this war is much more than a power struggle between the army and RSF. It is also a war on the Sudanese people. Both sides have committed large-scale war crimes, with the RSF targeting entire minority ethnic groups for annihilation. Discerning why is critical to understanding the State Department’s genocide determination.
The Rapid Support Forces, briefly explained
The RSF emerged from the 2000s Darfur genocide. The then Bashir regime had long oppressed minority ethnic African tribes in this western region and by the early 2000s was facing an armed uprising. Sudan’s army was failing to put down the rebellion, so the regime began to recruit large numbers of militiamen from Darfur’s Arab tribes. These militias were called janjaweed, which loosely means devil on horseback. The janjaweed proved to be a ruthless killing machine against African tribes such as the Zaghawa, Fur, and Masalit.
In 2013, the regime rebranded the janjaweed as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and began outfitting the paramilitaries with better equipment. Horses were traded in for modified SUVs with mounted machine guns. AK47s were supplemented with artillery, rocket-propelled grenades, anti-aircraft guns, and drones. The RSF has grown in size, strength, and wealth ever since, both with direct support from Khartoum and by using stolen land and expanding territorial reach to mine gold and more.
A large portion of the RSF adheres to an extremely racist, Arab-supremacist ideology. The belief system holds that Darfur’s historic ethnic African minorities must be cleansed from the region and all other Sudanese Arabs are inferior. As a result and as the RSF has spread into other parts of Sudan during this war, they have executed captured army soldiers and civilians while raping and pillaging countless communities they deem ethnically inferior or disloyal.
For months, traumatized refugees streaming out of Sudan —especially from the Darfur provinces— have shared stories of RSF fighters systematically murdering men, boys, and male infants belonging to ethnic African minorities. The paramilitaries have deliberately raped and assaulted women and girls from these same ethnic groups on a shocking scale, as well as blocked humanitarian aid to those unable to flee. One particularly brutal example took place from April to June of 2023, when RSF fighters slaughtered ethnically African Masalit civilians in El Geneina and the surrounding areas in West Darfur. As the United Nations noted roughly a year ago:
“RSF and allied militia deliberately targeted civilian neighbourhoods, IDP gathering sites, and IDP camps, schools, mosques, and hospitals, while looting homes, INGOs and UN compounds. Furthermore, they deliberately rendered useless water pumps that were vital for the survival of the community. RSF and allied militia deliberately targeted Masalit community…”
Understanding genocide for what it is
The term genocide is often misunderstood and misused. Being a globally recognized phenomenon that can be prosecuted in international and domestic courts, genocide must be understand as a legal term that requires a very high threshold of evidence.
Genocide is an internationally-recognized crime where acts are committed with the intent to destroy —in whole or in part— a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. These acts fall into five categories:
Killing members of the group
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group
The phrase with the intent to destroy means it is not enough to point to mass killing as proof of genocide. Determinations from reputable institutions —such as the State Department— are rare for this reason: there must be hard evidence of the perpetrators’ intent to destroy, in whole or in part, one of the listed types of groups through at least one of the above actions.
Hard evidence could include signed military orders, kill lists being distributed, or documentation of armed mobilization. Specific language by the perpetrators directing troops to ethnically “cleanse” an area, hate speech by those carrying out the killings, or destroying infrastructure that makes life possible can play a role in proving intent as well. These examples are not exhaustive. Most perpetrators try to hide and cover up their intent and crimes, making investigations more difficult. As such, proving genocidal intent can be very difficult.
This is what makes the State Department’s genocide determination in Sudan a serious development. There are no signs this designation was made lightly. It strongly suggests that the U.S. government has hard evidence of both RSF intent and acts of genocide committed. There has been a lot of smoke for months suggesting a genocide. Now Secretary of State Blinken is more or less saying they’ve found the fire:
“The RSF and RSF-aligned militias have continued to direct attacks against civilians. The RSF and allied militias have systematically murdered men and boys—even infants—on an ethnic basis, and deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence. Those same militias have targeted fleeing civilians, murdering innocent people escaping conflict, and prevented remaining civilians from accessing lifesaving supplies. Based on this information, I have now concluded that members of the RSF and allied militias have committed genocide in Sudan.”
What happens now?
There tends to be a misguided belief in the general public that using the word genocide will immediately trigger rapid policy changes and a massive global response. History suggests this is rarely the case anywhere in the world, especially in Sudan. The international community has struggled to beef up its response these past 20 months and there’s no evidence the State Department’s genocide determination will change that. A lack of accountability for war criminals in the past is a major driver of RSF crimes today. This determination lays real groundwork for world leaders to act more decisively, but they still must choose to do so.
It is unknown what action, if any, the incoming Trump administration will take with regards to Sudan. Continuing the Biden administration’s approach these past several months should be the bare minimum. Efforts are underway to communicate this need; but, ultimately, Trump’s foreign policy officials will have to decide to make the plight of the Sudanese people a priority day in and day out. Time will tell if they have the political will to do so.
For globally-minded citizens, arguing over what constitutes a genocide or using this determination to draw attention to other international crises should be avoided. Such language runs the high risk of making people feel involved and helpful when, in reality, all that’s being done is removing needed attention from victims and survivors for mere intellectual debate. As one of our Sudanese friends said years ago, “Call it a genocide or not, the militia is still going to kill my family.” And what is happening in Sudan is far too serious to be used as a prop. This moment clarifies the terror the Sudanese people are facing. The focus should remain on them.
As for us, we must continue providing direct support to Sudanese aid workers, healthcare professionals, and teachers and advocating for world leaders to become more engaged in Sudan. Both must be done simultaneously. Please join us to that end.
We’re a nonprofit organization with over a decade of experience working alongside Sudanese heroes. Together we are making the story of Sudan known and supporting survivors as they fight to build a renewed Sudan. Our Sudanese partners are overwhelmed with needs as the war spreads and hunger deepens. By joining Miles For Sudan or giving below, you will help them serve the most vulnerable in this time of tremendous need.
$1,000 - Fully funds one classroom at Endure Primary School in Yida Refugee Camp for half a semester.
$500 - Delivers food to Darfuri genocide survivors who have fled to South Sudan.
$250 - Provides a daily breakfast to 10 children for an entire month in Adré refugee camp, where many Darfuri genocide survivors now live.
$100 - Supports the monthly work of a sexual assault counselor in Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur, Sudan.
$50 - Helps bring school supplies Yida to students in Yida Refugee Camp.
Checks can be made payable to Operation Broken Silence and mailed to PO Box 770900 Memphis, TN 38177-0900. You can also donate stock or crypto.
Operation Broken Silence a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. Our EIN is 80-0671198.
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In another grim turn of events, the U.S. State Department has declared that certain atrocities in Sudan meet the threshold of the crime of genocide. We break down what this means, dispel common misconceptions, and examine what happens next. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/understanding-the-us-state-departments-genocide-determination-in-sudan
On January 7, 2025, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement saying that, based on available information, members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias “have committed genocide in Sudan.” https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/understanding-the-us-state-departments-genocide-determination-in-sudan
Since April 2023, a war for power between Sudan’s national army and a powerful militia called the Rapid Support Forces has unleashed a wave of extreme violence. Now the State Department says genocide has been committed. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/understanding-the-us-state-departments-genocide-determination-in-sudan