1 of 3 | Elfateh Abdullah Idris Adam is one of three leaders of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces sanctioned by the United States on Thursday. Photo courtesy U.S. Treasury/Release
The United States is sanctioning three leaders of Sudan’s warring Rapid Support Forces on accusations of conducting a genocidal campaign in the war-torn country’s El-Fasher city.
The RSF has been locked in a bloody civil war with the Sudanese Armed Forces for nearly three years that has displaced nearly 13 million people, according to United Nations estimates.
In recent days, U.N. officials have released a damning report accusing the RSF of committing ethnically targeted killings, widespread sexual violence and enforced disappearances — three underlying acts of genocide — in its late-October takeover of El-Fasher in Sudan’s western Darfur region.
The United States has accused the RSF of committing genocide since the Biden administration, and on Thursday sanctioned RSF Brigadier General Elfateh Abdullah Idris Adam, RSF Major Gen. Gedo Hamdan Ahmed Mohamed and RSF Field Commander Tijani Ibrahim Moussa Mohamed.
Treasury officials accused the three men of being involved in the RSF’s 18-month siege of El-Fasher, during which alleged crimes of ethnically targeted killings, torture, starvation and sexual violence were committed.
Idris Adam and his family were also separately barred from entering the United States by the State Department on gross-violations-of-human-rights grounds over accusations of filming his alleged crimes, including executions of unarmed civilians.
“We will not tolerate this ongoing campaign of terror and senseless killing in Sudan,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
“Without a swift end, Sudan’s civil war risks further destabilizing the region, creating conditions for terrorist groups to grow and threaten the safety and interests of the United States.”
Sudan’s former decades-long leader Omar al-Bashir was unseated in a military coup backed by the public in 2019. Along Sudan’s slow, precarious crawl toward elections, infighting between the SAF and its RSF militia turned bloody on April 23, 2023.
Since then, the country has been subsumed in violence. Death toll estimates vary wildly, but the toll is believed to be higher than confirmed counts.
Hours prior to the U.S. announcement, a U.N. report from an independent international fact-finding mission reported Sunday “hallmarks of genocide” were being committed in El Fasher.
“The scale, severity and cumulative impact of the acts by the Rapid Support Forces, assessed in light of patterns of targeting, conduct and inferred intent, present indications pointing to genocide in and around El-Fasher, the mission said in the report, which also accused the RSF of committing crimes against humanity, notably the extermination and persecution on grounds of ethnicity, gender and political beliefs.
