Why has the US accused Sudanese militias of genocide 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says his government has determined that Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its allied militias have committed genocide in the war against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAR) which started in April 2023.

Blinken cited the “638,000 Sudanese experiencing the worst famine in Sudan’s recent history, over 30 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, and tens of thousands dead” as reasons for the determination.

While Blinken was damning in his criticism of the RSF and its leader,  Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, the United States administration has continued to defend its ally Israel and its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, against similar accusations of genocide.

Isn’t the definition of genocide universally agreed?

It is.

Under the 1948 Genocide Convention, genocide is acts intended “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

Under the convention, those acts are; 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 and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

But Blinken did not reference the Genocide Convention.

Why didn’t the US use the convention?

That is not clear.

Blinken did make numerous references to the “ethnic” nature of what he described as the systematic murder of men and boys, including infants.

He also mentioned the RSF having “deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence”, all actions that rights groups and international actors have, on numerous occasions, accused Israel of.

The rape and sexual violence Blinken referred to as reasons to conclude the RSF is committing genocide have been repeatedly documented as weapons Israeli forces use against Palestinians.

Hasn’t the US said Israel isn’t committing genocide?

It has.

To date, several rights groups and international actors have accused Israel of engaging in war crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide, while the US consistently defended its ally.

In November 2024, US President Joe Biden dismissed the International Criminal Court’s issuing of arrest warrants for war crimes against Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as “outrageous”.

The US has been equally scathing over other international actions intended to halt Israel’s onslaught on Gaza.

The argument that Israel is carrying out genocide in Gaza was brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by South Africa in December 2023 and since joined by more than 10 other states.

US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby claimed in January the case was “completely without any basis in fact whatsoever”.

The US has tried to reject the findings of Amnesty International which, in December, said Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, joining several other rights groups who had said the same.

How extensive is the evidence that the US dismisses?

Very.

In addition to the 45,936 people Israel has killed in Gaza are the numerous accounts of ethnic cleansing, the use of starvation as a weapon of war, as well as the systematic torture and sexual abuse and rape of Palestinians by Israeli forces.

In October, the US issued a 30-day “ultimatum” to Israel that it must do more to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza which was starving as Israel bombed it.

A month later, as famine was imminent in northern Gaza as a result of an Israeli “siege within a siege” and its continuing blocking of aid, Secretary Blinken chose to do nothing that was outlined in his ultimatum to Israel.

His administration did, however, acknowledge that few, if any, of the ultimatum’s conditions for increased aid had been met.

What else has the US done?

In late December, the US went even further, reportedly ordering the retraction of a report concluding that Israel’s siege on Gaza’s north had resulted in the famine aid agencies had long warned of.

In July, even Israeli authorities initially found reason to investigate 10 Israeli soldiers involved in the gang rape of Palestinian prisoners in detention.

Despite this, the US has seemed satisfied with voicing “concern” over Israel’s conduct, using its veto in the UN Security Council to block calls for a ceasefire four times and taking no action against its ally.

Earlier this year, the Biden administration announced plans to sell a further $8bn in arms to Israel.