Sudan Events – Agencies
The American magazine National Security Daily, which specializes in White House news, US security, and foreign policy, reported that President Biden’s administration is intensifying efforts in its final days to address the civil war in Sudan, which has become one of the world’s worst ongoing humanitarian crises.
The magazine stated that US officials are currently considering plans to label the atrocities being committed in Sudan as genocide and issue a new set of sanctions targeting a Sudanese militia competing for power in the war, according to four current and former officials familiar with the matter.
The magazine also pointed out that these punitive measures include imposing sanctions on the leader of the so-called Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Hemedti, and other institutions affiliated with the RSF.
The magazine highlighted that while the US has previously accused the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF of committing war crimes, it has also accused the RSF of committing ethnic cleansing in Sudan.
Authors Ruby Grammer and Nehal Tosi noted that other officials and experts outside the US administration are pressuring President Biden’s team to appoint a senior official at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to oversee the continuation of US and international aid to war-torn Sudan, as Washington prepares for a shift in leadership between the Biden and Trump administrations.
This pressure comes at a time when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to New York on Thursday to chair a high-level UN meeting on Sudan.
Before the UN meeting, US officials have pushed to establish new humanitarian corridors to areas severely affected by the war in Sudan, including Khartoum, the country’s capital.
The magazine said that these combined measures reflect Biden’s team’s final push to make progress toward ending the Sudanese civil war after multiple rounds of failed peace talks and growing pressure from US lawmakers and humanitarian groups for more action in the final month of their tenure.
The magazine noted that although the Sudan conflict has received little public attention or humanitarian funding compared to wars in Gaza or Ukraine, the conflict in Sudan has driven millions of people to the brink of famine.
“Sudan has become a geopolitical powder keg,” with foreign powers including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, the UAE, and Russia competing for influence among the warring factions, prolonging and exacerbating the conflict.
The magazine reported that Biden’s administration has faced sharp criticism from US lawmakers such as Senator Jim Risch (Republican from Idaho), the incoming chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for not doing enough to hold those driving the Sudanese civil war accountable.
The authors noted that “human rights organizations have criticized the Biden administration for not holding the UAE publicly accountable for its role in the conflict. The UAE, a key US partner in the Middle East, has been widely accused of funding and arming the RSF while carrying out a campaign of mass killings and rape throughout Sudan.”
Senator Ben Cardin (Democrat from Maryland), the outgoing chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told National Security Daily, “The US needs to do more. The UAE needs to stop fueling the fire there.”
The magazine quoted Cameron Hudson, an expert in US-Africa relations at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, as saying that any final action from the Biden administration on Sudan could “free Trump from having to make these decisions” and allow lawmakers focused on the conflict to “use this as fuel to continue pushing Trump for US leadership in Sudan.” He added, “Any momentum that can come from this becomes a good thing as it will carry over to the incoming administration.”
The magazine noted that considering the RSF militia’s actions as genocide or recurring atrocities is seen as an important political tool to rally international attention to the crisis.
According to the magazine, two officials confirmed that the US State Department is still considering declaring genocide, which would require extensive internal legal and technical reviews. It remains unclear whether Blinken will support such a move.
UN experts have already warned that the conflict in Sudan is increasingly resembling genocide.
The State Department declined to comment on the matter specifically, stating it does not publicly discuss sanctions or new decisions in advance. They emphasized their efforts to secure an immediate ceasefire and open humanitarian corridors to Sudan to reach the country’s most vulnerable civilians. The White House National Security Council also declined to comment, according to the magazine.
