The 30th Anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide: Time for Africa to Hold the RSF Accountable for Genocide in Sudan

As the world commemorates the 30th anniversary of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, one of the most critical lessons we should have learned globally is the importance of establishing and activating early warning systems to deter and prevent future genocides.

These preventative measures include, among other things, close monitoring of gross human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law. If left unaddressed in a timely and effective manner, such violations can escalate and culminate in genocide.

To this end, the United Nations has engaged numerous researchers and experts to identify widely recognized social, cultural, and even psychological risk factors that indicate a country, social group, or ethnic community may be increasingly vulnerable to genocide.

Unfortunately, the stark reality reveals that the UN’s early warning systems not only failed to prevent genocide in Sudan but also lacked an adequate response when credible international reports and witnesses documented such atrocities, as seen in El Geneina, West Darfur, since 2008. Despite identifying and naming the perpetrators, there has been no significant accountability, betraying the innocent victims and their families.

Just days ago, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese bravely described the situation in Gaza not as a “war” but as “genocide.” Similarly, Sudan’s plight over the past 18 months has been a victim of misleading narratives, which have deprived it of the fair recognition it deserves.

Sudan’s persistent efforts to urge the international community to classify the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as a terrorist organization and its members as perpetrators of genocide have yielded little success. This resistance has not only impeded calls to halt military and logistical supplies to the RSF from neighboring countries and other enablers of the conflict but has also emboldened the militia to commit atrocities openly.

To understand this international and regional reluctance, one must recognize that the RSF essentially operates as “guns for hire,” primarily serving the interests of influential regional and international sponsors.

These sponsors have repeatedly obstructed efforts to classify the RSF as a terrorist group, akin to ISIS or Boko Haram, prioritizing their political, security, and economic interests over justice. This highlights the global challenge of superpowers sidelining international justice for their agendas.

Thus, promises and renewed commitments to prevent genocide—whether in Rwanda or elsewhere—will fail unless followed by meaningful action on the ground.

The UN’s latest fact-finding mission report provides harrowing evidence of the RSF’s deliberate intent to commit genocide, particularly against non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur, such as the Masalit. The report details heinous crimes, including using rape as a weapon and issuing ethnic slurs during attacks, with the aim of forcing survivors to bear “Arab children.”

UN Special Adviser on Genocide Prevention Alice Wairimu Nderitu confirmed on June 5, 2024, that civilian killings in Darfur were racially motivated, targeting victims solely for their race and ethnicity. This deliberate intent aligns unmistakably with the classic definition of genocide: acts committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, in whole or in part.

However, the international community’s weak response has emboldened the RSF to extend its atrocities to other parts of Sudan, including Al-Jazirah State, where unprecedented horrors are taking place.

Unlike the Nazis, the RSF has killed civilians by burying them alive, poisoning drinking water sources, and turning villagers into slaves or hostages, demanding exorbitant ransoms. Reports from Hilaliya village alone confirm over 500 civilian deaths, including women and children, many of whom were killed while defending their families. Women have resorted to suicide to escape rape by the RSF.

The RSF has also abducted women and girls under armed threat, forcibly transporting them to their strongholds in Darfur or even West Africa for sexual exploitation in illicit markets.

Meanwhile, the RSF continues its campaign of terror, burning over 40 villages around El Fasher in North Darfur to force survivors to flee, as part of a systematic demographic change aimed at establishing the so-called Al-Atawiya State or Daglo Kingdom.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator Clementine Nkweta-Salami expressed her shock and horror at the human rights violations in Al-Jazirah, likening them to the ethnic cleansing, mass killings, and rape witnessed in Darfur.

Even U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello, recently admitted the atrocities in Sudan—such as the poisoning of food and water supplies, which killed hundreds in Hilaliya—are “shocking to the conscience.”

While the U.S. and the ICC Prosecutor have spoken extensively about war crimes in Darfur, they have avoided explicitly labeling these acts as genocide. This reluctance has also been mirrored by the African Union (AU) Special Envoy for Genocide Prevention, Ahmed Dieng, despite ample prima facie evidence to support such a classification.

History reveals how long it can take for justice to prevail. France admitted its complicity in the Rwandan genocide after 27 years, the Netherlands apologized for failing to prevent the Srebrenica genocide 27 years later, and Germany took 113 years to acknowledge its atrocities in Namibia.

Only time will tell how many years must pass before the African Union apologizes to the Sudanese people for standing on the wrong side of history, refusing to recognize the RSF’s crimes as genocide, and failing to hold them accountable. The time for Africa to act is now.