“The situation in Sudan is really dire,” said U.S. Department of State’s Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice, Beth Van Schaack in a recent briefing.
Since April, at least 10,000 people have been killed and over 6.8 million people have been displaced from their homes. “Thousands of people have been swept into detention sites in and around Khartoum, where we know that some have been tortured and some have been killed,” said Ambassador Van Schaack.
“The war has also been waged on the bodies of women and girls who have been terrorized by deliberate, systemic sexual violence inflicted by the [Rapid Support Force] and its allied militia forces. They are attacked in their homes; they are kidnapped from the streets; women and girls have been subjected to conflict-related sexual violence including rape, gang rape, and sexual slavery,” she said.
In Darfur in particular, there has been an explosion of ethnic violence against civilians, lamented Ambassador Van Schaack:
“People are not safe in their homes, in mosques, or in schools. We have read numerous, credible reports of RSF and affiliated Arab militias seeking out in particular Masalit people and members of other African communities, hunting for men and boys, shooting people desperately fleeing for their lives, stealing everything of value, and burning the rest.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently determined that members of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces have committed war crimes. He also determined that members of the RSF and their allied militia have committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in Darfur.
In terms of the humanitarian crisis, the United States remains the largest single donor of assistance to the people of Sudan, noted Ambassador Van Schaack:
“We’re providing nearly $895 million in total humanitarian assistance in Fiscal Year 2023 through USAID, through the Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, and other sources. This funding provides emergency food assistance, protection services, health care, nutrition support, shelter, water, sanitation, and hygiene services, and other forms of relief for millions of people in Sudan and for those who have now fled to neighboring countries.”
“Sudan’s future belongs to the Sudanese people,” declared Ambassador Van Schaack. “They deserve a future that fulfils their aspirations for freedom, peace, and justice.”
