US senators call on Biden to sanction Sudans RSF over human rights abuses | Human Rights News [Video]

United States senators have written an open letter to US President Joe Biden, calling on him to recognise Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its leader, General Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo, as violators of human rights.

The letter, dated Friday, follows the one-year anniversary of the war in Sudan between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), two rival military factions fighting for control of the country after a coup in 2021.

The lawmakers cite the US’s Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act as a basis for sanctions, adding that the RSF and Hemedti’s activities include “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights committed against human rights defenders and persons seeking to expose illegal activity by government officials”.

The lawmakers have given Biden 120 days to act on the request.

The letter lists human rights abuses in Sudan, such as accounts of rape, extrajudicial killings, and targeting of journalists, including when Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Fadl …