U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, along with U.S. Representatives Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Ranking Member and Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sent a letter to President Biden, urgently requesting a determination on whether Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces and its leader, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, should be subject to sanctions for gross violations of human rights, as required under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. This request follows the one-year anniversary of the conflict in Sudan on April 15.
“As Ranking Member and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, we jointly request a determination pursuant to subsection 1263(d) of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act of whether Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and RSF Commander Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (commonly known as Hemedti) have engaged in activity described in subsection 1263(a) of that Act, such as gross violations of internationally recognized human rights committed against human rights defenders and persons seeking to expose illegal activity by government officials,” the members wrote.
“On December 6, 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the RSF had committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing since the outbreak of fighting in Sudan on April 15, 2023,” the members continued. “As you know, the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act authorizes sanctions against foreign persons who commit gross violations of internationally recognized human rights against individuals seeking: to expose illegal activity carried out by government officials; or to obtain, exercise, defend, or promote internationally recognized human rights and freedoms. The actions of the RSF and Hemedti, including those described above, more than meet that threshold.”
“We ask that you also examine the RSF’s financial networks and sources of revenue, such as gold smuggling, and relationships with the Russian Federation and Wagner Group, to assess whether they are also deserving of sanction under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act for acts of significant corruption by government officials,” the members concluded.
