The Foreign Relations Committees of the US House of Representatives and Senate called on President Joe Biden to urgently consider imposing sanctions on the Sudan Rapid Support Forces and its commander, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), for committing serious human rights violations.
In a joint letter to Biden, the two committees said that the US President – within 120 days of receiving the letter – must decide whether these forces and their commander have participated in extrajudicial killings, torture, or other serious violations of human rights.
They also asked Biden to investigate the RSF’s financial networks and sources of income, such as gold smuggling and links with Russia and the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, to assess whether they should have been the authorization under the Global Magnitsky Act.
The leadership of the two committees said in the letter that Biden must submit a secret or non-secret report to the committees, which includes a statement on whether the president has imposed sanctions on the Forces Quick Support, Hemedti, or both. , while the report contains a detailed explanation of these sanctions.
It should be noted that in September 2023, the United States had imposed sanctions on the leaders of the Rapid Support Forces, including Abdel Rahim Hamdan Dagalo, the deputy commander of these forces, and their leader in West Darfur State, Abdel Rahman Jumaa, in a step that is the first of its kind since the start of the war in Sudan.
The American decision came as an extension of Washington’s imposition in early June of the same year of sanctions on 4 companies linked to the Sudanese army and Rapid Support, which it accused of promoting conflict in the country.
The four companies included Al-Junaid Multi-Activities and Taradeef General Trading, which are linked to the Rapid Support Forces, and the Defense Industrial System and Sudan Master Technology, which are linked to the army.
#Requests #Congress #impose #sanctions #Hemedti #provide #swift #aid
2024-04-20 06:39:52
