The declaration by the U.S. State Department in the final weeks of the administration of President Joe Biden that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary force in Sudan was responsible for genocide was greeted by observers as less of a revelation than a truism.
While aimed at calling out the egregious behavior of the RSF, the declaration has also shined a spotlight on—and changes the calculations of— the regional actors fueling this long neglected conflict in which between 60,000 and 150,000 people are estimated to have perished. An investigation by a United Nations Panel of Experts found that the RSF has systematically violated international humanitarian law, including potentially committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. The RSF and allied Arab-militias selectively targeted African communities (largely from the Masalit ethnic group) in Darfur. In the capital of West Darfur alone, up to 15,000 people were killed.