Genocide is declared once more in Sudan. How did the country get here?

CNN — This week, the United States accused the RSF militia in Sudan’s brutal civil conflict of committing genocide. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that Hemedti’s RSF and its allied Arab militias had perpetrated “direct attacks against civilians” including the systematic murder of “men and boys – even infants – on an ethnic basis.” They also “deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence,” Blinken said, adding that the same forces “targeted fleeing civilians, murdering innocent people escaping conflict, and prevented remaining civilians from accessing lifesaving supplies.” “Based on this information, I have now concluded that members of the RSF and allied militias have committed genocide in Sudan,” he announced. The RSF described the decision by the US as “unjust,” adding in a statement on its Telegram channel that “the State Department’s claim that the RSF committed genocide in Sudan is inaccurate.” “The decision fails to specify the group against which the alleged genocide was committed or the location of the genocide … The decision vaguely refers to the Sudanese people, of whom RSF fighters and supporters are an integral part,” the RSF statement said. “It’s also used for retaliation in their war against SAF and it has ethnic elements to it.” Al-Karib said that between October and January, her organization had handled cases of at least 10 girls, some as young as 14, who took their own lives after being gang-raped by RSF militia men in Sudan’s Al Jazira state. “We don’t think that the scale of these atrocities happening in Sudan and Darfur would have been this big without the support of the UAE to the RSF,” she said.