Why has the US accused Sudanese militias of genocide – but not Israel?

The US says forces active within Sudan are guilty of many of the same war crimes that Israel is accused of.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says his government has determined that Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its allied militias have committed genocide in the war against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAR) which started in April 2023.

Blinken cited the “638,000 Sudanese experiencing the worst famine in Sudan’s recent history, over 30 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, and tens of thousands dead” as reasons for the determination.

While Blinken was damning in his criticism of the RSF and its leader,  Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, the United States administration has continued to defend its ally Israel and its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, against similar accusations of genocide.

It is.

Under the 1948 Genocide Convention, genocide is acts intended “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.