Sudan: Rights group calls for investigation of RSF leader in US

Decolonize Sudan, a US-based advocacy group, has called for the US Department of the Treasury and the Department of Justice to investigate the presence of a Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander in Washington, DC, according to the Middle East Monitor and agencies on October 27th.

Algoney Dagalo is an RSF senior commander and the procurement director of the militia, as well as the brother of RSF leader Mohamed Dagalo (commonly known as Hemedti), who was reportedly appointed as the head of a parallel Sudanese government on August 31st. His presence in Washington, DC, has raised questions due to the US State Department’s previous determination that RSF actions in Sudan constituted a genocide and crimes against humanity.

The group has urged the Departments to “Investigate and clarify the circumstances under which Mr Dagalo entered the United States, including whether any sanctions exemptions or visa waivers were granted;” and “Enforce applicable prohibitions on sanctioned individuals under US law, including potential violations by those who facilitated his travel or provided material support.”

Hemedti was personally sanctioned on January 7th by then-US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who accused the RSF of directing attacks against civilians, systematically killing people based on ethnicity, and using rape as a weapon of war.

His brother was sanctioned in September 2023, due to his role as the RSF’s deputy leader; US envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Dagalo was targeted over his alleged complicity in “conflict-related sexual violence and killings based on ethnicity.”

The US previously imposed sanctions on Sudan over accusations that the government was using chemical weapons in its civil war against the paramilitary RSF, which began in April 2023; the Sudanese army denied these allegations.

Reports that Dagalo was in Washington, DC, came one day after the RSF announced its capture of El-Fasher on October 26th. El-Fasher, which has been under an RSF-imposed siege since May 2024, is the state capital of Sudan’s western Darfur region, and was regarded as the last city under Sudanese military control.

During an execution spree on the evening of October 26th, the RSF is accused of assassinating former MP Siham Hassan, who was a member of the Justice and Liberation Party. Hassan reportedly chose to stay in El-Fasher to help her community, even as the city was under an intense RSF siege that researchers described as a “literal killbox” on August 28th.

On June 28th, a UN official warned that the risk of genocide occurring in Sudan was “very high”, as the RSF and allied Arab militias are accused of committing ethnically-motivated killings against the Zaghawa, Masalit and Fur groups.

Middle East Monitor and agencies, Maghrebi.org