In response to Sudanese warlord Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s recent meeting in New York with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) today called on the Biden-Harris Administration to sanction the leaders of both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for their gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.
“Burhan has blood on his hands and should never have been let into the United States—let alone received by the UN Secretary-General in New York,” said Smith, the Chair of the House Foreign Affairs human rights subcommittee and Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.
“The United States must exert maximum pressure and place robust sanctions not only on Burhan but also on Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo—known to the world as ‘Hemeti’—for their extensive criminal records and their failure to allow humanitarian aid into Sudan and let civilians evacuate combat zones,” said Smith, who has chaired 15 congressional hearings and markups on Sudan and South Sudan alone.
Smith, who noted that more than 18,000 civilians have been killed (though estimates rise as high as 150,000) and over 10 million have been displaced since 2023 alone, said “there will never be peace in Sudan until there is accountability for the atrocities committed by these twin butchers of Darfur.”
“Together, these two warlords have ravaged Sudan with utter impunity and brutality, and their bloody records are littered not just with war but with arbitrary killings, detentions, abductions, rapes, repression of fundamental human rights, illicit gold mining, and recruitment of child soldiers,” said Smith, who cited a recent UN report that found the SAF and RSF have committed “an appalling range of harrowing human rights violations and international crimes.”
“The U.S. also needs to stem the flow of illicit Sudanese gold—which the RSF smuggles through the United Arab Emirates into global markets—by working with our partners to ensure gold is traced to its source and declared clean before entering the market,” added Smith. “Otherwise, illicit gold mining will continue to fund Hemeti’s atrocities against civilians and perpetuate this bloody conflict.”
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