By Aamer Madhani, WASHINGTON USA
US President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Thursday setting the path to sanction individuals involved in the recent violence in Sudan that’s left hundreds dead and thrown the African nation into chaos.
Biden said in a statement that
his order will “hold individuals responsible for threatening the peace,
security, and stability of Sudan; undermining Sudan’s democratic transition;
using violence against civilians; or committing serious human rights abuses.”
The president said the
violence taking place in Sudan is “a tragedy — and it is a betrayal of the
Sudanese people’s clear demand for civilian government and a transition to
democracy.”
Sudan’s fighting broke out
April 15 between two commanders who just 18 months earlier jointly orchestrated
a military coup to derail the nation’s transition to democracy.
The power struggle between the
armed forces chief, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the head of the Rapid Support
Forces paramilitary group, Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, has millions of
Sudanese cowering inside their homes and has already displaced hundreds of
thousands.
“I join the peace-loving
people of Sudan and leaders around the world in calling for a durable ceasefire
between the belligerent parties,” Biden said.
White House National Security
Council spokesman John Kirby said the Biden administration had not settled on
whether sanctions will be issued against the warring generals.
“I wouldn’t read it as a
warning,” Kirby said of the executive order. “It’s the president setting up the
proper authorities in case we want to use those kinds of tools.”
He said the administration and
the Sudanese people want the generals to “put down their arms, stop fighting,
get back to the table to to work on a transition to civilian authority.”
Several countries have
been racing
to evacuate their citizens from the troubled nation though millions
remain there amid a fragile ceasefire.
The United Nations warned on
Wednesday that the country’s people are “facing a humanitarian catastrophe.”
The conflict has killed at
least 550 people, including civilians, and wounded more than 4,900. At least
334,000 people have been displaced inside Sudan and tens of thousands more to
neighboring countries Egypt, Chad, South Sudan, the Central African Republic
and Ethiopia, according to U.N. agencies.
Thousands of U.N. workers were
evacuated a week into the fighting, and some U.N. agencies paused
their services. The World Food Program suspended operations after three of
its workers were killed in fighting in southern Sudan, but the agency has since
said it will resume its work.
The fighting has included
unprecedented urban warfare in the capital, Khartoum.
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