, also known as hemedti, in his tone and his rambling audio message.nd used some colourful language to describe his opponent, general burhan — the leader of the sudanese army. he said that, yes, it's a loss butjust a loss of one battle rather than losing the war and he said that he is prepared with his forces to continue fighting. they have now been fighting for about 21 months. it started in april two years ago. he said it's 20 months now but he's prepared to fight for another 21 years, as he put it, until the tables are turned and that they win this war and put general burhan on trial. what about for the people themselves? we heard there about celebrations on the streets after this victory, and as we mentioned, the rsf has been accused of these human rights abuses in the area too. well, they deny committing any abuses as general hemedti said earlier in his recording. and he said that they have not killed anyone, they would only kill people, as he put it, after a trial ruling, but no trials have taken place until after this war ends. but, the celebrat

he's known as hemedti. tell us about what the intended impact is there.ho has business investments or any kind of business deals with u.s. financial institutions? beth: he has a huge network that he's able to rely upon, including a number of uae-based, emirati-based corporations, that are not only financing his activities, but also procuring weapons for the rsf. and so these entities and wealthy individuals are participating in international markets, including the gold market, the oil market. and so being able to sanction some of these individuals and entities make it much more difficult to tap into those financial networks. and individuals who would want to transact business with those individuals or entities themselves may be subject to sanctions. so it helps to contain outside forces that might be fueling the violence in sudan. amna: i understand reaching a declaration like this takes months of work and research and consideration. as you mentioned, genocide has a very specific definition under that u.n. convention. the bar here seemed to be, as you men

treasury department levied sanctions on rsf leader mohammad hamdan, also known as hemedti, plus seven companies based in the united arab emirates. the rsf stems from the government-backed janjaweed militias, a largely-arab force that brutally crushed an uprising of non-arabs in the 2000's, killing hundreds of thousands of people. in 2004, the u.s. declared that war in darfur a genocide. years later, a 2020 peace agreement was quickly undone by a coup and subsequent fighting the following year. and by 2023, a full-blown civil war as the rsf fight the sudanese military for control of the country. the war has accelerated an already-dire humanitarian crisis. millions of sudanese are short on food, water, and electricity, and the medical system is on the verge of collapse. the u.s. envoy for sudan tom perriello says some estimates suggest close to 150,000 people have been killed as a result of the conflict. amna: for more, we turn to beth van schaack, u.s. ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice. welcome to the news hour. secretary blinken noted back in december of 2023, he conclud