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The United States determined on Tuesday that Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had "committed genocide" and imposed sanctions on the paramilitary group's leader.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the determination was based on information about the RSF's "systematic" murder of men and boys and the targeted rape of women and girls from certain ethnic groups.

"The United States is committed to holding accountable those responsible," Blinken said, announcing sanctions against RSF leader Mohammad Hamdan Daglo, known as Hemedti, for his "role in systematic atrocities committed against the Sudanese people."

Daglo had been designated "for his involvement in gross violations of human rights in Darfur, namely the mass rape of civilians by RSF soldiers under his control," and he and his family members are now ineligible for entry to the United States, he said.

The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted after World War II, defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."

A "genocide" designation by the US State Department is rare. Tuesday's determination against the RSF is only the ninth time -- including the Holocaust -- that it has been made.

'Brutal armed conflict'

Sudan has been torn apart and pushed towards famine by the war that erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than eight million internally displaced, making Sudan the scene of the world's largest internal displacement crisis.

The United Nations says that more than 30 million people -- over half of them children -- are in need of aid in Sudan after 20 months of war.

"Sudan remains in the grip of a humanitarian crisis of staggering proportions," Edem Wosornu, from the UN's humanitarian agency OCHA, told the Security Council at the UN headquarters in New York earlier this week.

The US Treasury Department unveiled its own sanctions against Daglo on Tuesday, accusing the RSF of engaging in "a brutal armed conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces for control of Sudan."

"Through its campaign in Darfur, Gezira and other combat areas, the RSF has committed a litany of documented war crimes and atrocities," it said.

As the overall commander of the RSF, Daglo "bears command responsibility for the abhorrent and illegal actions of his forces," it added.

The Treasury designated seven companies and one individual linked to the RSF for their roles in procuring weapons for the group.

"The United States continues to call for an end to this conflict that is putting innocent civilian lives in jeopardy," said deputy Treasury secretary Wally Adeyemo.

"The Treasury Department remains committed to using every tool available to hold accountable those responsible for violating the human rights of the Sudanese people," he added. 

Over 550 Sudanese women reported rape by paramilitaries during war

Authorities in Sudan have received more than 550 reports of rape committed by paramilitary fighters since war began in April 2023, an official with the army-aligned government told news agency AFP on Tuesday.

The information shared by Sulaima Ishaq al-Khalifa, head of a government unit to combat violence against women, comes as the United States earlier on Tuesday accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of "rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence" throughout the war.

A UN mission has also found evidence of "widespread sexual and gender-based violence".

Khalifa told AFP that her agency had documented 554 cases of rape by RSF fighters between April 2023 and December 2024.

The figure is based on reports from mental health professionals who assisted rape survivors at medical facilities, and so likely represents a tiny fraction of the actual number of attacks on women over that period, said Khalifa.

"Some regions are completely isolated, communications have been disrupted and many women avoid reporting sexual violence due to the fear of social stigma," she said.

Khalifa said that between September 2023 and April 2024, authorities had approved 36 abortions for women raped by paramilitaries, most of them in the capital Khartoum.

More recently, 10 abortions have been performed for women displaced from Al-Jazira state, where civilians reported a series of brutal attacks by the RSF.

In Sudan, abortions require legal approval and are permitted in cases of rape, non-viable pregnancies or life-threatening complications.

In October, the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan accused the RSF and its allied militias of "widespread sexual and gender-based violence" including "rape, sexual slavery" and other abuses.

The mission has also documented cases of gender-based violence committed by the army and allied groups.

But the UN probe determined that the RSF was behind systematic "sexual violence on a large scale".

The RSF has previously dismissed the findings of the UN mission as "propaganda".