U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) recently requested that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken provide information about how the Biden administration is handling the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.
Since fighting began between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 15, Sudan has been on a path to large-scale civil war, according to a May 26 letter that Rep. McCaul and a colleague sent to Blinken, noting that more than 700,000 Sudanese have been displaced internally since April 15 and over 160,000 people have fled to neighboring countries.
“Insecurity and the looting of humanitarian supplies, including food aid, continues to constrain the international humanitarian response,” the lawmakers wrote. “While Embassy Khartoum was safely evacuated, thousands of American citizens and legal permanent residents remain.”
At the same time, ongoing negotiations to reach a short-term humanitarian ceasefire have exposed the hostile intentions of both belligerents, they wrote, and continued fighting risks external interference that can prolong and widen the scope of the conflict.
Rep. McCaul, chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, was joined in signing the letter by U.S. Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), ranking member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
They noted that as Congress considers policy options to respond to the crisis, “it is imperative to examine the goals and decisions that have led to this point,” and requested written unclassified responses to several questions as soon as possible.
For instance, Rep. McCaul and his colleague asked Blinken to characterize any internal dissent raised within the State Department about the trajectory of U.S.-Sudan policy since the fall of Omar al-Bashir in April 2019 and how the department handled it, as well as details regarding the department’s efforts to facilitate progress on negotiations regarding the integration of the RSF into the SAF, according to their letter.
They also asked Blinken about the number of U.S. citizens in Khartoum who had contacted the State Department requesting assistance to evacuate between April 15 and April 22, when the U.S. Department of Defense launched its evacuation operation, and what guidance was given to U.S. citizens who contacted the embassy or the State Department after the fighting broke out, among numerous other questions.