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Republican and Democratic US senators are calling for a strong response from President Donald Trump's administration after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces seized new territory in Sudan, reportedly attacking civilians. The growing calls came as the UN chief Antonio Guterres called for an end to the violence, after reports that more than 460 people were shot dead in a maternity hospital in the recently seized city of El-Fasher. Republican Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, chairperson of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called for the US to officially designate the RSF as a foreign terrorist organisation. "The horrors in Darfur's El-Fasher were no accident — they were the RSF's plan all along," he said in a statement on X on Tuesday. "The RSF has waged terror and committed unspeakable atrocities, genocide among them, against the Sudanese people." On Wednesday, Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the committee's top Democrat, said she most likely would back such a response from Washington. Asked whether she would back an FTO designation, Ms Shaheen told reporters, "Probably," but added she would like to take a longer look at the issue. Ms Shaheen criticised the United Arab Emirates, which is accused by the Sudanese army of providing military support to the RSF. The UAE denies those allegations. "The UAE has been an irresponsible player who has contributed to one of the worst humanitarian crises that we have on the planet right now," she said. In an emailed statement, the UAE Strategic Communications Department said the UAE has consistently supported efforts to achieve a ceasefire, protect civilians and ensure accountability for violations and rejected claims it provided any form of support to either warring party. "The latest UN Panel of Experts report makes clear that there is no substantiated evidence that the UAE has provided any support to RSF, or has any involvement in the conflict," the statement said. UN plea after mass hospital killings The war in Sudan erupted in April 2023 from a power struggle between the army and the RSF, unleashing waves of ethnic violence, creating the world's worst humanitarian crisis and plunging several areas into famine. Tens of thousands of people have since been killed and about 13 million displaced. The UN migration agency said over 36,000 have reportedly fled El-Fasher since Sunday. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its plans for designating the RSF. UN chief Antonio Guterres called for an immediate end to military escalation in Sudan on Thursday after reports about the hospital killings emerged. The World Health Organisation said the hospital was on Sunday "attacked for the fourth time in a month, killing one nurse and injuring three other health workers". Two days later, "six health workers, four doctors, a nurse and a pharmacist, were abducted" and "more than 460 patients and their companions were reportedly shot and killed in the hospital," the organisation said. The AP and other news agencies have not been able to independently confirm the hospital attack and death toll, given the chaos and the challenges in communicating with those still there. Mohammad Hamdan Daglo, the head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries which recently seized the city of El-Fasher from army forces, has vowed the country would be unified by "peace or through war". The capture of El-Fasher, the last army holdout in the vast western region of Darfur, comes after more than 18 months of brutal siege, sparking fears of a return to the ethnically targeted atrocities of 20 years ago. In January, the administration of Trump's Democratic predecessor, then-President Joe Biden said it determined that members of the RSF and allied militias committed genocide in Sudan and imposed sanctions on the group's leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. The RSF denied harming civilians. 'Dead bodes in the streets' Harrowing accounts of violence have begun to emerge from El-Fasher since the RSF captured the town. In satellite phone interviews with news agency AFP, three survivors who reached a nearby town of Tawila described scenes of terror and loss during their escape from El-Fasher, cut off from food, medicine and other aid through 18 months of siege. The survivors' full names have been withheld for their safety. Hayat, a mother of five, said RSF fighters entered her home on Saturday morning, local time, and killed her 16-year-old son. "On the road between El-Fasher and Garni (a village northwest of the city), we saw many dead bodies lying on the ground and wounded people left behind in the open because their families couldn't carry them," she said. "Along the way, we were robbed again and the young men travelling with us were stopped. We don't know what happened to them." Hussein, a survivor who fled from the city on Saturday morning, said he and others escaped with only "the clothes we were wearing". Mohamed, a father of four, also said he was robbed as he fled along the road out of El-Fasher and witnessed "dead bodies, some already turned to bones", on the route. "They beat me on my back with sticks, and I already had shrapnel in my leg from a shell that fell near our home in Zamzam." AFP/Reuters
