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A bipartisan group of top lawmakers has called on President Biden to impose sanctions on Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its leader, General Mohamed Hamdan’ Hemedti’ Dagalo.

The letter to President Biden, signed by Senators Ben Cardin and Jim Risch, along with Representatives Michael McCaul and Gregory Meeks, accuses the RSF and Hemedti as perpetrators of “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights committed against human rights defenders and persons seeking to expose illegal activity by government officials.”

The senators referenced the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, urging that it be used to hold the RSF accountable. They listed horrifying acts of “rape, extrajudicial killings, and targeting of journalists.” They also echoed concerns previously stated by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who noted that the RSF had been involved in “war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing” since the conflict began.

Additionally, the letter asks for a thorough investigation into the RSF’s finances and external relations, particularly its “financial networks and sources of revenue, such as gold smuggling, and relationships with the Russian Federation and Wagner Group.” The lawmakers stressed the importance of determining if these connections also warrant sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act for “acts of significant corruption by government officials.”

This comes after earlier actions by the US Department of the Treasury, which included sanctions against Hemedti’s brother and visa restrictions for RSF General Abdul Rahman Juma due to the group’s continued “targeted abuses against human rights activists and defenders.”