{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-statement-on-civil-war-and-genocide-in-sudan/", "NEWS: Sanders Statement on Civil War and Genocide in Sudan", "2026-07-09", "2026", "2026-07", "Independent", "Senate", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "www.sanders.senate.gov", "sanders", "https://www.sanders.senate.gov/media/press-releases/", "scraper", "BURLINGTON, Vt. July. 9 \u2013 Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today released the following statement:\n\nThis is the year 2026. One might have hoped that, after thousands of years of war, humanity could have come up with a better way to resolve conflicts than killing and mass destruction. Unfortunately, that is not the case. There is now more war and bloodshed raging across the world than at almost any point in decades.\n\nIn February 2022, Vladimir Putin, without provocation, invaded Ukraine. The result: hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians killed, millions displaced and a war that grinds on with no end in sight.\n\nIn October 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 innocent people and taking 251 hostages. In response, Netanyahu and the Israeli military did not simply wage war against Hamas \u2014 they waged war against the entire population of Gaza. At least 73,000 Palestinians have been killed, the real toll almost certainly far higher, most of them women, children and the elderly. Virtually the entire physical infrastructure of Gaza has been destroyed. I agree with the major human rights organizations around the world who call this a genocide.\n\nFour months ago, in collusion with Netanyahu, Trump took a page from Putin\u2019s playbook: he started a war with Iran without provocation. The result of this war (and the ensuing Israeli war against Lebanon): 13 U.S. service members dead, thousands of Iranian and Lebanese civilians killed and more than $100 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars spent.\n\nAnd in the midst of all of this \u2014 Ukraine, Gaza, Iran \u2014 there is another horrific war happening now that is getting relatively little attention: the civil war and genocide in Sudan.\n\nSudan\u2019s two rival military factions, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the country\u2019s national army, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group, have been at war since 2023. The RSF descends from the Janjaweed militias that carried out Sudan\u2019s first genocide in Darfur two decades ago, killing as many as 400,000 non-Arab civilians. Today, the RSF is trying to finish what it started. The State Department has formally determined that the RSF is committing genocide, again, murdering men and boys and systematically raping women and girls because of their ethnicity. Last October, the RSF laid siege to the city of El-Fasher; in just the first three days after it fell, an estimated 6,000 people were killed. Right now, the same horror is unfolding in the city of El-Obeid, where nearly half a million people are trapped.\n\nLet\u2019s be clear. Trump\u2019s good friend and staunch U.S. ally, the United Arab Emirates dictatorship, run by one of the wealthiest families in the world \u2014 has financed and enabled this genocide for years. And why is this happening? Billions of dollars of looted gold from Sudan is flowing straight into the pockets of Emirati oligarchs \u2013 making a multibillionaire family even richer. This has been documented by the United Nations, independent journalists, and international human rights organizations.\n\nHere is the scale of what this war has caused: at least 59,000 people confirmed killed since 2023, with credible estimates running as high as 150,000. Fourteen million people driven from their homes. Thirty million people, two\u2013thirds of Sudan\u2019s population, in need of emergency humanitarian assistance just to survive.\n\nU.S. foreign policy must be based on a respect for democracy and human rights. We cannot be complicit in the face of genocide, no matter where it is happening. Congress must demand that the UAE cease its military support for the RSF and work with the international community and the Sudanese people to bring an end to this horrific conflict and provide the humanitarian aid that is desperately needed there.", 1, "2026-07-10T08:20:04Z", "2026-07-10T08:21:18Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-statement-on-civil-war-and-genocide-in-sudan/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0229318868368864, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}