Staff Writer
According to the head prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, who expressed “great concern” over the rising level of violence, the court has launched a new investigation into potential war crimes in Sudan.
After three months of fighting between rival generals that had once again thrown the country of northeast Africa into turmoil, Karim Khan made the declaration in a report to the UN Security Council.
Following a referral by the UN Security Council, the ICC has been looking into crimes in the Darfur region of Sudan since 2005. The Hague-based court has accused former leader Omar al-Bashir of crimes including genocide.
Khan informed the UNSC, “The plain truth is that we run the risk of letting the same tragic history repeat again.
He remarked when he launched the new investigation, “The current security situation in Sudan and the increase of violence during the ongoing hostilities are subjects of great concern.
Since the violence started in April, Khan claimed that there had been a “wide range of communications” about possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan.
The new investigation’s “focus” was on alleged sexual and gender-based crimes, he added.
Since fighting broke out between Sudan’s army head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), some 3,000 people have died and three million have been displaced.
The two were significant players in a military takeover in 2021 that stalled the country’s transition to civilian governance after the removal and Bashir will be detained in 2019.
massive grave
The top UN official in Sudan called on the warring parties to face “accountability” on Wednesday as allegations of crimes have grown amid the battle.
The bodies of at least 87 persons who were allegedly slain last month by the RSF and its allies have been buried in a mass grave in Darfur, according to a warning issued by the UN on Thursday.
In Khan’s words, the likelihood of new war crimes was “deepened by the clear and long-standing disregard demonstrated by relevant actors, including the government of Sudan, for their obligations.”
When Bashir used his Janjaweed militia to attack non-Arab communities in Darfur in the early 2000s, the lack of accountability for such crimes “sowed the seeds for this latest cycle of violence,”
Since being accused of murder, rape, and other crimes against humanity, including genocide, the court has unsuccessfully sought Bashir’s extradition to The Hague.
Bashir was overthrown in 2019, and Khartoum declared it would deliver him to the court for punishment. However, this never happened.
According to Khan, there had already been a “further deterioration in cooperation from Sudanese authorities” prior to the recent conflict.
The 79-year-old Bashir is still at free, along with Ahmad Harun and Abdel Raheem Hussein, two important members of the former dictator’s administration who are also wanted by the ICC.
Senior Janjaweed militia leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman, also known by the nom de guerre Ali Kushayb, is the lone suspect up for trial thus far for acts of violence perpetrated in Sudan.
Khan stated that the recent war in Sudan “cannot be permitted to jeopardize” Rahman’s trial when his defense attorneys begin their presentation of evidence the following month.
In the Darfur crisis of 2003–2004, according to the UN, 300,000 people died and 2.5 million were displaced.
Despite calls for an end to the fighting made during a summit of leaders from Sudan’s neighbors on Thursday in Cairo, residents of Khartoum’s capital city told AFP that gunfights, explosions, and the scream of fighter jets once more rattled the city.
