The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has officially announced the opening of a new probe into alleged war crimes in Sudan. This decision comes as mounting allegations of atrocities have emerged in the wake of the recent fighting.
The International Criminal Court has opened a new probe into alleged war crimes in Sudan, its chief prosecutor said Thursday, expressing major concern over escalating violence.
Karim Khan announced in a report to the UN Security Council that three months of war between feuding generals had plunged the northeast African country back into chaos.
The ICC has been investigating crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region since 2005 after a referral by the UN Security Council, and the Hague-based court has charged former leader Omar al-Bashir with offenses including genocide.
Allegations of atrocities have mounted during the recent fighting, with the top UN official in Sudan calling for the warring sides to face accountability.
Around 3,000 people have been killed and three million displaced since violence erupted between Sudan Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group.
The pair were key figures in a 2021 military coup that derailed the country’s transition to civilian rule following the ousting and detention of Bashir in 2019.
The UN has warned of possible new massacres in Darfur, saying Thursday that the bodies of at least 87 people allegedly killed last month by the RSF and their allies had been buried in a mass grave in Darfur.
Alleged sexual and gender-based crimes were a focus of the new investigation, Khan said.
Bashir was charged with genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, and torture, and the court has been demanding his extradition to The Hague ever since, without success.
After Bashir was toppled in 2019, Khartoum announced it would hand him over to the court for prosecution, but this never happened.
Miroslava Salazar with AFP
