New York: According to the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, who expressed grave concern over the rising level of violence, a new investigation into alleged war crimes in Sudan has been launched.
Following three months of fighting between rival generals that had once again thrown the country of northeast Africa into anarchy, Karim Khan made the announcement 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.
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The top UN official in Sudan has called for the warring parties to answer for the atrocities allegedly committed during the most recent fighting.
Since fighting broke out between Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), about 3,000 people have died and three million have been displaced.
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After Bashir was deposed and imprisoned in 2019, the pair played a key role in a military coup that stalled the country's transition to civilian rule in 2021.
The bodies of at least 87 people who were allegedly killed last month by the RSF and their allies have been buried in a mass grave in Darfur, according to the UN, which has issued a warning about potential new massacres in the region.
Khan told the UNSC, "The plain truth is that we run the risk of letting the same miserable history repeat itself. Khan said as he announced the new investigation, "If this oft repeated phrase of 'never again' is to mean anything, it must mean something here and now to the people of Darfur that has lived with this uncertainty, pain, and scars of conflict for almost two decades." Since fighting started in April, there have reportedly been a "wide range of communications" regarding alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, and the risk of additional offences has "deepened by the clear and long-standing disregard demonstrated by relevant actors, including the government of Sudan," according to him.
The new investigation, according to Khan, was focused on alleged crimes that were gender- and sexually-based. The new inquiry was welcomed by the US State Department. "Let this be a message to all who commit atrocities, in Sudan and elsewhere, that such crimes are an affront to humanity," said spokesman Matthew Miller in a statement.
Khan claimed in the report that Sudan's cooperation with UN investigators had gotten worse even before the most recent fighting started. The UN ambassador for Sudan refuted this. Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed, the ambassador, stated that "the government of Sudan has consistently cooperated with the ICC."
Bashir's use of his Janjaweed militia against non-Arab minorities in Darfur in the early 2000s, which went unpunished, had "sown the seeds for this latest cycle of violence and suffering," he continued.
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 prosecution. However, this never happened. According to Khan, there had already been a "further deterioration in cooperation from Sudanese authorities" prior to the recent fighting.
The 79-year-old Bashir is still at large, 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 only suspect up for trial so far for acts of violence committed in Sudan.
Khan stated that the recent fighting in Sudan "cannot be permitted to jeopardise" Rahman's trial when his defence attorneys begin their presentation of evidence the following month.
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In the Darfur conflict 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 at a summit of leaders from Sudan's neighbours on Thursday in Cairo, residents of Khartoum's capital city told AFP that gunbattles, explosions, and the roar of fighter jets once more shook the city.