TANZANIA – The International Criminal Court believes conflict crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity are persevering with to happen in Sudan’s huge western Darfur area the place civil conflict has raged for greater than two years, the tribunal’s deputy prosecutor mentioned Thursday.
Nazhat Shameem Khan advised the U.N. Safety Council that the depth of struggling and the humanitarian crisis in Darfur “has reached an insupportable state,” with famine escalating and hospitals, humanitarian convoys and different civilian infrastructure being focused.
“Individuals are being disadvantaged of water and meals,” she mentioned. “Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized. Abductions for ransom or to bolster the ranks of armed teams have grow to be frequent follow.”
“And but we shouldn’t be beneath any phantasm,” Shameem Khan warned the U.N.’s strongest physique. “Issues can nonetheless worsen.”
Sudan plunged into battle in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its navy and paramilitary leaders broke out within the capital, Khartoum, and unfold to different areas, together with Darfur. Some 40,000 individuals have been killed and almost 13 million displaced, together with to different international locations, in line with U.N. businesses.
ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan told the Security Council in January that there have been grounds to consider each authorities forces and the paramilitary Speedy Help Pressure, could also be committing conflict crimes, crimes in opposition to humanity or genocide in Darfur.
The Biden administration, simply earlier than it left workplace in January, determined that the RSF and its proxies were committing genocide.
Karim Khan has stepped down temporarily because the ICC chief prosecutor pending the result of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, which he categorically denies.
Deputy prosecutor Shameem Khan, who will not be associated, mentioned the ICC has carefully tracked studies in current weeks of the dire state of affairs in North Darfur, whose capital El Fasher is besieged by RSF and their associates. The RSF, which controls the capitals of all different states in Darfur, has additionally attacked famine-hit Zamzam and other camps for displaced Sudanese in North Darfur.
“On the idea of our unbiased investigations, the place of our workplace is evident, now we have affordable grounds to consider that conflict crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity have been and are persevering with to be dedicated in Darfur,” Khan advised the council.
This conclusion, she mentioned, is predicated on documentary, testimonial and digital proof collected by ICC investigators in the course of the previous six months, together with at refugee camps in neighboring Chad. Over 7,000 gadgets of proof have been collected thus far, she mentioned.
Khan emphasised to the council and to victims that the ICC considers the state of affairs in Darfur “of the utmost significance” and won’t be deterred till justice is delivered to the perpetrators.
Twenty years in the past, Darfur grew to become synonymous with genocide and conflict crimes, notably by the infamous Janjaweed Arab militias, in opposition to populations that establish as Central or East African. As much as 300,000 individuals have been killed and a couple of.7 million have been pushed from their properties.
Khan mentioned these in Darfur now “inflicting unimaginable atrocities on its inhabitants” ought to know that whereas they could really feel a way of impunity, Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb is currently on trial and the ICC hopes will probably be the primary of many.
“Nonetheless, we even have an obligation of confidentiality to the court docket,” Khan mentioned. “I’m not capable of share extra particulars of the character of our progress or of particular outcomes hoped for. I can solely guarantee you that the progress now we have made is concrete, constructive and vital.”
___
Copyright 2025 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials might not be revealed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.
