World court says atrocities spreading across Sudan's Darfur region

The deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Monday described the situation in Sudan’s Darfur region as an epicentre of “profound suffering”.

Briefing the United Nations Security Council, Nazhat Shameem Khan said civilians are being subjected to collective torture amid a widening war between rival military forces.

Sudan has been gripped by conflict since April 2023 between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the army.

“The fall of al-Fasher to the RSF has been accompanied by an organised, calculated campaign of the most profound suffering, targeting non-Arab communities in particular,” she said.

“Rape, arbitrary detention, executions, mass graves, all perpetrated on a massive scale. Many of these crimes have been filmed and celebrated by those committing them.”

“This criminality is being repeated in town after town in Darfur. It will continue until this conflict, and the sense of impunity that fuels it, are stopped," Khan warned.

She said it was the assessment of the office of the prosecutor that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in al-Fasher.

Khan said scale of suffering and criminality in Darfur at present “can only be addressed if we work together”.

“The government of Sudan must work seriously, with focus, to secure the arrest of those individuals subject to ICC arrest warrants presently in Sudan,” she added.

Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations, Ammar Mohammed Mahmoud said the “atrocities perpetrated by this militia” would not have occurred without outside assistance.

“Without the sponsorship, support, and encouragement provided by a certain state known to you, which has offered military, financial, political, logistical, and media support,” he said.

Mahmoud added that it was important that the court’s investigations “extend to all those proven to have supported or colluded with the militia.”

The United Nations has repeatedly warned of the involvement of foreign actors in both sides of Sudan’s civil war.

A report in September last year by the UN Human Rights Council accused both the military and the RSF of war crimes and human rights violations.