Status: 11.08.2021 4:23 p.m.
Almost 20 years after the beginning of the Darfur conflict, the main culprit is now to be brought to trial. Sudan announced that it would extradite ex-President al Bashir to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Indiscriminate killing, looting, displacement, rape, arson: the list of allegations by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the former Sudanese President Omar al Bashir is long. An arrest warrant has been in place for him since 2008.
Sudan has now announced that it will extradite al Bashir. The Sudanese cabinet has decided to take the step, said Foreign Minister Mariam al Mahdi, according to the state news agency Suna.
The ICC had long sought the Sudanese government to extradite the former president and his colleagues in order to bring them to justice. The renditions to The Hague were announced during a meeting with the court’s new attorney general during his visit to Khartoum. The aim is to create justice for the victims of the war in Darfur, said al Mahdi.
300,000 dead in the Darfur conflict
The ICC holds al Bashir responsible for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur conflict. According to the UN, around 300,000 people were killed and 2.5 million people displaced between 2003 and 2006.
The violence erupted when various ethnic groups revolted against al Bashir’s rule. The then president dispatched the notorious Janjawid militias to quell the unrest. On his orders, the Arab cavalry militias are said to have committed systematic human rights crimes.
Ex-President currently in custody
After three decades in power, the authoritarian head of state al Bashir was overthrown in April 2019 after months of protests. In August of the same year, a transitional government took over government in Khartoum. Al Bashir was convicted of corruption in December 2019 and was on trial in Khartoum from July 2020 for the 1989 coup that brought him to power.
Al Bashir is currently in custody in Sudan for corruption and the killing of demonstrators.