The escalation of violence in Sudan is a cause for great concern: the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has launched new investigations into alleged war crimes. The focus is on rape.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, has announced new investigations into alleged war crimes in Sudan. The escalation of violence in the conflict in the North African country is a cause for great concern, according to his report to the UN Security Council.
Since the fighting began, there have been numerous reports of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan, Khan said. Alleged sexual and gender-specific crimes are a focus of the new investigations.
More than three million people have fled
Since mid-April, Sudan has been shaken by a power struggle between the army of military ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF militia of his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. Almost 3,000 dead have been counted since then, but the actual number of victims is likely to be far higher. According to a UN organization, the conflict has displaced more than three million people.
As the conflict progressed, allegations of atrocities mounted. According to the UN, the bodies of at least 87 people believed to have been killed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia were found in a mass grave in western Sudan on Thursday.
The ICC has been investigating crimes in the Darfur region of Sudan since 2005. As a result, ruler Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in 2019, has already been charged with several crimes, including genocide, by the Hague-based court.