The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, has issued an emergency call for information and cooperation from partners wherever they are to address the worsening crisis in Darfur.
Since July, the ICC has been investigating allegations of war crimes committed in the Darfur region during fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since mid-April last year.”I call on all victim groups, civil society organizations, national parties and international partners in a position to do so to provide us with any material related to the ongoing atrocities against civilians in Darfur,” Khan said during a video address on the X platform.
He expressed concern over the escalation of ethnic cleansing crimes in the province, noting that the evidence gathered by the court so far shows repeated atrocities and crimes against civilians, especially attacks targeting camps for displaced people, including sexual abuse. He said the court had launched an investigation into abuses in the Darfur region, based on an assessment he sent to the UN Security Council office, in which he expressed concerns that civilians in El Fasher were being killed because of their ethnicity.
He warned of escalating atrocities and the suffering of victims, adding: “We cannot and will not allow Darfur to become the world’s forgotten horror again. “It’s outrageous to let history repeat itself in the region.”
He called on civil organizations to provide the court with any evidence obtained in the following international investigations into genocide in the region.
Meanwhile, the US special envoy for Sudan, Tom Pierlo, announced his return to the region in an attempt to find a solution that ends the Sudanese war, noting that none of the parties to the conflict has a reliable military path to victory.
Meeting Kenyan President William Ruto in the capital Nairobi, Pierlo called on the warring parties in Sudan to return to diplomatic negotiations to resolve the crisis.
The humanitarian crisis in Sudan is escalating as the war enters its fifteenth month without a prospect of a settlement.
According to statistics announced by the International Organization for Migration on Tuesday, Sudan has recorded more than ten million displaced people inside the country, including more than seven million people displaced after the outbreak of war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces.
According to the Sudanese Medical Syndicate, at least 30,000 Sudanese were killed during the period.
