The International Criminal Court (ICC) has “concrete evidence” linking leaders of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to recent war crimes committed in Sudan’s Darfur region, the ICC’s deputy chief prosecutor has said.
Nazhat Shameem Khan told the BBC that the ICC had reached a “breakthrough” in its investigation into the massacres of civilians in the towns of el-Fasher and el-Geneina.
“It may take time for justice to develop and be brought to court, but we will get there,” Khan said, adding that RSF leaders were also implicated in crimes against humanity.
The siege and capture of El-Fasher marked one of the bloodiest episodes in the ongoing war between the RSF and the Sudanese army.
More than 6,000 people killed in El-Fasher as the RSF seized the town in October last year, according to the United Nations, while paramilitary group accused of carrying out similar massacre in el-Geneina.
The group has repeatedly denied carrying out widespread massacres throughout Darfur.
A UN fact-finding mission report released Wednesday also found evidence of widespread atrocities committed by the army and RSF in Sudan’s conflict.
He said RSF fighters were responsible for most systematic attacks against civilians, particularly in Darfur, where people were targeted on ethnic grounds, which “may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
RSF fighters and affiliated groups also committed sexual abuse, including rape, gang rape, sexual slavery and other forms of abuse when they captured El Fasher last year, according to the UN fact-finding mission.
Speaking to the BBC about the ICC investigation, Khan said: “We have now found concrete evidence that links what is happening on the ground by linking the evidence to specific people in leadership mode.”
However, she did not say when charges might be brought against those responsible for atrocities in the war, which began in April 2023.
“We can’t say how quickly or how long it will take,” she said.
“But we can say that the progress has been significant and that we have made a breakthrough.”
The ICC, based in the Dutch city of The Hague, is a global court with the power to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Khan spoke to the BBC after visiting refugee camps in eastern Chad, where those who had fled fighting in Darfur told him of the atrocities they had suffered.
Tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes in El-Fasher and the UN said the violence there bore the “marks of genocide”.
RSF denied widespread allegations that the killings in the city were ethnically motivated and followed a trend of Arab paramilitaries targeting non-Arab populations.
The group insisted that the scale of the atrocities had been exaggerated, but acknowledged that some violations had taken place in the city.
Shortly after the capture of El-Fasher, RSF head General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo said the group was investigating possible atrocities.. The investigation continues, RSF recently indicated.
British Human Rights Ambassador Eleanor Sanders recently warned that the town of El-Obeid could face atrocities similar to those seen in El-Fasher last year.
The UN Human Rights Council on Monday ordered an urgent investigation into alleged crimes committed during the fighting in El-Obeid.
The ICC has been investigating allegations of war crimes in Darfur for several years. more than 20 years since the previous wave of violence in the 2000s.
“What we are seeing are patterns of delinquency that were actually the same 20 years ago when this situation was first brought to our attention by the Security Council,” she said.
Khan said the ICC investigation included witness testimonies, testimonies and corroborating evidence such as videos, photographs and forensic evidence.
Previous investigations led to seven arrests and six separate cases brought to court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Among those charged is former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
He remains at large after being ousted in a coup in 2019. He is believed to be held in a secure medical facility in Sudan.
Four other people are the subject of arrest warrants but have not been arrested.
Last year, the ICC sentenced a former militia leader to 20 years in prison after he was found guilty of 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed in Darfur from 2003 to 2004.
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman was a senior member of the Janjaweed, a government-backed group that targeted Darfur civilians who were not part of the country’s majority Arab population.
The Janjaweed are one of the groups that became the RSF, a paramilitary force formerly aligned with the Sudanese army but now fighting it.
