Court Investigates RSF Attacks Amid Renewed El Fasher Carnage
The Hague: The International Criminal Court (ICC) has expressed grave concern over reports of mass killings, rapes and other serious crimes allegedly committed in El Fasher, North Darfur, warning that such acts, if proven, may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. The statement issued today by the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) said the atrocities, reportedly carried out by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), appear to form part of a broader pattern of violence that has ravaged Darfur since April 2023.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the Court is treating the latest reports with urgency. “These atrocities are part of a broader pattern of violence that has afflicted the entire Darfur region,” it said, recalling that under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1593 (2005), the ICC has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute crimes committed in the region since 1 July 2002. The Office confirmed that it is investigating crimes allegedly committed since the renewal of hostilities in 2023, working through field deployments, engagement with victims’ groups and cooperation with national and international organisations.
The statement noted that immediate steps are being taken to collect and preserve evidence from El Fasher for potential prosecutions. The ICC’s existing investigations, it said, have documented recurring forms of atrocity: deliberate attacks on civilians, the burning and destruction of entire villages, systematic persecution on ethnic and tribal grounds, and the widespread use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. These acts, the ICC maintains, strike at the heart of international humanitarian law and remain central to its mandate in Darfur.
The Court’s case history reflects that pattern. When the United Nations referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in March 2005, investigators identified organised attacks on the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa communities in western Sudan. Witnesses described coordinated assaults on towns and villages, forced population transfers, and the use of militia groups—known collectively as the Janjaweed—to carry out campaigns of terror against civilians. The ongoing investigation into El-Fasher is thus not a new chapter but a continuation of this long-documented cycle of violence.
The ICC’s Darfur docket includes several high-profile cases. Former Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir, former Minister of State for the Interior Ahmad Muhammad Harun, Defence Minister Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein, and rebel commander Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain are among those indicted for orchestrating or facilitating attacks on civilian populations. Despite international arrest warrants, many remain at large. The Court’s case information shows that these prosecutions collectively cover genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, encompassing murder, rape, torture, pillage, and forcible transfer.
The Prosecutor’s statement also cited the recent conviction of Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kushayb, who in October 2025 was found guilty on 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for atrocities committed in 2003–2004. The verdict, delivered after years of investigation, is seen by the ICC as a precedent for ongoing accountability efforts. “It is a warning for all parties to the conflict in Darfur,” the Prosecutor’s Office said, “that there will be accountability for such atrocious crimes.”
The Court’s Darfur files describe how Kushayb, as a Janjaweed leader, coordinated armed attacks that razed villages, killed civilians, and subjected women to sexual violence. Thousands were forced from their homes during the same period, laying the foundation for the charges the ICC continues to pursue. The echoes of those crimes, the Prosecutor said, are again being heard in El-Fasher, where civilians reportedly face targeted killings, mass assaults, and widespread displacement.
To strengthen the evidentiary base of its renewed investigation, the ICC has appealed to victims, witnesses and organisations engaged in justice work to share documentation through its secure OTP Link platform. These materials—videos, photographs, records, or testimonies—are vital for reconstructing events and ensuring that evidence is preserved before it can be destroyed or manipulated.
The ICC acknowledged that Darfur remains one of the most complex cases under its jurisdiction. Nearly twenty years after the UN referral, the region continues to experience cycles of conflict, famine, and displacement. Yet the Court’s mandate endures: to pursue accountability wherever credible evidence emerges. For survivors of Darfur’s long agony, the Prosecutor’s latest warning carries renewed significance—that impunity, though entrenched, is not absolute, and that justice for El-Fasher’s victims will be sought with the same persistence that brought Darfur’s first conviction to fruition.
– global bihari bureau
