Khan warned the international community of the worsening violence in Darfur (Reuters)

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, said before the United Nations Security Council yesterday, Monday, that there are “reasons to believe” that the Sudanese army, the Rapid Support Forces, and their allied groups committed war crimes in Darfur, while presenting a report on violations in Darfur.

Khan added to the Security Council that the atrocities that occurred in El Geneina, West Darfur, constitute a pivotal line of investigations currently being conducted by the criminal, stressing that his team is still collecting evidence and information about the crimes in Darfur.

Khan opened an investigation in July last year after hostilities increased in the Darfur region.

While a UN investigation published on January 20 stated that between 10,000 and 15,000 people were killed in the city of El Geneina last year, as a result of ethnic violence carried out by the Rapid Support Forces and militias allied with them.

Refugees in Chad

Speaking before the Security Council, Khan reported that refugees from Darfur in the refugee camps he visited in Chad last Saturday provided him with testimonies describing sexual violence against women and girls in Darfur, brutal killings, and racially motivated crimes. He described the testimonies as “chilling.” ".

He stressed that Sudanese refugees are arriving in Chad at a faster rate than the United Nations is able to respond to it. Chad hosts more than 540,000 Sudanese refugees, and the number is expected to rise to 910,000 by the end of this year, according to the United Nations.

The need to find a solution

Khan warned the Security Council that the crisis in Darfur is worsening, stressing that failure to take action to stop what is happening in Darfur exposes future generations to a similar fate.

Khan urged the international community to find solutions to the disaster in Darfur to prevent the spread of violence, saying that judicial orders alone do not solve the problem.

The Darfur region witnessed widespread ethnic violence and crimes against humanity in the early 2000s, and the United Nations fears a repeat of this.

The UN Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court in 2005, and based on this mandate, Khan's office is investigating recent human rights violations.

It is noteworthy that the war that broke out in Sudan last April resulted in the displacement of more than 7 million Sudanese, one and a half million of whom were forced to flee outside Sudan, according to United Nations figures.

Source: Al Jazeera + Reuters