THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court (ICC) has opened a new investigation into alleged war crimes in the crisis-hit Sudan, its chief prosecutor Karim Khan said on Thursday, saying escalating violence in the country was a “matter of great concern.”
ICC Opens New Investigation into Sudan Violence: Prosecutor
ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said his office “can confirm that it has started investigations in connection with the incidents occurring in the context of the current hostilities in Sudan.”
Earlier, the United Nations said that the bodies of as many as 87 people allegedly killed by Sudan’s paramilitary forces and their allies last month had been buried in a mass grave in Darfur.
The UN officials said that the victims were killed in the West Darfur between June 13-21 and the RSF asked the local people to bury them outside the city. However, the RSF rejected the allegations and said that they did not kill the people. Earlier in a statement, Sudan’s Health Ministry said that random shelling killed as many as 34 people, including children, in a market in Omdurman. Reuters reported that most of the casualties were truck drivers and market dealers.
The war broke out in mid-April, plugging months of growing tensions between the army, commanded by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the RSF, led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo.
Sudan’s Health Minister Haitham Mohammed Ibrahim said last month that over 3,000 people were killed and more than 6,000 injured in the clashes between the two sides during the conflict. Over 2.9 million people have fled their areas to safer places inside Sudan or crossed into other countries, the UN said
