“The picture that is emerging is appalling: massive, organized and widespread crime, including mass executions,“Ms Khan said.”Atrocities are used as a tool to exert control.“
Epicenter of “deep suffering”
Sudan has been embroiled in conflict since April 2023, when fighting broke out between former allies the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia.
What began as a power struggle gave rise to conflicts across the country, most devastating in the Darfur region, where long-standing ethnic tensions were also reignited, leading to accusations of genocide in the early 2000s.
He said the fall of El Fasher, the regional capital of North Darfur, to the RSF had been followed by a “calculated campaign of deepest suffering”, particularly targeting non-Arab communities.
The crimes, he said, include rape, arbitrary detentions, executions and the creation of mass graves, often filmed and celebrated by the perpetrators.
Nazhat Shameem Khan (on screen), Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), briefs the Security Council.
Fighters ‘celebrating executions’
Based on video, audio and satellite evidence collected, The ICC Prosecutor concluded that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed in El Fasher.especially at the end of October, after a prolonged siege of the city by the RSF.
Ms Khan said the video footage showed patterns similar to those documented in previous atrocities in Darfur, including the detention, mistreatment and killing of civilians from non-Arab tribes.
“RSF members are seen carrying out direct executions and later desecrating corpses.” she said.
El Geneina investigations
The Prosecutor’s Office is also advancing in the investigations into the crimes committed in El Geneina, where witnesses have provided accounts of attacks on displaced persons camps, looting, gender violence and crimes against children.
In 2023, El Geneina witnessed some of the worst violence of the war when RSF fighters and allied militias carried out massacres against the Massalit community, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee to neighboring Chad.
U.N. officials and human rights investigators described the violence as ethnically motivated and warned of possible crimes against humanity.
Evidence now indicates that the patterns of atrocities seen in El Geneina have since been replicated in El Fasher, Ms Khan said.
“This crime is repeated in city after city in Darfur,“she warned.”It will continue until this conflict and the sense of impunity that fuels it are put to an end.“
A school in El Geneina, West Darfur state, which served as a shelter for displaced people, is burned to the ground. (archive)
Rape as a weapon of war
Sexual violence, including rape, is being used as a weapon of war, Khan said, adding that gender-based crimes remain a priority for ICC investigations. It acknowledged the cultural and safety barriers that prevent survivors from reporting abuse, and emphasized the need for survivor-centered and gender-sensitive research.
While much of the briefing focused on RSF abuses, the deputy prosecutor said the ICC was also documenting allegations of crimes committed by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), underlining that all parties to the conflict are obliged under international law to protect civilians.
Impunity overshadows progress
Ms Khan cited the conviction last October of Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kushayb – a former leader of the Janjaweed militia – as a historic step towards accountability, but warned that the scale of ongoing atrocities far outweighed any sense of progress.
It ended with a direct call to the Sudanese authorities to act against the main suspects long wanted by the Court, including former president Omar al-Bashirformer Interior Minister Ahmad Harun and former Defense Minister Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein.
“Action must be taken now,” he said, warning that justice for Darfur victims would remain hollow without arrests at the highest level.