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In a video statement released on Tuesday, prosecutor Karim Khan
said the ICC has an active investigation into possible atrocity
crimes being committed at present in Darfur.
"I am extremely concerned about allegations of widespread
international crimes being committed in al-Fashir and its
surrounding areas, as we speak," Khan said, adding that his
office was investigating those allegations "with urgency".
His investigators had seen credible allegations of what looked
like ethnically-motivated attacks against the civilian
population, widespread use of rape and attacks against
hospitals, he added.
Khan called for anyone with possible evidence, video or audio
material to submit it to his office.
Al-Fashir, in the Darfur region of northwestern Sudan, is home
to more than 1.8 million residents and displaced people, and is
the latest front in a war between the Sudanese army and the RSF
which began in April 2023.
The ICC can prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity,
genocide and in some cases the crime of aggression if committed
on the territory of one of the court's 124 member states or by
nationals of ICC members. It can also have jurisdiction through
a referral by the United Nations Security Council, as happened
with Darfur in 2005.
In January this year the ICC prosecutor told the U.N. security
Council he believed war crimes were being committed in Darfur by
government troops and the RSF in El Geneina.
(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Emelia
Sithole-Matarise)
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