International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors said on Monday they are collecting evidence of alleged mass killings and rapes after paramilitary Rapid Support Forces seized al-Fashir the last stronghold of the military in Sudan’s Darfur region.
The ICC has been investigating alleged genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur since 2005 when the case was first referred by the United Nations Security Council, long before the current civil war erupted in 2023.
“Within the ongoing investigation, the office is taking immediate steps regarding the alleged crimes in (al-Fashir) to preserve and collect relevant evidence for its use in future prosecutions,” the ICC prosecutors said in a statement.
More than 70 000 people have fled al-Fashir so far, and survivors have told Reuters about the separation and killing of men who left the Darfur city for safety.
Experts have said the reported violence bears the hallmarks of previous episodes in Darfur that were widely labelled as genocide.
The fate of almost 200 000 people thought to be trapped in the city remains unknown.
–Reuters–
