Sudan war: ICC tells BBC of breakthrough in war crimes investigation

Speaking to the BBC about the ICC’s investigation, Khan said: “We have now found concrete evidence linking what was happening on the ground to specific individuals in leadership mode through linkage evidence.”

However, he did not give a timeline for when charges might be filed against those responsible for atrocities in the war, which began in April 2023.

“We can’t say how quickly or how long it will take,” he said.

“But we can say that significant progress has been made and we have made a breakthrough.”

Headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, the ICC is a global court with jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Khan spoke to the BBC after visiting refugee camps in eastern Chad, where people fleeing the conflict in Darfur told him about the atrocities they had suffered.

Tens of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes in Al-Fasher, and the UN said the violence there bore “marks of genocide”.

RSF rejected widespread claims that the killings in the city were ethnically motivated and that Arab paramilitaries were targeting non-Arab populations.

The group insisted that the extent of the brutality was exaggerated but acknowledged that some abuses had occurred in the city.

Shortly after El-Fasher’s capture, RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo said the group was investigating any atrocities. RSF said in a recent statement that the investigation is ongoing.

British Ambassador for Human Rights Eleanor Sanders recently warned that the city of El-Obeid could face atrocities similar to those seen in El-Fasher last year.

The UN Human Rights Council on Monday ordered an urgent investigation into alleged crimes committed during the clashes in al-Obeid.