The International Criminal Court (ICC) has commenced collection of evidence for a possible commission of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed by Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan.
Prosecutors of the court announced in a statement from the Hague on Monday that they are taking immediate steps for the investigation on mass killings, sexual assault, summary execution and other crimes allegedly committed by RSF.
“We at the Hague, we are taking “immediate steps” in order to “preserve and collect relevant evidence for its use in future prosecutions” concerning crimes in el-Fasher following the capture of the city by the RSF.
The court described the atrocities as “part of a broader pattern of violence that has afflicted the entire Darfur region” and said that they “may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
The specific types of crimes under investigation are ethnic-targeted attacks, sexual violence including use of rape as a weapon, abductions, indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and attacks on medical facilities.
In a briefing in June, ICC Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan said there are “reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been and are continuing to be committed in Darfur”.
The RSF group led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, released a video on the same day, saying it is “amassing a large force, heralding the imminent liberation of el-Obeid”.
The state capital of North Kordofan in central Sudan lies east of Darfur, where the RSF killed and displaced thousands of people over the past week after seizing control of el-Fasher from government forces.
The Sudanese armed forces currently control el-Obeid. However, both sides have been gearing up for a major fight over the city.
The ICC has been investigating alleged genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Darfur since 2005, and recent reports indicate that there more evidence of mass killings and rapes after the RSF seized El-Fasher.