Military crimes are committed, says ICC

There are “reasonable grounds” to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed in West Sudan, said the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the UN Security Council on Thursday.

Focused sexual abuse of women and girls from specific ethnicities has been identified as one of the most vague discoveries that have emerged from the ICC study of crimes committed in Darfur.

In April 2023, a war broke out between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), leading to what the UN called “devastating civil casualties.”

The deputy prosecutor of ICC Nazhat Shamem Khan said it was “difficult to find appropriate words to describe the depth of suffering” in the region.

The UN Security Council gave a mandate to the ICC for investigating and pursuing crimes in Darfur two decades ago, with the authority opening numerous investigations on military crimes and genocide by the July 2002 region onwards.

ICC launched a new probe in 2023 after the Civil War broke out once again, interviewing casualties that fled the most native iteration of the conflict in neighboring Chad.

D -Ja Khan described an “inevitable model of insult” and stressed that the team works to translate such crimes into evidence of the court.

The allegations of war crime have continued to exist in the last two years, and in January 2025 the United States has determined that RSF and allied militia have committed a genocide.

RSF denied allegations and stated that he did not participate in what he described as a “tribal conflict” in Darfur.

UN reports show that conditions in Darfur continue to deteriorate, with hospitals and humanitarian convoys undergoing targeted attacks and food and water intentionally detained.

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The escalating hunger has covered the region, with the UN Children’s Agency (UNICEF) reporting that over 40,000 children have been admitted for treatment due to severe acute malnutrition between January and May 2025 – more than twice the number admitted last year.

“The children in Darfur are starving from a conflict and is detached from the very help that could save them,” said Sheldon Jet of UNICEF.

Over the past two years, more than 150,000 people have died in the conflict and approximately 12 million have fled their homes, but D -Ja Khan warned that “we should not be under any illusion – things can still get worse.”