Aid Groups Warn of Rise in Darfur Violence, Dozens Killed

Internally displaced Sudanese women carry water from a tap near their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
Internally displaced Sudanese women carry water from a tap near their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
TT

Aid Groups Warn of Rise in Darfur Violence, Dozens Killed

Internally displaced Sudanese women carry water from a tap near their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
Internally displaced Sudanese women carry water from a tap near their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

Dozens of people have been killed in violence this week in three separate areas of Sudan's West Darfur region and thousands of people have fled the violence, local medics said.

The West Darfur Doctors Committee said in statements on Wednesday and Thursday that attacks in the Kreinik area killed 88 and wounded 84, while renewed violence in the Jebel Moon area killed 25 and wounded four. Meanwhile, violence in the Sarba locality killed eight and wounded six.

"They have created a wave of displacement from the outskirts into the town, with a humanitarian situation that can be described at the very least as catastrophic," the committee said in a statement late on Wednesday, referring to Kreinik.

One resident said a camp of displaced people had been flattened and thousands of people had sought refuge in government buildings.

"The area is completely destroyed," the resident said, Reuters reported.

Analysts say a peace deal signed by some rebel groups in October 2020 was one cause of unrest as local groups jostled for power. A joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission stopped patrolling in January.

Humanitarian groups said there had been a rise in conflict across the wider Darfur region recently.

The Coordinating Committee for Refugee and Displacement Camps, a local NGO, said on Wednesday there was renewed violence in the Jebel Moon area, where aid workers reported 43 people killed and 10,000 displaced in violence last month.

The Zamzam refugee camp was being encircled by militias on Wednesday and the Donki Shata area of North Darfur was also attacked, the committee said on Wednesday.

The early-2000s conflict in Darfur between rebel groups on one side and government forces and allied militias on the other has caused an estimated 300,000 deaths. About 2.5 million people live in displacement camps across Darfur, according to UN refugee agency UNHCR.

The Coordinating Committee and Darfur residents complain that the militias continue to carry out attacks on villages and camps.

Some 430,000 people have been displaced over the past year, a four-fold increase over 2020, aid groups say.

"National authorities and the international community must urgently deal with the bloody reality of this spiralling violence," Will Carter of the Norwegian Refugee Council said in a statement on Wednesday.



International Criminal Court’s Chief Prosecutor Meets with Syrian Leader in Damascus

This handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency SANA, shows Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) meeting with International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan in Damascus on January 17, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency SANA, shows Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) meeting with International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan in Damascus on January 17, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
TT

International Criminal Court’s Chief Prosecutor Meets with Syrian Leader in Damascus

This handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency SANA, shows Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) meeting with International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan in Damascus on January 17, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency SANA, shows Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) meeting with International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan in Damascus on January 17, 2025. (SANA / AFP)

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan made an unannounced visit Friday to Damascus to confer with the leader of Syria’s de facto government on how to ensure accountability for alleged crimes committed in the country.

Khan's office said he visited at the invitation of Syria’s transitional government. He met with Ahmad al-Sharaa, the leader of Syria’s new administration and the foreign minister to discuss options for justice in The Hague for victims of the country's civil war, which has left more than half a million dead and more than six million people displaced.

Assad, who fled to Russia in December, waged an oppressive campaign against anyone who opposed him during his more than two decades in power.

Rights groups estimate at least 150,000 people went missing after anti-government protests began in 2011, most vanishing into Assad’s prison network. Many of them were killed, either in mass executions or from torture and prison conditions. The exact number remains unknown.

The global chemical weapons watchdog found Syrian forces were responsible for multiple attacks using chlorine gas and other banned substances against civilians.

Other groups have also been accused of human rights violations and war crimes during the country’s civil war.

The new authorities have called for members of the Assad regime to be brought to justice. It is unclear how exactly that would work at this stage.

Syria is not a member of the ICC, which has left the court without the ability to investigate the war. In 2014, Russia and China blocked a referral by the United Nations Security Council which would have given the court jurisdiction. Similar referrals were made for Sudan and Libya.

Khan's visit comes after a trip to Damascus last month by the UN organization assisting in investigating the most serious crimes in Syria. The International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria was created to assist in evidence-gathering and prosecution of individuals responsible for possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide since Syria’s civil war began in 2011.

The group's head, Robert Petit, highlighted the urgency of preserving documents and other evidence before they are lost.