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ICC Prosecutor: Sudan Violence Could Be War Crimes

A general view of people sitting at a camp for displaced families who fled from al-Fashir to Tawila, North Darfur, Sudan, October 27, 2025. REUTERS/Mohammed Jamal
A general view of people sitting at a camp for displaced families who fled from al-Fashir to Tawila, North Darfur, Sudan, October 27, 2025. REUTERS/Mohammed Jamal
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ICC Prosecutor: Sudan Violence Could Be War Crimes

A general view of people sitting at a camp for displaced families who fled from al-Fashir to Tawila, North Darfur, Sudan, October 27, 2025. REUTERS/Mohammed Jamal
A general view of people sitting at a camp for displaced families who fled from al-Fashir to Tawila, North Darfur, Sudan, October 27, 2025. REUTERS/Mohammed Jamal

The prosecutor's office at the International Criminal Court warned Monday that atrocities committed in the Sudanese city of El-Fasher could constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

After 18 months of siege, bombardment and starvation, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of the city on October 26, dislodging the army's last stronghold in Sudan's western Darfur region.

The ICC prosecutor's office (OTP) voiced "profound alarm and deepest concern" over reports from El-Fasher about mass killings, rapes, and other crimes allegedly committed, AFP reported.

"These atrocities are part of a broader pattern of violence that has afflicted the entire Darfur region since April 2023," said the OTP in a statement.

"Such acts, if substantiated, may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute," the founding text of the ICC, added the OTP.

The UN has said more than 65,000 people have fled El-Fasher, including around 5,000 to the nearby town of Tawila, but tens of thousands remain trapped.

Before the final assault, roughly 260,000 people lived in the city.

Since the RSF takeover, reports have emerged of executions, sexual violence, looting, attacks on aid workers and abductions in and around El-Fasher, where communications remain largely cut off.

The RSF traces its origins to the Janjaweed, a predominantly Arab militia accused of genocide in Darfur two decades ago.

Reports since El-Fasher's fall have raised fears of a return to similar atrocities.

Last month, the ICC convicted a feared Janjaweed chief for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur more than two decades ago.

The ICC found Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known by the nom de guerre Ali Kushayb, guilty of multiple crimes, including rape, murder and torture carried out between August 2003 and at least April 2004.

The OTP referenced this verdict, saying it should serve as a warning "that there will be accountability for such atrocious crimes."

The chief prosecutor of the ICC, British lawyer Karim Khan, is currently on leave as he faces allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denies.

Deputy prosecutors have taken over the caseload while the investigation is ongoing, as well as a high-profile case against former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte.

The ICC has also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the country's campaign in Gaza.

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Arab World

Sudanese Paramilitary Drone Attack Kills 50, Including 33 Children in Kordofan

FILE - Sudanese soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces unit patrol during a rally for Dagalo, in Garawee town, north of Sudan, Saturday, June 15, 2019. (AP Photo)
FILE - Sudanese soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces unit patrol during a rally for Dagalo, in Garawee town, north of Sudan, Saturday, June 15, 2019. (AP Photo)
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Sudanese Paramilitary Drone Attack Kills 50, Including 33 Children in Kordofan

FILE - Sudanese soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces unit patrol during a rally for Dagalo, in Garawee town, north of Sudan, Saturday, June 15, 2019. (AP Photo)
FILE - Sudanese soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces unit patrol during a rally for Dagalo, in Garawee town, north of Sudan, Saturday, June 15, 2019. (AP Photo)

A drone attack by the Sudanese paramilitary forces hit a kindergarten in south-central Sudan, killing 50 people, including 33 children, a doctors’ group said.

Paramedics on the scene in the town of Kalogi in South Kordofan state were targeted in “a second unexpected attack," Sudan Doctors’ Network said in a statement late Friday.

Emergency Lawyers, a rights group tracking violence against civilians in Sudan reported in a statement Saturday the second strike on paramedics treating survivors in Kalogi and said “a third civilian site near the previous two” was also attacked, reported The Associated Press.

The group condemned the attack, blaming the paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, for the strikes, calling them “a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians, especially children, and vital civilian infrastructure.”

The death toll is expected to be higher, but communication blackouts in the area have made it difficult to report casualties.

Thursday's attack is the latest in the fighting between the RSF, and the Sudanese military, who have been at war for over two years. It is now concentrating in the oil-rich Kordofan states.

“Killing children in their school is a horrific violation of children’s rights,” said UNICEF Representative for Sudan Sheldon Yett in a statement Friday.

“Children should never pay the price of conflict,” said Yett.

He said UNICEF urges all parties “to stop these attacks immediately and allow safe, unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to reach those in desperate need.”

Hundreds of civilians were killed throughout the Kordofan states in the last few weeks as intensified fighting shifted from Darfur after the RSF took over the besieged city of el-Fasher.

Sudanese military aerial strikes on Sunday killed at least 48 people, mostly civilians, in Kauda, South Kordofan.

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk warned that Kordofan could face new atrocities like those in el-Fasher.

Separately, the RSF condemned in a statement Friday a drone strike on the Chad-Sudan border, accusing the Sudanese military of being behind it and posted a video showing billowing black smoke. This couldn't be independently verified and it is unclear whether there were casualties in this strike. There was no immediate comment from the Sudanese military.

RSF’s violent takeover of el-Fasher was marked with executions of civilians, rapes and sexual assaults, and other atrocities. Thousands escaped and thousands more are feared killed or trapped in the city.

The RSF and the Sudanese military have been fighting for power over Sudan since 2023. More than 40,000 people were killed in the war, according to the World Health Organization, and 12 million displaced. However, aid groups say the true death toll could be way higher.

Arab World

Türkiye FM Says SDF Showing No Intent to Honor Deal to Integrate into Syrian State

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during an interview with Reuters at the 23rd edition of the annual Doha Forum, in Doha, Qatar, December 6, 2025. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during an interview with Reuters at the 23rd edition of the annual Doha Forum, in Doha, Qatar, December 6, 2025. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
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Türkiye FM Says SDF Showing No Intent to Honor Deal to Integrate into Syrian State

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during an interview with Reuters at the 23rd edition of the annual Doha Forum, in Doha, Qatar, December 6, 2025. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during an interview with Reuters at the 23rd edition of the annual Doha Forum, in Doha, Qatar, December 6, 2025. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Türkiye's foreign minister said the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are signaling "no intention" of honoring their deal to integrate into Syrian state structures and are instead trying to circumvent it.

Hakan Fidan said in an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of the Doha Forum that Ankara was not giving the Syrian government a "blank cheque" to “oppress” minorities, adding that everyone in Syria "must feel safe and free".

The minister also said Israel’s "destabilization policies" in Syria were the main obstacle to efforts to rebuild unity in the country.

Arab World

UN Security Council Delegation Visits South Lebanon, Urges All Sides to Stick to Truce

A convoy carrying a UN Security Council delegation, tours the border with Israel close to the southern Lebanese area of Naqura on December 6, 2025. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
A convoy carrying a UN Security Council delegation, tours the border with Israel close to the southern Lebanese area of Naqura on December 6, 2025. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
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UN Security Council Delegation Visits South Lebanon, Urges All Sides to Stick to Truce

A convoy carrying a UN Security Council delegation, tours the border with Israel close to the southern Lebanese area of Naqura on December 6, 2025. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
A convoy carrying a UN Security Council delegation, tours the border with Israel close to the southern Lebanese area of Naqura on December 6, 2025. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)

A United Nations Security Council delegation on Saturday urged all parties to uphold a year-old ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, expressing support for a state weapons monopoly at the end of a Lebanon visit.

"We came to Beirut at a pivotal time for the implementation of... the cessation of hostilities agreement of November of last year," Slovenian UN ambassador Samuel Zbogar, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the UN body, told reporters.

"All parties must uphold the November 2024 cessation of hostilities agreement, and we recognize progress achieved by Lebanon this year," he said.

"We reaffirm the council's support for Lebanon's territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence."

"We also reaffirm commitment to the full implementation of Resolution 1701 in support of Lebanon's -- as well as regional -- security and stability," he added, referring to a 2006 Security Council decision that forms the basis of the current truce.

The November 2024 ceasefire was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, but Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon.

Israel has mainly said it is targeting the group, and has maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.

The Lebanese government has committed to disarming Hezbollah, and the army is set to dismantle the group's military infrastructure near the border by year end before tackling the rest of the country.

"We support the Lebanese government's decision to ensure the state's monopoly of arms," Zbogar said, also urging "intensified international support" for Lebanon's army.

The delegation met senior officials including President Joseph Aoun, and on Saturday went to south Lebanon near the Israeli border, visiting UNIFIL peacekeepers.

In August, the Security Council voted to extend UNIFIL's mandate until the end of 2026 and then withdraw the force from Lebanon by the end of the following year.

The visit was a chance to "examine options for the implementation of Resolution 1701 following UNIFIL's departure from Lebanon", Zbogar said, adding that "this is a topic that will deserve a thorough conversation during 2026".

Zbogar also emphasized that the "safety of peacekeepers must be respected and that they must never be targeted", after Lebanon's army said it arrested six people following an attack by gunmen on UNIFIL personnel this week.