War crimes are committed, says ICC

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

Targeted sexual violence against women and girls of certain ethnic groups was described as one of the most disturbing knowledge that can be crime in Darfur from the ICC probe.

In April 2023, the war broke out between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which led to what the United Nations describes as “devastating civilian victims”.

The deputy ICC Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan said that it was “difficult to find suitable words to describe the depth of suffering in the region”.

The UN Security Council gave the ICC two decades a mandate to investigate and persecute crimes in Darfur, whereby the corporation opened several investigations into war crimes and genocide in the region from July 2002.

The ICC started a new probe in 2023 after the civil war had broken out again and interviewed victims who had fled the recent iteration of the conflict to neighboring Chad.

Ms. Khan described an “inevitable pattern of insult” and emphasized that the team was working on translating such crimes as evidence of the court.

The allegations of war crimes have been encouraged in the past two years, and in January 2025 the United States found that the RSF and the Allied militias had committed genocide.

The RSF denied the claims and said that it was not involved in what it describes as a “tribal conflict” in Darfur.

United nations reports that the conditions in Darfur have worsened, with hospitals and humanitarian convoys deliberately held back attacks and food and water.

Civilians in the capital of El-Fasher were completely cut off from the help by the armed radius by RSF armor forces, and the cholera outbreak across conflict zones represents a serious threat to already scarce water supply.

An escalating famine has covered the region, whereby the Unicef (Children’s Agency) of the UN (Unicef) reported that more than 40,000 children were approved for treatment between January and May 2025 due to severe acute malnutrition – more than twice as many in the same period.

“Children in Darfur are starved by conflicts and cut off from the help that they could save,” said Sheldon von Unicef.

In the past two years, more than 150,000 people have died in conflict and about 12 million have fled their homes, but Ms. Khan warned that “we shouldn’t be in an illusion – things can still get worse.”