This May, Scotland Yard received a dossier documenting alleged war crimes committed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan. It lists killings, torture, and mass rape–evidence of the increasing human rights violations in a war that has lasted decades.
The dossier was compiled by a London-based team of barristers specializing in international law. The team has requested that SO15, the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism command, review the document before passing it to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The document was created to assist the court in its investigations into the ongoing Sudanese civil war.
ICC Investigations
The investigations made by the ICC into the situation in Darfur began in June 2005. They focus on crimes against humanitiy, alleged genocide, and war crimes committed in the region since July 1, 2002, when the Rome Statute was enforced. While Sudan is not technically a State Party to the Rome Statute, the United Nations Security Council referred the situation to the ICC on March 31, 2005. This allows the tribunal to exercise its jurisdiction over crimes listed in the Rome Statute in Darfur.
Notably, this investigation was the first to deal with allegations of genocide. Sudan’s former president, Omar al-Bashir, was also the first sitting head of state to be wanted by the ICC and charged with the crime of genocide. However, the arrest warrants against him still remain unenforced.
Background on Sudan’s Civil War
The civil war officially began on April 15, 2023, when fighting broke out in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. The conflict is between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF. While both sides have been accused of committing war crimes, the recent dossier focuses on documenting those committed by the RSF.
The RSF is currently led by the former warlord Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, popularly known as Hemedti. The organization was originally founded by former dictator Omar al-Bashir as an Arab counterinsurgency militia. After ousting al-Bashir, the current leaders of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF served as president and vice president, respectively. Conflict arose between the two generals, leading to the current war.
Yet their conflict in Darfur is only a product of tensions that have grown since Sudan’s independence from the United Kingdom and Egypt. The ruling elite that took over neglected the development of the country’s peripheries, including Darfur, while exploiting their natural resources. In 2003, war in Darfur began when the Sudan Liberation Army attacked villages with the goal of overthrowing the Islamist military government that had been in power since 1989. The government in Khartoum responded with mass violence against non-Arab communities in Darfur.
Humanitarian Crisis
Since then, the United Nations has described the war in Sudan as “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history.” Currently, 26 million people face food insecurity. Around 11.3 million have been displaced, with 2.95 million fleeing the country–mainly to Chad and South Sudan, countries that lack the capacity to provide the necessary aid. The destruction of health infrastructure and declining vaccination rates have left 3.4 million children under the age of five at high risk of epidemic disease.
Graph by: The Guardian (2024)
The dossier and ICC investigations have provided further evidence that the RSF has, and continues, to commit war crimes in Darfur. However, reports of atrocities across Sudan continue to come to light.
Featured image courtesy of Yasuyoshi Chiba, Getty Images (2019).
