Video: ICC prosecutor's briefing to UN Security Council eyes arrest warrants over Darfur, Sudan

THIS video shows the ICC chief prosecutor briefing the UN Security Council today (Mon Aug 5). It highlighted the significant effort in the past 6 months in engaging with affected communities, Arab community leaders, CSOs, relevant national authorities of Sudan and third States, and international and regional organisations. The video is followed by a related report below.

In #UNSC briefing, #ICC Prosecutor @KarimKhanQC underlined that urgency of action in #Darfur investigation was reflected by:

➡️Collecting significant testimonial evidence
➡️Gaining access to Port Sudan
➡️Leveraging new tech tools to analyse video and other digital evidence. pic.twitter.com/ZQpq9BNqe7

— Int'l Criminal Court (@IntlCrimCourt) August 5, 2024

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Related

Report from Channel News Asia online

Dated Tuesday, 06 August 2024 02:37AM. Full copy

ICC prosecutor eyes arrest warrants over Darfur

THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court prosecutor said Monday (Aug 3) that he hopes to seek arrest warrants soon for some of those responsible for the "nightmare" experienced by the population of Darfur, a region of Sudan ravaged by war.

Presenting his half-yearly report to the UN Security Council, Karim Khan deplored a "further deterioration" of the situation and described "a terrible six months for the people of Darfur".

"Terror has become a common currency" endured by civilians, he said, citing "many credible reports of rapes, crimes against and affecting children, persecution on a mass scale inflicted against the most vulnerable".

Since April 2023, the war, which pits the RSF, led by former deputy commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, against the army headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has killed tens of thousands of people.

The United Nations says Sudan faces the world's largest internal displacement crisis, with more than 10 million forced to flee internally or abroad.

The ICC last year opened a new investigation for war crimes in the region, and Khan said it has made "significant progress".

"I hope by my next report, I will be able to announce applications for warrants of arrest regarding some of those individuals that are the most responsible," he said.

But he warned of a lack of international concern, saying the world is so "preoccupied with other epicentres of conflict, hot wars, in other parts of the world, that we've lost sight of the plight of the people of Darfur".

He added that a "climate of impunity that we see very tangibly on the ground in El-Genina, and increasingly in El-Fasher, is driven by a deep belief that all human life doesn't matter and that we're not watching".

[WATCH VIDEO*] War pushes Sudan towards 'catastrophic' famine-like conditions: UN [*Sudan Watch Ed: The latest conflict in Sudan began in April 2023 not April 2024. The guest speaker from New York is Clara Bracknell, Sub-Saharan Africa Analyst, RANE]

In El-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, the United Nations estimates that between 10,000 and 15,000 lives have been lost.

Fighting in El-Fasher, the last city in Darfur outside the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces' control, has killed hundreds.

The conflict has ravaged Sudan's infrastructure, put more than three-quarters of health facilities out of service and sparked warnings of famine.

Source: AFP/fs https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/icc-prosecutor-eyes-arrest-warrants-over-darfur-4528261

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Sudan warring parties’ to sit down for talks in Addis, Cairo 10 July 2024. UN warns of further displacement

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: Defenceless civilians in Sudan are being left to fend for themselves and starve while Sudan's military junta fights the RSF private army for control of Sudan. If the African Union and IGAD cannot end genocide in Sudan, one of 54 countries on the continent of Africa, they and the ICC should be defunded and sent packing. They are not working.

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Report from The Reporter Ethiopia
By ASHENAFI ENDALE
Dated Saturday, 22 June 2024. Here is a full copy:

Sudan warring parties’ to sit down for talks in Addis Ababa, Cairo in July

UN warns of further displacement without peace efforts

Addis Ababa will play host to an all-inclusive political dialogue centered around war-torn Sudan for five days beginning July 10, 2024, according to an AU statement released on Friday.

The AUC Chairperson, through the AU High-Level Panel on Sudan and in collaboration with IGAD, is working to realize the dialogue in hopes of securing a people-driven solution to the brutal conflict and restoration of constitutional democratic order in Sudan, according to the statement.

It came following a meeting between heads of state and government on the situation in Sudan on Friday.

The communiqué disclosed that another dialogue effort is scheduled to take place in Egypt in early July prior to the talks in Addis Ababa.

“[The AU] expresses appreciation to the efforts undertaken by neighboring countries, in coordination with the AU and IGAD, to facilitate the promotion of peace in Sudan, including the ongoing efforts by the Arab Republic of Egypt to facilitate the dialogue among Sudanese actors, scheduled to be held early July 2024 in Cairo, Egypt, to complement the ongoing efforts to convene the AU/IGAD-led Inclusive Dialogue,” reads the communiqué.

The African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) has called for direct negotiations between the warring generals of Sudan in order to secure a ceasefire agreement.

“An acceptable ceasefire can only be reached through direct negotiations between the key actors in the war,” reads an AUPSC statement released on Friday.

It details that the AU chairperson is tasked with setting up a committee led by Ugandan President Kaguta Museveni to facilitate the talks between the heads of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in “the shortest possible time.”

The Council has also called on all external actors to “stop any military and financial support to the belligerents that is further worsening the conflict.”

The statement t says the committee led by Museveni is tasked with liaising with the AU Commission and the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa (CISSA) to “identify all external actors supporting the warring factions militarily, financially, and politically, as well as make proposals on how to contain each of them.”

The Council has called for all stakeholders to work in an inclusive, coordinated, and synchronized manner through the existing AU-established coordinating mechanisms for the resolution of the crisis in Sudan.

The statement acknowledges reports of violence in parts of Sudan, including Khartoum, Darfur, Al Gezira, and Kordofan, and warns against the potential dangerous ethnic and communal repercussions of the conflict.

More than 14,000 people are thought to have been killed in Sudan since the brutal civil war broke out last April, with thousands more injured, and more than 10 million people displaced, making it the worst internal displacement crisis in the world, according to the UN.

Earlier this week, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees warned that many more people will flee the war in Sudan for shelter in neighboring countries without concerted peace efforts.

“The level of suffering is truly unconscionable,’’ said UNHCR head Filippo Grandi. “Sudan is the definition of a perfect storm: shocking human rights atrocities, with millions uprooted by this insane war and other wars that came before it. A terrible famine is looming, and severe floods will soon hamper aid deliveries even more. We are losing a generation to this war, yet peace efforts are not working.”

View original: https://www.thereporterethiopia.com/40772/

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Related reports

IGAD Executive Secretary, H.E. @DrWorkneh, attended the AU Peace and Security Council Heads of State and Government meeting, chaired by H.E. @KagutaMuseveni, to discuss the situation in #Sudan. The meeting focused on the ongoing conflict and explored ways to enhance coordinated… pic.twitter.com/oHuSjGniO7

— IGAD Secretariat (@IGADsecretariat) June 21, 2024

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Good preview of what today's AU meeting on #Sudan is likely to discuss from @africa_amani https://t.co/ccCbWmgceQ

— Cameron Hudson (@_hudsonc) June 21, 2024

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Sudan Watch - June 11, 2024
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan KC appeals for information on international crimes in Darfur, Sudan
THE International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Mr Karim Khan KC issued an urgent appeal today (Tuesday, 11 June 2024) in The Hague for information and evidence of atrocities in Darfur, Sudan, saying his ongoing investigation “seems to disclose an organised, systematic and a profound attack on human dignity.” 
https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/06/icc-chief-prosecutor-karim-khan-kc.html

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Sudan Watch - June 10, 2024

Calls for the international community to act and restart Saudi-US Jeddah process is a total abdication by Africa. AU & IGAD are ignoring starving Sudanese

Photo: The Chairperson of the Commission, H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat (Credit AUC)

“Not a shred of indication that the AU is prepared to play a more active role in ending the conflict inside a member state that risks drawing in many more members. Calls for the international community to act and restart of Saudi-US Jeddah process is a total abdication by Africa.”https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/06/calls-for-international-community-to.html

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COMMUNIQUÉ OF THE 2nd MEETING OF THE IGAD QUARTET GROUP OF COUNTRIES FOR THE RESOLUTION OF THE SITUATION IN THE REPUBLIC OF SUDAN

September 06, 2023 (NAIROBI, Kenya): The Heads of State and Government of the IGAD Quartet Group of Countries met in Nairobi, Republic of Kenya on the margins of the 2023 Africa Climate Summit to take stock of the implementation of the IGAD Roadmap for peace in the Republic of Sudan that was adopted by the 14th Ordinary Assembly of the IGAD Heads of State and Government on the 12th of June 2023 in Djibouti and in follow up to the 1st meeting of the IGAD Quartet group of countries that was held in Addis Abba on the 10th of July 2023.

https://igad.int/communique-of-the-2nd-meeting-of-the-igad-quartet-group-of-countries-for-the-resolution-of-the-situation-in-the-republic-of-sudan/ 

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COMMUNIQUÉ OF THE 1^ST MEETING OF THE IGAD QUARTET GROUP OF COUNTRIES FOR THE RESOLUTION OF THE SITUATION IN THE REPUBLIC OF SUDAN

On Monday, 10^th July 2023, the Heads of State and Government of the IGAD Quartet Group of Countries met in Addis Ababa, Federal Democratic of Ethiopia to discuss in depth the implementation of the IGAD Roadmap for peace in the Republic of Sudan.

https://igad.int/communique-of-the-1st-meeting-of-the-igad-quartet-group-of-countries-for-the-resolution-of-the-situation-in-the-republic-of-sudan/

 

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VIDEO FROM INSIDE SUDAN’S CITY OF WAR RUINS: An unfolding humanitarian catastrophe

Video report from Channel 4 TV News UK
By LINDSEY HILSUM International Editor

Filmed and edited by Soren Monk
Produced by Zahra Warsame
Dated Thursday, 23 May 2024 - full copy:

Inside Sudan: An unfolding humanitarian catastrophe

Ethnic cleansing. Killings. Torture and a looming famine. Millions of people in Sudan are living through a nightmare, since a power struggle between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces plunged the country into a devastating war in April last year – splitting the nation.

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Transcript

Follow along using the transcript at YouTube here: 

https://youtu.be/GiIkYhRebdA

Channel 4 is a British public broadcast service.

Original: https://www.channel4.com/news/inside-sudan-an-unfolding-humanitarian-catastrophe

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UK CHANNEL 4 NEWS VIDEO FROM CHAD-SUDAN. UK doubles its aid to Sudan to £89m as crisis escalates

Report from Channel 4 News UK
By LINDSEY HILSUM

International Editor for Channel 4 News

Dated Thursday, 28 March 2024 - here is a copy in full:

War and hunger force hundreds of thousands to flee Sudan

The UK is almost doubling its aid to Sudan, to £89 million, as the humanitarian crisis there continues to escalate.

It’s almost a year since Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces turned on each other – plunging the country into war. Millions have been displaced and half the population is facing famine.

The new conflict also re-ignited the two-decade-long war in the Darfur region, with the RSF and allied Arab militia resuming their slaughter of the ethnic African Masalit tribe.

More than half a million people have fled to overcrowded camps in Chad, where food supplies are also dwindling.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW CHANNEL 4 NEWS VIDEO FROM CHAD-SUDAN.

Channel 4 is a British public broadcast service.

Video credits:
Channel 4 News @Channel4News

Reporter: 

@lindseyhilsum

Producer: 

@Zahra_ZW

Camera: Soren Munk

7:52 PM · Mar 28, 2024

Source: https://www.channel4.com/news/war-and-hunger-force-hundreds-of-thousands-to-flee-sudan

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Related

Press release

From Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and

The Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP

Dated Thursday, 28 March 2024 - here is a copy in full:

UK to nearly double aid for Sudan as humanitarian crisis deepens

The UK announced more support for people in Sudan, including funding to UNICEF for emergency food assistance and support for survivors of gender-based violence.

• UK support includes food and water for 500,000 children under 5 as Sudan’s humanitarian crisis grows
• the funding boost comes as the UK’s Development and Africa Minister, Andrew Mitchell visits the Chad-Sudan border, witnessing the crisis first-hand
• the UK again calls on the warring parties to commit to a lasting ceasefire and lift restrictions which are preventing aid reaching those who need it the most

The UK has today implemented additional support for people in Sudan, 1 year on from the start of the conflict.

This will include funding to UNICEF which will provide emergency and life-saving food assistance to support people particularly in hard-to reach areas in Sudan, including nutrition, water and hygiene services for 500,000 children under 5.  It will also support survivors of gender-based violence. The UK is committing an additional £4.95 million to provide 100,000 women and girls with a range of female genital mutilation, child marriage and gender-based violence prevention and response services.

The boost has been announced by the UK Minister for Development and Africa, Andrew Mitchell, during a 2-day visit to Chad where he visited a site for refugees driven over the border into Chad by the violence.  

In addition, the UK will be working with the World Food Programme to assist over 285,000 beneficiaries for 6 months by providing 13,405 tons of assorted food commodities.  These include cereals, pulses, oils and salt. 

It is part of a £89 million package the UK will deliver in Sudan in 2024 to 2025 – up from nearly £50 million in the current financial year.  

The  conflict in Sudan has caused more than 8 million people to flee their homes, with over 6 million displaced within Sudan itself. After almost a year of conflict, 25 million people in Sudan need assistance, and the country is on the verge of a catastrophic hunger crisis.  The UN has formally warned of the risk of famine in this year, with 18 million currently facing hunger in the country.

Minister for Development and Africa, Andrew Mitchell, said: 

The conflict in Sudan is devastating lives. Millions are displaced and facing catastrophic hunger conditions. There is growing evidence of atrocities against civilians.

The package announced today will help save lives. We have not forgotten the war in Sudan - nor must the world. The urgent priority is to end the violence.

Whilst in Chad, Minister Mitchell met with the President of the Transition, Mahamat Deby and Prime Minister Masra to underline UK support for peaceful, transparent and inclusive elections. They also discussed how the UK and Chad could work together towards peace in Sudan. 

Photo: Minister for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell during his visit to Chad, meeting refugees fleeing from violence and hunger in Sudan.

Background

• the UK calls on both sides to end the fighting, to abide by their responsibilities under International Humanitarian Law, to protect civilians and to grant immediate and unrestricted humanitarian access to allow the provision of, and access to, lifesaving assistance
• the UK provided nearly £50 million in ODA funding for Sudan in 2023 to 2024 (including over £42 million in humanitarian assistance) *  for the next financial year (2024 to 2025), overall UK aid to Sudan will increase to £89 million. We have also been helping those fleeing to neighbouring countries as a result of the conflict in Sudan, providing £7.75 million in South Sudan including to support existing and new refugees, and £15 million to Chad over the last year
• the conflict in Sudan began last April when violence erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Tensions between SAF General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) had been escalating for months following disagreements on a transition to a civilian led government
• the humanitarian crisis has been heighted by restrictions to humanitarian access and communications blackouts. More than 700,000 people have crossed from Sudan into eastern Chad, putting pressure on already vulnerable communities and stretched services
• reports of conflict-related sexual violence are widespread cross Sudan. The conflict also risks setting back progress in the fight against female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage
• throughout the conflict the UK aid-funded Sudan Free of FGM project has kept working to protect women and girls. The UK is providing an additional £4.95 million, which aims to support 100,000 additional women and girls with a range of female genital mutilation, child marriage and gender-based violence prevention and response services until March 2026.  This brings the total UK support to £19.95 million. The project has provided over 83,000 consultations for sexual and reproductive health services, helped over 100,000 people with mental health and psychosocial support, supported over 9,000 survivors of FGM, child marriage, and gender-based violence and protected over 11,700 children in child-friendly spaces
• the UK aid-funded Sudan Free of FGM works with communities to alter social attitudes around FGM and child marriage, supports survivors of gender-based violence, and provides sexual and reproductive health care. It is delivered by UNICEF, the World Health Organisation, and the United Nations Population Fund
• Sudan has one of the highest rates of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the world and is one of the few countries where child marriage remains legal. Nearly 9 in 10 women and girls aged 15 to 49 have undergone some form of FGM. 60% of girls are married before they turn 18

Media enquiries

Email newsdesk@fcdo.gov.uk

Telephone 020 7008 3100

Contact the FCDO Communication Team via email (monitored 24 hours a day) in the first instance, and we will respond as soon as possible.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-to-nearly-double-aid-for-sudan-as-humanitarian-crisis-deepens

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Sudan Watch - March 17, 2024

From Chatham House 

EXPERT COMMENT by Dame Rosalind Marsden March 14, 2024

'Sudan’s forgotten war: A new diplomatic push is needed'

Ali Karti, SG of Sudan’s Islamic Movement, widely seen as a mastermind of Sudan's war, has now announced a truce with RSF will never be accepted

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/03/ali-karti-sg-of-sudans-islamic-movement.html

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Troika statement on South Sudan Elections 2024

The Troika (Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States) have reaffirmed their call for peaceful elections in South Sudan. Updated: 20 March 2024

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