tion into a surge of hostilities in Sudan’s Darfur region since mid-April, including reported killings, rapes, arson, displacement and crimes affecting children.
The regular army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been battling in the capital, Khartoum, and other areas of Sudan in a power struggle that exploded in on April 15.
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More than 3 million people have been uprooted, including more than 700,000 who have fled into neighbouring countries. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week that Sudan, Africa’s third largest country by land area, was on the brink of full-scale civil war that could destabilise the wider region.
“The office can confirm that it has commenced investigations in relation to incidents occurring in the context of the present hostilities,” ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s office said in a report to the UN Security Council on Thursday.
ICC prosecutors are “closely tracking reports of extrajudicial killings, burning of homes and markets, and looting, in Al Geneina, West Darfur, as well as the killing and displacement of civilians in North Darfur and other locations across Darfur,” the report said.
It is also examining “allegations of sexual and gender-based crimes, including mass rapes and alleged reports of violence against and affecting children”, it said.
