(Crime): International Criminal Court opens new Probe into Sudan Violence

The International Criminal Court has opened a new probe into alleged war crimes in Sudan, its chief prosecutor said on Thursday, July 13, 2023, expressing major concern over escalating violence.

Karim Khan made the announcement in a report to the UN Security Council, after three months of war between feuding generals have plunged the northeast African country back into chaos.

The ICC has been investigating crimes in Sudan's Darfur region since 2005 after a referral by the UN Security Council, and the Hague-based court has charged former leader Omar al-Bashir with offenses including genocide.

Allegations of atrocities have mounted during the recent fighting, with the top UN official in Sudan calling for the warring sides to face accountability.

Around 3,000 people have been killed and three million displaced since violence erupted between Sudan army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group.

The pair were key figures in a 2021 military coup that derailed the country's transition to civilian rule, following the ousting and detention of Bashir in 2019.

The UN has warned of possible new massacres in Darfur, saying Thursday that the bodies of at least 87 people allegedly killed last month by the RSF and their allies had been buried in a mass grave in Darfur.

A summit of leaders from Sudan's neighbors met in Cairo on Thursday, urging an end to the fighting, but gun battles, explosions and the roar of fighter jets again shook the capital Khartoum, according to residents.

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