New York – Sudan Now | January 19, 2026
The Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that the Office of the Prosecutor has reached evidence-based findings confirming the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the city of Al Fashir, the capital of North Darfur State.
ICC stated that the RSF carried out large-scale mass killings and sought to conceal the traces of their crimes by digging mass graves, in an attempt to erase evidence of what it described as “war crimes and crimes against humanity” committed against civilians in the Darfur region. The Court added that the scale and nature of the violations reflect an organized and systematic pattern of violence.
During a briefing to the United Nations Security Council, the Deputy Prosecutor said the picture gradually emerging from Darfur has become “horrifying and shocking,” adding that the atrocities witnessed in Al Junaynah in 2023 have been repeated in a similar manner in Al Fashir in 2025, underscoring the persistence and escalation of violations amid the absence of accountability.
She added that investigations conducted by the Court’s technical team clearly indicate the systematic targeting of civilians and the launch of large-scale attacks involving deliberate killings, forced displacement, and attacks on civilian objects and hospitals, emphasizing that these acts fall within the jurisdiction of the ICC under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1593.
She emphasized that the Office of the Prosecutor continues to collect digital evidence and witness testimonies in preparation for prosecuting those responsible for these violations, warning the warring parties that impunity will not persist. She said, “The cries of victims in Al Fashir must not go unanswered. Justice will not end with documentation it will lead to prosecution.”
The ICC called on the international community and human rights organizations to facilitate access for investigators and provide necessary protection for witnesses, in order to ensure accountability and prevent impunity in the Darfur region, which international agencies describe as facing one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises.
Crimes in Darfur have fallen under the jurisdiction of the ICC since United Nations Security Council Resolution 1593 in 2005, which referred the situation in the region to the Court. Since the outbreak of the war in Sudan in April 2023, violations in Darfur have escalated, particularly in the cities of Al Junaynah and Al Fashir, amid UN and human rights reports of mass killings, forced displacement, and the systematic targeting of civilians, against the backdrop of a widespread humanitarian deterioration.
