KHARTOUM, Sudan
Sudan will hand over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) several of its former leaders, including deposed autocrat Omar al-Bashir, wanted for crimes against humanity and war crimes during the conflict in Darfur, the country's foreign minister said on Wednesday.
"The Council of
Ministers has decided to hand over the wanted persons to the International
Criminal Court," Mariam al-Mahdi, Sudan's Minister of Foreign Affairs.
According to the
official Suna agency, the decision was arrived at after a consultative meeting
between the office of the foreign ministry and the new chief prosecutor of the
Hague-based court, Karim Khan, who was visiting Khartoum.
The Darfur conflict
broke out when rebels from the territory’s ethnic central and sub-Saharan
African community launched an insurgency in 2003, complaining of oppression by
the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.
Al-Bashir’s government
responded with a campaign of aerial bombings and raids by militias known as
janjaweed, who stands accused of mass killings and rapes. Up to 300,000 people
were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes.
The court charged
al-Bashir with war crimes and genocide for allegedly masterminding the campaign
of attacks in Darfur. Sudanese prosecutors last year started their own
investigation into the Darfur conflict.
Also indicted by the
court are two other senior figures from al-Bashir’s rule: Abdel-Rahim Muhammad
Hussein, interior and defense minister during much of the conflict, and Ahmed
Haroun, a senior security chief at the time and later the leader of al-Bashir’s
ruling party. Both Hussein and Haroun have been under arrest in Khartoum since
the Sudanese military, under pressure from protesters, ousted al-Bashir in
April 2019.
The court also indicted
rebel leader Abdulla Banda, whose whereabouts are unknown, and janjaweed leader
Ali Kushayb, who was charged in May with crimes against humanity and war
crimes.
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