US offers reward for aide to Sudan's former leader Omar al-Bashir

WASHINGTON, US

The United States on Monday offered a reward of up to $5 million for the arrest of a former Sudanese official sought over alleged Darfur war crimes who escaped prison, as charges grow of new atrocities.

Ahmed Harun, a former top aide to deposed dictator Omar al-Bashir, is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for helping form the notorious Janjaweed militia which carried out a scorched-earth campaign in Darfur in the 2000s.

Harun announced in April that he and other former regime officials escaped Khartoum's Kober prison days after fighting broke out between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

The United States pointed out that the Janjaweed has evolved into the Rapid Support Forces, which is accused of ethnic-based attacks against the non-Arab population in western Sudan.

"Lasting peace in Sudan requires justice for victims and accountability for those responsible for human rights abuses and violations, both past and present," State Departments spokesman Matthew Miller said.

"There is a clear and direct connection between impunity for abuses under the Bashir regime, including those of which Harun is accused, and the violence in Darfur today," he said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has accused the Rapid Support Forces of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in the latest bloodshed.

Addressing the UN Security Council on Monday, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said it was his "clear assessment" that both sides were carrying out crimes in Darfur.

He said the ICC has not received a single "scrap of paper" from Sudan's armed forces in response to requests to send in investigators.

Many in Darfur are right to fear that their situation "will be the forgotten atrocity," he said.

"If it does, it will be the second time the people of Darfur have been failed. Humanity at large failed, and we must not collectively allow that to happen, Khan told the Council by video link.

The United States has worked with Saudi Arabia to broker a peace agreement between the dueling generals but to little avail.

The war has killed at least 13,000 people, according to a conservative estimate by the Conflict Location and Event Data project, and displaced more than seven million people, according to the UN.

The ICC has sought Harun since 2007 over 20 counts of crimes against humanity and 22 counts of war crimes. In 2009, Bashir became the first sitting head of state indicted by the Hague-based court, but Sudan has not handed him over.

The reward by the United States -- which itself is not party to the court -- is offered for information that leads to Harun's arrest, transfer or conviction.