Juba, South Sudan,
May 31, 2021 – The International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is reportedly in Sudan where she will also head to the Darfur region.
The visit by the Chief Prosecutor to Sudan is, according to sources, aimed to assure the war-affected communities in Darfur, especially the victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity of justice.
This comes not less than a week when the prosecutor told a pre-trial court that charges against militia leader Ali Kushayb are more than 30 counts of crimes such as rape, torture, looting of civilian properties, murder, and other atrocious crimes committed in Western Darfur in 2003 and 2004.
In a statement seen by Nyamilepedia, Bensouda designed her short visit with an aim to reach out to the victims in Darfur and some witnesses who could be helpful to ICC investigations.
“I will be expressing this sincere sentiment when I visit Sudan, including Darfur next week in my last mission to the country as ICC Prosecutor,” Bensouda stated.
Mini Arko Minawi in his brief discussion with Prosecutor Bensouda entertained the idea that all indicted criminals by ICC with war crimes and crimes against humanity should be handed over to ICC including wanted ousted President Omer Al-Bashir and his colleague Mohammed Haroun.
“It is important that Haroun be handed over to the ICC because the crimes that Kushayb had committed are closely linked to Haroun,” he said adding that, Haroun was the Country’s Minister for Interior at that time who funded the militia groups with weapons and other needed aid to carry out counter-insurgency attacks.
In her part, Bensouda appreciated the people of Darfur for their resilience despite the worse situations they had gone and continue to go through. She stressed that although she will leave the office, her successor and other dedicated teams will continue the case.
Last year, Bensouda went to Khartoum with a mission to seek the transitional government’s cooperation to allow her office to carry out the needed investigation before Kushyab’s trial and Sudanese longtime autocrat Omer Al-Bashir along with his former entourages indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
