Sudan’s Foreign Affairs Minister announces that the country will hand-over Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court.

On 12 August 2021, Sudan’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mariam al-Mahdi, declared that the Sudanese Foreign Affairs cabinet decided to hand over Omar al-Bashir to International Criminal Court during a visit of the ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan. However, the Minister did not mention when it would happen as he reinforced that Sudan’s sovereign council still need to approve it, once it is charged with military and civilian figures. The ICC has been waiting for more than ten years to prosecute and judge al-Bashir for his crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Sudanese region of Darfur. The conflict broke out in 2003 when non-Arab rebels took up arms complaining about the systematic discrimination deployed by the al-Bashir government in the region. Human rights groups have long accused al-Bashir and his former aides of using raping, killing, looting and burning villages as a response to the resistance of these groups. According to the United Nations’ database, roughly 300,000 people were killed and 2.5 million displaced in the Darfur conflict. Regardless of the willingness of the Sudanese government to cooperate with the ICC by delivering al-Bashir to its jurisdiction, Sudan was not a party to the Rome Statute yet. This could be a potential obstacle for his extradition, which raised doubts if al-Bashir should be sent to The Hague or if a special court for Darfur would be established to take care of the charges related to the conflict. Nevertheless, last week, Sudan’s cabinet voted for ratifying the Rome Statute, a step ahead towards the trial of Omar al-Bashir.  For further information, please visit: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/12/sudan-omar-al-bashir-icc-war-crimes-darfur