ICC prosecutor demands Sudan hands over Omar Al Bashir

Top UN court originally issued arrest warrant for former president in 2009 over atrocities in Darfur region

Omar Al Bashir ruled Sudan for three decades before he was overthrown in 2019. AP

International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan has called on Sudan's de facto government to immediately transfer former president Omar Al Bashir and two other former officials to the court in The Hague. Mr Khan also referred to a recent bombing of a hospital in Darfur as evidence of atrocities in the region.

Addressing the UN Security Council on Monday evening, Mr Khan expressed frustration at Sudan's failure to hand over Al Bashir. He has been wanted by the ICC for more than a decade to face charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity during the conflict in Darfur in 2003 and 2004 that left an estimated 300,000 people dead and drove 2.7 million from their homes.

"Criminality is accelerating in Darfur," Mr Khan said. "Civilians are being targeted, women and girls are subjected to sexual violence and entire communities are left in destruction. This is not just an assessment, it is a hard-edged analysis based on verified evidence."

Al Bashir, who ruled Sudan for three decades, was jailed in Khartoum after he was overthrown in 2019. He was transferred last year from a military facility in the capital to a hospital in the town of Merowe for better medical attention, his lawyer said in September. Sudan's military-led government has been negotiating with the ICC about putting him on trial.

Mr Khan said the failure to hand over Al Bashir, 81, and two other officials wanted for crimes in Darfur – former defence minister Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, 74, and former South Kordofan governor Ahmed Haroun, who is about 60 – would undermine the credibility of Sudan's stated commitment to justice and accountability.

He called on the Security Council to recommit to the principles outlined in Resolution 1593, which was adopted 20 years ago and referred the culprits behind atrocities committed in Darfur to the ICC.

Mr Khan said a new generation was suffering the same atrocities endured by their parents. "We hear those echoes that gave rise to the original referral," he added.

The hospital bombing in North Darfur on Friday killed at least 70 people and injured more than 100, local medical sources said.

Two drone strikes hit the Saudi Teaching Hospital in El Fasher, in what UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned as an "appalling attack" that affected the only functioning hospital in Darfur's largest city. No group has claimed responsibility for the strikes.

Sudan is embroiled in a civil war between its army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. According to the UN, tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 11 million displaced since the fighting began in 2023.

In May, the former US special envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello, said some estimates suggested that 150,000 people had been killed in the violence.

Meanwhile, a November report by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine's Sudan Research Group said more than 61,000 people have died in Khartoum state.