The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court warns that Sudanese paramilitary forces may commit war crimes in Darfur

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court said Monday they are taking steps to preserve evidence from Sudan’s Darfur region of possible war crimes committed by a paramilitary force after it seized a key government stronghold and killed hundreds of people.

The court “is taking immediate steps regarding the alleged crimes in El Fasher to preserve and collect relevant evidence for use in future trials,” the public prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

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The statement said the alleged atrocities “are part of a broader pattern of violence that has afflicted the entire Darfur region” and that they “may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Last week, the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary group, captured the main city of El Fasher after an 18-month siege.

Eyewitnesses reported that fighters moved from house to house, killing civilians and committing sexual assaults. According to the World Health Organization, groups of armed men killed at least 460 people in a hospital and kidnapped doctors and nurses.

Many details of the hospital attack and other violence in the city have not been revealed, and the total death toll remains unclear.

The fall of El Fasher heralds a new phase in the brutal two-year war between the Rapid Support Forces and the army in the third largest country in Africa.

The court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, told the Security Council in January that there were reasons to believe that government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces may be committing war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in Darfur.

Karim Khan has temporarily resigned as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, which he categorically denies.

Earlier this month, the court convicted a suspect of crimes in Darfur for the first time, after looking into atrocities committed in the region for more than two decades. Ali Muhammad Ali Abdul Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, was convicted of ordering mass executions and beating two prisoners to death with an axe.