UK Minister for Africa Andrew Mitchell announced Tuesday that the UK would send evidence to the UN of alleged war crimes in Darfur, Sudan. In a joint statement with the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office, Mitchell said that the UK was “extremely concerned by the growing body of evidence of serious atrocities against civilians committed in Sudan.”
Mitchell stated that the UK is currently building up their “capacity to monitor atrocities” taking place in Sudan as the two warring factions—the Sudanese Armed Force (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF)—continue to fight. The UK intends to pass the information gathered through those monitoring missions onto UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
On July 13, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan announced the court had opened an investigation into human rights offenses committed by the SAF and the RSF, only 90 days after the conflict began in Sudan. ICC investigators are investigating claims of attacks on civilians, the targeting of ethnic minorities, violence against children, sexual violence as well as broader humanitarian law violations.
The ICC announced the investigation the same day Türk called for a “swift investigation” into the killing of 87 civilians of the Masalit ethnic community. The bodies were discovered in a mass grave in West Darfur, Sudan. Mitchell drew attention to these reports in his Tuesday statement, saying, “The continued widespread violence across the country and significant civilian death toll are horrific. Reports of deliberate targeting and mass displacement of the Masalit community in Darfur are particularly shocking and abhorrent.”
Mitchell’s statement also doubled down on UK Foreign Secreatary James Cleverly’s earlier April 17 statement where he said that the UK would help to hold the SAF and the RSF for their alleged crimes. In July, the UK announced a package of sanctions freezing the assets of commercial entities linked to both the SAF and the RSF. Mitchell called upon the UK’s international allies to join in holding the two parties accountable and stated that the UK “stand[s] ready to take additional measures.”