In a brief statement released yesterday, the International Criminal Court has announced that it is conducting an investigation in the genocidal massacre in Al-Fashir perpetuated by the Rapid Support Forces. The ICC’s statement also makes an effort to prove that it has made efforts in the past to seek justice for the atrocities and war crimes by the Rapid Support Forces by mentioning the case of Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman.
The former commander of the Janjaweed militias, which now have become the RSF, was found guilty by the ICC over war crimes in Darfur in a case that it’s investigation started in 2005. The case of Al-Rahman, which has been ongoing for twenty years, gives little consolation for the relatives of the many thousands of Sudanese whose relatives were massacred by the RSF. The ICC also issued arrest warrants against the previous President of Sudan, Omar Al-Bashir, who originally empowered the Janjaweed and used them to quell a rebellion in Darfur in 2003. Today, Omar al-Bashir lives in a secret location somewhere in Sudan.
The Janjaweed committed the worst war crimes in Africa after the genocide in Rwanda, killing up to 400,000 people from 2003 to 2008. They resumed their genocidal acts in 2010 and then again in 2019 after being rebranded as the RSF with a massacre in Al-Geneina in 2019, the Kindring massacre of 2021 and another massacre in 2022. In April 2023, the RSF captured the capital-city Khartoum. In December 2023, the RSF broke a ceasefire and renewed its war against the Sudanese government with the financing and backing of the United Arab Emirates.
Up to 25 million Sudanese have been displaced as a result of the Janjaweed and RSF massacres. Over one million Sudanese have returned to Khartoum this year following its liberation and the expulsion of the RSF from the city.
The RSF are unable to properly govern the territories they control because most of the educated Sudanese do not want to work with them and this often means the RSF lacks the capabilities to create and run civil institutions. On technical matters, the RSF gets help from the UAE. Most people often flee the areas captured by the RSF.
The RSF have little legitimacy abroad but they are supported by the UAE’s allies and proxies including the dictator of Chad, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, and Khalifa Haftar from Benghazi. The Kenyan government, which is currently conducting gold deals with the RSF, is also a major supporter of the group, which maintains a political office in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
For the latest updates on Al-Fashir you can read this article.
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