The Sudanese government will hand Omar al-Bashir over to International Criminal Court (ICC) along with other several officials who are wanted over the Darfur conflict and crimes committed against humanity, stated by Sudan’s foreign minister on Wednesday.
Omar al-Bashir ruled Sudan for three decades and was deposed in 2019. Now, he faces charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
The Darfur conflict emerged when rebels from the territory ethnic central and sub-Saharan African community initiated its complaints of oppression by the Arab dominated government in Khartoum, in 2003.
Bashir, 77, has been wanted by the ICC since 2009, when a warrant was issued for his arrest.
According to the official Suna agency, the decision to hand him over happened during a visit of consultative meeting between the office of the foreign ministry and the new chief prosecutor of the Hague-based court, Karim Khan in Khartoum.
“The Council of Ministers has decided to hand over the wanted persons to the International Criminal Court,” said Mariam al-Mahdi, Sudan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The court indicted two other senior figures from al-Bashir’s rule: Abdel-Rahim Muhammad Hussein, interior and defense minister during much of the conflict, and Ahmed Haroun, a senior security chief at the time and later the leader of al-Bashir’s ruling party. Both figures have been under arrest in Khartoum since the Sudanese military, under pressure from protesters, ousted al-Bashir in April 2019.
ICC judges said in July he would be the first suspect to be tried over the Darfur conflict, facing 31 counts including murder, rape and torture.
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