Sudan to hand ex-president Bashir to ICC

CAIRO – 11 February 2020: Sudanese government and rebel groups agreed upon handing over the ousted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and others to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Member of Sudan's Sovereign Council and the spokesperson for the government delegation for the Juba peace talks, Mohamed El Taayshi is quoted by the Saudi Arabian Okaz newspaper as saying “we have agreed and we are committed to refer all those who received arrest warrants to stand before the ICC."

He added that this agreement “stems from a belief in justice and not impunity,” adding that the parties agreed to establish a special court for crimes in Darfur.

This step comes in contrary to previous announcement made by the Sudanese transitional military council last April ensuring that the country will not hand over Bashir to any foreign organization and that he will stand for trial at home.

The ousted President was indicted by the U.N.’s International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide. In March 2009, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Bashir on charges he and his Arab tribal allies were responsible for genocide against non-Arab Sudanese in Darfur, South Sudan, and crimes against humanity.

According to U.N. statistics collected on the Darfur Genocide from August 2007, more than 200,000 people were killed and at least 2 million others have been displaced from their homes since fighting broke out in 2003 between government forces and their allies the Arab tribal Janjaweed militias on one side, and rebel groups on the other side.

Sudanese Minister of Defense Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf sworn on as the head of the transitional military council on Thursday evening, few hours after he announced the downfall of Bashir’s 26-year-old regime.