THE International Criminal Court’s prosecutor told the United Nations on Monday that he believes war crimes are being committed by both Sudan’s armed forces and its paramilitary rivals in the western Darfur region.

Karim Khan told the UN security council: “Based on the work of my office, it’s my clear finding, my clear assessment, that there are grounds to believe that presently Rome Statute crimes are being committed in Darfur by both the Sudanese armed forces and the Rapid Support Force (RSF) and affiliated groups.”

Mr Khan has faced criticism for failing to make similar findings over the relentless Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza.

The prosecutor urged Sudan’s government to provide his investigators with multiple-entry visas and to respond to the 35 requests for assistance.

Sudan plunged into chaos last April when long-simmering tensions between the military and the RSF paramilitary, erupted into street battles in the capital, Khartoum, and other parts of the country.

Darfur, which was devastated by bloodshed and atrocities in 2003, has been an epicentre of the current conflict, an arena of ethnic violence where paramilitary troops and allied Arab militias have reportedly been attacking African ethnic groups.

The fighting has displaced over seven million people and killed 12,000, according to the UN although local doctors’ groups and activists say the true death toll is far higher.

Sudan’s UN Ambassador Al-Harith Mohamed said that his government was co-operating with the prosecutor and accused the ICC of not taking into consideration its “strategic engagement and the operational realities on the ground.”

Mr Mohamed also accused the RSF of committing wide-scale, “ethnic cleansing and identity killing” of Darfur’s Masalit ethnic community. 

The Sudanese ambassador said that the armed forces don’t call for war but are compelled to defend the country, stressing that soldiers spare no effort to minimise collateral damage and comply with the laws of war including proportionality.