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International Criminal Court prosecutors said they are trying to preserve evidence from a rampage last week through a besieged city in Darfur by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group fighting Sudanese army troops. The alleged atrocities in famine-hit el-Fasher “are part of a broader pattern of violence that has afflicted the entire Darfur region” and “may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the ICC statement said, noting the evidence could be used in future prosecutions. Read moreSurvivors of Sudan's El-Fasher say RSF is separating families and killing children The RSF captured el-Fasher last week after besieging it for 18 months. Witnesses have reported RSF fighters going house to house, killing civilians, committing sexual assault and killing children in front of their parents. According to the World Health Organization, gunmen killed at least 460 people at a hospital and abducted doctors and nurses. Details have been slow to emerge as communications are poor and the total death toll remains unclear. A global hunger monitor on Monday confirmed famine conditions in el-Fasher, as well as Kadugli, another besieged city in Sudan’s south. The finding is the first time the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has determined that the cities are in famine, though in December it had confirmed famine in camps for displaced people in el-Fasher. The IPC is the internationally recognised standard for measuring the severity of hunger crises. The fall of el-Fasher heralds a new phase of the brutal two-year war in Africa’s third-largest country. The ICC’s chief prosecutor told the UN Security Council in January there were grounds to believe both sides may be committing war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in Darfur. Read moreSudan: What photos and videos can tell us about the El-Fasher massacres The US adviser for African affairs, Massad Boulos, told the AP in an interview on Monday that the US is working with the Sudanese army and RSF to bring about a humanitarian truce and could have an announcement “soon”. “We were working on this for the last almost 10 days with both sides, hoping to finalise the details," Boulos said. The US-led plan would start with a three-month truce followed by a nine-month political process, he said. The US has been working for months with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, known as the Quad, on ways to end the war.
