Rhino: Agencies – A group of people affected by airstrikes carried out by the Sudanese military has decided to file a formal complaint against the army commander, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, with the UN Security Council, the International Criminal Court, and the United States.
One of the victims, who preferred to remain anonymous for security reasons, stated that the primary motivation behind this move is the recent UN Security Council resolution extending the arms embargo on the Darfur region, noting with sorrow that he lost his wife and four of his children in an airstrike carried out by the air force that targeted their town in the region.
These moves follow the recent technical resolution issued by the UN Security Council, which extended the arms embargo and sanctions regime related to Darfur for an additional period, while emphasizing the need to protect civilians and halt aerial bombardment and armed military operations.
This short-term extension followed efforts and pressure from the United States through an official proposal calling for the expansion of the arms embargo to cover all of Sudan—not just the Darfur region—in order to curb the flow of weapons and halt the spread of the conflict.
However, this U.S. initiative faced international and regional dissent and objections, particularly from Russia and China, as well as rejection by the Sudanese government, which viewed the expansion of the embargo as an undermining of the state’s sovereignty and its right to self-defense. This prompted the Council to provisionally adopt the current extension until a broader consensus can be reached.
“In the same vein, the international judicial arena is witnessing notable developments aimed at prosecuting those involved in violations and those financing conflicts in Sudan; on October 17 of last year, a jury in a federal court in Manhattan, New York, found “BNP Paribas” and found it liable for providing assistance to the regime of former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
The court issued a ruling requiring the bank to pay $20.75 million in damages to three Sudanese victims who suffered atrocities and acts of violence linked to the conflict in the Darfur region, thereby setting a legal precedent for prosecuting all parties and entities involved in supporting violence in the country.
