The International Criminal Court has formally ended its long-running case against former Darfur rebel commander Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain after prosecutors withdrew all charges, saying there is no longer enough evidence to sustain the prosecution.
The decision brings to a close a case that had remained before the Hague-based court for more than a decade. Banda had been accused of war crimes linked to a deadly 2007 attack on African Union peacekeepers in Sudan’s Darfur region.
Prosecutors told the court that the evidence supporting the case had significantly weakened over the years since the charges were first confirmed in 2011.
According to the prosecution, the available material no longer provides sufficient grounds to establish Banda’s alleged criminal responsibility for the offences originally brought against him.
Following the prosecution’s request, ICC judges ordered that the proceedings be terminated.
However, the judges clarified that the decision does not amount to an acquittal and does not prevent prosecutors from reopening the case in the future should credible new evidence emerge.
Banda was a senior figure in the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), one of the main rebel groups that fought Sudanese government forces during the Darfur conflict, which erupted in 2003 after armed groups accused Khartoum of politically and economically marginalizing the region.
The Sudanese government responded by deploying and supporting Arab militias known as the Janjaweed, whose campaign of violence against civilians triggered widespread international condemnation. The United States and several human rights organizations later described the atrocities committed during the conflict as genocide.
The United Nations Security Council referred the Darfur situation to the ICC in 2005, paving the way for investigations into alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Although the court has pursued several high-profile suspects, progress has been slow. To date, the ICC has secured only one conviction connected to crimes committed in Darfur, sentencing former Janjaweed commander Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, to 20 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Several arrest warrants issued by the court remain outstanding, including one for former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The court’s decision comes as Sudan continues to face a fresh humanitarian catastrophe following the outbreak of another conflict in 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The RSF is widely regarded as having evolved from the Janjaweed militias that played a central role in the earlier Darfur conflict.
The renewed fighting has displaced millions of people and fuelled allegations of widespread atrocities, prompting the ICC to continue monitoring developments in the region.
