Scotland Yard has received a dossier of evidence documenting myriad alleged war crimes committed by a paramilitary group during the conflict in Sudan.
Lawyers have submitted a 142-page file of evidence to the war crimes unit of the Metropolitan police containing details of numerous atrocities perpetrated by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Compiled by a London-based team of barristers specialising in international law, it documents killings, torture and mass rape. It has been drawn up to support global efforts to hold perpetrators accountable and the lawyers have requested that the Met unit – part of the force’s counter-terrorism command known as SO15 – reviews the dossier before passing it to the international criminal court (ICC) to assist investigations into RSF atrocities in Darfur, in the west of Sudan.
Now into its third year, the catastrophic war between the RSF and the Sudanese military has prompted the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, killed at least 150,00 people and forced 12 million from their homes.
The lawyers said the documents, given to the Met on Monday, offer evidence that the RSF’s leadership are responsible for repeated war crimes, focusing on the legal principle of “command responsibility” – that commanders knew or ought to have known about the atrocities committed by their troops.
Former international judge Sir Howard Morrison described the dossier’s weight of evidence as “compelling”.
“The novel approach through the highly regarded offices of SO15 adds great impetus to the potential accountability of those responsible for the atrocities that have been visited upon numerous victims in Darfur,” Morrison said.
The lead lawyer, Lucia Brieskova, added: “We believe this submission will contribute to the fight against impunity suffered by many in Darfur in Sudan.”
The case was instructed by a Sudanese pro-democracy supporter, whom the Guardian is not naming for security reasons.
It comes as the international court of justice is expected to deliver a verdict on whether the United Arab Emirates can plausibly be found “complicit in the commission of genocide” by arming the RSF in Sudan’s civil war.
The case was brought by Sudan who said the UAE has been arming the RSF with the aim of wiping out the non-Arab Masalit population of west Darfur. The UAE has said the case is a cynical publicity stunt.
Recently the Trump administration characterised atrocities committed by the RSF in Darfur as genocide, reaffirming a designation made by the Biden administration in January.
The submission sent to Scotland Yard says evidence assembled by the UN, human rights groups and the media, proved war crimes in Darfur were perpetrated by RSF troops.
“Steps should have been taken by the RSF leadership to address the situation.
“Taken together, this direct and circumstantial evidence makes it clear that the RSF leadership either knew, or at least should have known, that the war crimes were being committed by the RSF in Darfur. Therefore, they have a case to answer under international criminal and humanitarian law,” it states.
Although the ICC investigation is focusing on war crimes in Darfur, reports of atrocities being committed throughout the country continue to emerge.
Last week, footage circulated online showed at least 31 people, including children, were killed by the RSF in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman.
The Sudanese army also faces accusations of committing atrocities against civilians, with its leaders sanctioned by the US.
