Former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir during his trial with 27 senior officials in the period following the military coup
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller announced a reward of up to $5 million for anyone who contributes to the arrest of a collaborator with ousted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is accused of committing war crimes in Darfur.
This announcement concerns Ahmed Haroun, a former collaborator with Al-Bashir who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region of western Sudan between 2003 and 2004, according to the US State Department.
The US State Department announces the inclusion of a former Sudanese minister in the war crimes rewards program
“It is important to find Haroun and bring him to the International Criminal Court to answer the charges against him,” Miller said in a statement.
He added, "There is a clear and direct link between impunity for violations committed under the Bashir regime, including those that Haroun is accused of committing, and the violence taking place in Darfur today."
Haroun was a minister during the Bashir era, as well as governor of the Sudanese state of South Kordofan. Last April, shortly after the outbreak of war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, Haroun announced that he had escaped from Kober prison in Khartoum with other former officials in the Bashir regime.
For his part, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, said, speaking via teleconference before the UN Security Council yesterday, Monday, that he had reached “clear conclusions” that “there is reason to believe that crimes stipulated in the Rome Statute are currently being committed in Darfur by the armed forces.” Sudanese forces, the Rapid Support Forces, and groups affiliated with them.”
22 civilians were killed in an attack on a village in western Niger
22 civilians were killed last Sunday in an attack launched by elements believed to be “jihadists” on a village in the Tillaberi region, western Niger, near the border with Mali, according to what two local sources confirmed Monday to Agence France-Presse.
A local official said in a statement to the agency, "Unfortunately, 22 people were killed in the attack, some of them members of a self-defense militia in the village of Motugata." A resident of a nearby area confirmed.
The official stated that the attackers arrived in the village around 15:00 GMT “on 20 motorcycles, each carrying two people” and “started shooting, and people were killed immediately.”
A military junta has been in power in Niger since July last year following the coup.
On January 11, 3 civilians were killed and a security officer was wounded in an attack targeting a police station on the outskirts of Niger’s capital , according to what was reported by the official Niger News Agency.
On December 17, the leader of the council, General Abdel Rahman Tiani, said that the security situation was “gradually returning to normal” thanks to the army’s “several successes” in stopping the unrest.