The International Criminal Court (ICC) will hold a public hearing on July 21 to consider a request submitted by the Office of the Prosecutor to withdraw charges against Sudanese citizen Abdallah Banda Abaka Nourain, one of the suspects accused of committing war crimes in Darfur, in a move that could close one of the oldest cases before the court.

In a statement posted on its website, the court announced that Trial Chamber IV will convene at 2:30 p.m. The Hague time to hear observations from the prosecution, defense, and participants regarding the request to withdraw the charges. The hearing will be broadcast on the court's website.

The case pertains to the September 29, 2007, attack on an African Union Peacekeeping Mission (AMIS) site in the town of Haskanita, North Darfur, which resulted in the deaths of 12 personnel and serious injuries to eight others. Banda had appeared voluntarily before the court in June 2010, before Pre-Trial Chamber I confirmed the charges against him on March 7, 2011, and committed him to trial. Following his subsequent absence from proceedings, Trial Chamber IV issued an arrest warrant for him on September 11, 2014, and the case has remained pending as the court does not conduct trials in absentia.

The Office of the Prosecutor announced on Tuesday that it has sought authorization to withdraw three war crimes charges against Abdallah Banda, concluding that the evidence no longer provides "substantial grounds" to believe in his criminal responsibility for the alleged crimes. The office stated it filed the request to withdraw the charges on October 5, 2023, which had remained confidential under chamber orders until the documents were unsealed and the request was announced this week.

The office attributed its decision to the significant degradation of evidence over time, the exhaustion of all investigation avenues, the inability to locate several witnesses or their refusal to cooperate, as well as credibility issues regarding some key witnesses and the emergence of new exculpatory evidence. It added: "Given that more than a decade has passed since the charges were confirmed and investigations have reached their final stages, it is unlikely that any further inquiries would alter this assessment."

The Office of the Prosecutor stated that its decision stems from an "objective assessment of the evidence" and a commitment to proceed to trial only when sufficient evidence exists, noting that if the court approves, the withdrawal would end the Banda case without preventing the prosecution from refiling charges in the future should new evidence arise.

Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan stated that her office recognizes the impact of the decision on victims who have awaited justice for years, yet remains committed to ensuring no case is brought to trial unless based on sufficient evidence.

ICC Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan (AFP)

She continued: "The request to withdraw charges concerns only Banda and does not affect other cases related to Darfur crimes, nor does it impact ongoing investigations by the Office of the Prosecutor into crimes committed during the current war in Sudan."

The request to withdraw charges comes as Banda remains active on the Sudanese military scene. Following the outbreak of war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 15, 2023, he joined the Joint Force composed of armed movements that signed the Juba Agreement, which is currently allied with the army. The 'Sudan Tribune' reported that he arrived in El Fasher in November 2023 leading a military force and announced his participation in the fighting alongside the army, later taking part in military operations conducted by the Joint Force in Darfur. According to the newspaper, Banda sustained severe injuries during an attack by the RSF on the Malha area in North Darfur in March 2025, was transported to Egypt for treatment, and subsequently returned to Omdurman.

The request to withdraw the charges coincides with complications that have faced one of the ICC's oldest Darfur files, at a time when the Office of the Prosecutor continues its investigations into crimes committed in the Darfur region since the eruption of the war between the army and the RSF.

The UN Security Council referred the Darfur case to the ICC in 2005 under Resolution 1593, marking the first time the Council referred a case to the court. Consequently, the court issued arrest warrants for several Sudanese officials, including former President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, who faced two warrants: one on March 4, 2009, for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and another on July 12, 2010, for genocide. The court also issued warrants for then-Minister of State for the Interior Ahmad Muhammad Harun in April 2007, former Minister of Defense Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein on March 1, 2012, and Abdallah Banda.

Throughout his presidency, Omar al-Bashir's government refused to recognize the court's jurisdiction or hand over any suspects, despite repeated demands from the UN Security Council and the ICC.

Following the collapse of the Bashir regime on April 11, 2019, the transitional government announced its readiness to cooperate with the court. The Juba Peace Agreement signed in October 2020 stipulated cooperation with the ICC, and in August 2021, the Council of Ministers approved a draft law to accede to the Rome Statute. Officials announced their commitment to handing over the suspects, but those pledges were not implemented before the October 25, 2021, coup.

Ali Kushayb during the sentencing hearing where he was convicted of war crimes in Darfur, December 9 (AFP)

The fate of the arrest warrants issued for the ICC suspects remains unresolved, with authorities concealing their whereabouts, noting that Bashir resides somewhere in the north of the country.

Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman, known as 'Ali Kushayb,' remains the first and only suspect in the Darfur case to appear before the ICC. He surrendered to the court in June 2020. Trial Chamber I convicted him on October 6, 2025, of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, and sentenced him on December 9, 2025, to 20 years in prison.

Kushayb's conviction is the first issued by the court in the Darfur cases since the file was referred over twenty years ago, and his sentence remains subject to appeal. As for Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, who served as Minister of Health after signing a peace agreement with the Bashir government, he appeared voluntarily before the court in 2009 in the same case related to the Haskanita attack. The Pre-Trial Chamber refused to confirm the charges against him, ending the judicial proceedings against him without trial.