The International Criminal Court will hold a public hearing on July 21 to consider a request by the Office of the Prosecutor to withdraw charges against Sudanese national Abdullah Banda Abaker Nourain, a suspect accused of committing war crimes in the Darfur region, a move that could end one of the oldest cases before the court.

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

The case relates to the attack on September 29, 2007, on a site of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) peacekeeping force in the town of Haskanita, North Darfur, which killed 12 peacekeepers and seriously injured eight others. Banda voluntarily appeared 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. He then failed to appear for court sessions, leading Trial Chamber IV to issue an arrest warrant for him on September 11, 2014. The case has remained pending due to his absence, as the court does not conduct trials in absentia.

Prosecution Requests Dropping of Charges

The Office of the Prosecutor announced Tuesday that it had requested permission to withdraw three war crimes charges against Abdullah Banda, concluding that the evidence no longer provides 'substantial grounds' to believe in his criminal responsibility for the alleged crimes. The Office said it submitted the request to withdraw charges on October 5, 2023, and it remained confidential in accordance with the Chamber's orders, before the documents were declassified and announced this week.

It attributed the decision to the significant deterioration of evidence over time, exhaustion of all investigative leads, inability to access some witnesses or their refusal to cooperate, along with credibility issues concerning some key witnesses, and the emergence of new evidence in favor of the defendant. It added: 'More than a decade since the charges were confirmed and with investigations in their final stages, it is unlikely that any further inquiries would change this assessment.'

The Office of the Prosecutor attributed its decision to what it called an 'objective assessment of the evidence' and a commitment not to proceed to trial unless sufficient evidence exists, noting that withdrawal of charges—if approved by the court—would end Banda's case without preventing the prosecution from re-filing charges in the future if new evidence emerges.

Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Khan said her office is aware of the decision's impact on victims who have waited for justice for years, but it is committed to ensuring that no case is referred to trial unless it is based on sufficient evidence.

Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Nazhat Khan (AFP)

She added: 'The request to withdraw charges concerns Banda alone and does not affect other cases related to Darfur crimes, or the investigations conducted by the Office of the Prosecutor regarding crimes committed during the current war in Sudan.'

The request to withdraw charges comes as Banda remains active on the military scene in Sudan. After the outbreak of war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces on April 15, 2023, he joined the joint force of armed movements that signed the Juba Agreement, now allied with the army. The Sudan Tribune reported that he arrived in El Fasher in November 2023 at the head of a military force and announced his joining the fight alongside the army, before later participating in military operations conducted by the joint force in the Darfur region. According to the newspaper, Banda was seriously injured during an attack by the Rapid Support Forces on the Malha area in North Darfur in March 2025, was transferred to Egypt for treatment, and later returned to Omdurman.

The request to withdraw charges comes amid the complexities faced by one of the International Criminal Court's oldest files on Darfur, as the Office of the Prosecutor continues its investigations into crimes committed in the Darfur region since the outbreak of war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces.

The UN Security Council referred the Darfur case to the International Criminal Court in 2005 under Resolution 1593, making it the first case referred to the court by Council decision. Accordingly, the court issued arrest warrants for several Sudanese officials, including former President Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir, against whom two arrest warrants were issued—the first on March 4, 2009, for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and the second on July 12, 2010, for genocide. The court also issued arrest warrants for then-State Minister of Interior Ahmed Muhammad Haroun in April 2007, former Minister of Defense Abdel Rahim Muhammad Hussein on March 1, 2012, in addition to Abdullah Banda.

Throughout its rule, President Omar al-Bashir's government refused to recognize the court's jurisdiction or surrender any of the wanted individuals, despite repeated calls from the UN Security Council and the International Criminal Court.

After the fall of al-Bashir's regime on April 11, 2019, the transitional government declared its willingness to cooperate with the court. The Juba Peace Agreement signed in October 2020 stipulated cooperation with the International Criminal Court, and the Cabinet approved a bill in August 2021 to join the Rome Statute. Officials announced their commitment to surrender the wanted individuals, but those pledges were not implemented until the coup of October 25, 2021.

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

The fate of executing the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against the wanted individuals remains pending, and the authorities conceal their whereabouts, though al-Bashir is known to reside somewhere in the north of the country.

Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as 'Ali Kushayb,' is the first and last defendant in the Darfur case to appear before the International Criminal Court. He surrendered himself to the court in June 2020, and Trial Chamber I convicted him on October 6, 2025, of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, sentencing him on December 9, 2025, to 20 years in prison.

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