The International Criminal Court will hold a public hearing on 21 July to consider a request filed by the Prosecutor's Office to drop charges against Sudanese citizen Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain, one of the accused of committing war crimes in Darfur, in a move that could end one of the oldest cases before the court.

The court said in a statement published on its website that the fourth pre-trial chamber will hold the hearing at 2:30 p.m. The Hague time to hear observations from the prosecution, defense, and participants regarding the request to withdraw the charges, with the session to be broadcast on the court's website.

The case relates to the attack on 29 September 2007 on a position of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) peacekeeping force in the town of Haskanita, North Darfur, which resulted in the deaths of 12 members of the force and serious injuries to eight others. Banda voluntarily appeared before the court in June 2010, before the first pre-trial chamber confirmed the charges against him on 7 March 2011 and referred him to trial. He then absconded from court sessions, prompting the fourth pre-trial chamber to issue an arrest warrant against him on 11 September 2014. The case remained pending due to his failure to appear before the court, which does not hold trials in absentia.

Prosecution seeks to drop charges

The Office of the Prosecutor announced on Tuesday that it had requested permission to withdraw three charges of war crimes against Abdallah Banda, concluding that the evidence no longer provided "substantial grounds" to believe in his criminal responsibility for the crimes attributed to him. The Office of the Prosecutor said it filed the request to withdraw the charges on 5 October 2023, and it remained confidential under the chamber's orders until the documents were declassified and announced this week.

It attributed its decision to the significant deterioration of evidence over time, exhaustion of all investigative leads, inability to reach a number of witnesses or their refusal to cooperate, along with credibility issues concerning some key witnesses, and the emergence of new evidence favorable to the accused. It added: "More than a decade after the confirmation of charges, and with the investigations reaching their final stages, it is unlikely that any further inquiries would alter 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 the withdrawal of charges — subject to court approval — 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 years for justice, but it is committed to ensuring that no case is referred to trial unless 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 while Banda remains active on the military scene in Sudan. After the outbreak of war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces on 15 April 2023, he joined the joint force of armed movements signatory to the Juba Agreement, which is currently allied with the army. The Sudan Tribune newspaper reported that he arrived in the city of 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 Darfur. According to the newspaper, Banda sustained severe injuries 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 oldest Darfur files before the International Criminal Court, while the Office of the Prosecutor continues its investigations into crimes committed in Darfur since the outbreak of war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces.

The United Nations 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 a Security Council resolution. Accordingly, the court issued arrest warrants against a number of Sudanese officials, including former President Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir, against whom two arrest warrants were issued: the first on 4 March 2009 for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and the second on 12 July 2010 for genocide. The court also issued arrest warrants against then-State Minister of Interior Ahmed Muhammad Harun in April 2007, former Defense Minister Abdel Rahim Muhammad Hussein on 1 March 2012, in addition to Abdallah Banda.

Throughout his rule, President Omar al-Bashir's government refused to recognize the court's jurisdiction or hand over any of the wanted individuals, despite repeated demands by the UN Security Council and the International Criminal Court.

After the fall of al-Bashir's regime on 11 April 2019, the transitional government declared its willingness to cooperate with the court, and the Juba Peace Agreement signed in October 2020 stipulated cooperation with the International Criminal Court. The Council of Ministers also approved a draft law in August 2021 to accede to the Rome Statute, and officials pledged to hand over the wanted individuals, but those commitments were not implemented until the 25 October 2021 coup.

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

The fate of executing the arrest warrants issued by the ICC against the wanted individuals remains pending, with the authorities concealing their whereabouts. Notably, al-Bashir resides 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 the first instance chamber convicted him on 6 October 2025 of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, and sentenced him on 9 December 2025 to twenty 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 against him 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 relating to the Haskanita attack. The pre-trial chamber declined to confirm the charges against him, ending the judicial proceedings against him without referral to trial.