ICC Terminates War Crimes Case Against Darfur Rebel Leader
Last update: July 23, 2026
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The International Criminal Court has dropped its long-running war crimes case against former Darfur rebel leader Abdallah Banda, more than a decade after the charges were first confirmed.
Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have terminated proceedings against the former leader of an armed group in Darfur after prosecutors withdrew all charges against him.
The case against Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain, who had been charged with war crimes over a 2007 attack on African Union peacekeepers, was formally dropped on Thursday, cbinews.tv reports.
The prosecution said the evidence against Banda had deteriorated in the time since the charges were confirmed over a decade ago in 2011.
"There are no longer substantial grounds to believe that Mr Banda is responsible for the charged crimes," the prosecution said.
The judges, however, clarified that the withdrawal of the charges and the termination of the case does not stop prosecutors from bringing a similar case against Banda in the future.
Banda had been the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement, one of the two main armed groups in Darfur during the conflict that erupted in 2003 when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against Sudan's government.
In response, Sudan's then-government mobilised Arab militias known as the Janjaweed to crush the revolt, unleashing violence that the U.S. and human rights groups said amounted to genocide.
The United Nations Security Council referred the case to the ICC back in 2005.
The region has remained volatile, with a new war breaking out in Darfur and across Sudan in 2023 pitting the army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, widely seen as successors to the Janjaweed.
So far, the ICC has only held one trial over the Darfur atrocities and sentenced a Janjaweed militia leader to 20 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
There are still three publicly known outstanding ICC arrest warrants for suspects wanted over the 2003-2005 Darfur conflict, including former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who faces accusations of genocide.
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