A popular uprising in the spring of 2019 led to the removal of Al-Bashir and the ruling National Congress Party (NCP). The NCP had been in power since 1989. The uprising ushered in a period of civilian rule and a new constitution. It also raised the possibility that Al-Bashir and other Sudanese leaders indicted by the ICC could be held accountable for genocide and other violations of international law. Discussions between the post-2019 government and the ICC involved a potential hybrid prosecution of Al-Bashir. It would include both international prosecutors and domestic judicial procedures.
In August 2021, the transitional government indicated that they were willing to turn over Al-Bashir and over indicted leaders to the ICC. In October 2021, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) staged a military coup and formed a Transitional Military Council (TMC). Despite promises of transition to civilian rule, the TMC undid many of the forms initiated by the civilian government in 2019. The coup leaders did not restore Al-Bashir to power. However, many of the new military leaders were also responsible for earlier human rights abuses in Darfur and other regions of Sudan. Sudanese authorities have not turned to Al-Bashir or other individuals with outstanding arrest warrants over to the ICC. After the October 2021 coup, RSF leaders—especially General Mohamed “Hemedti” Hamdan—continued to gain influence as members of the ruling TMC government.
In December 2022, in the face of popular protests, the SAF, RSF, and Sudanese political parties negotiated a deal that would have slowly led to a new civilian administration in Sudan. The RSF, however, rejected the idea of formally integrating into the SAF. In April 2023, the RSF attacked SAF positions in Khartoum and key military sites. The attacks sparked another wave of violence. Since this outbreak of violence between the SAF and RSF, civilians in Sudan have endured ongoing mass atrocities at an alarming scale. Both the SAF and the RSF have been accused of committing crimes against civilians.
In June 2023, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum warned that Darfuri civilians faced significant risks of genocide. Several factors that pointed to this risk included systematic attacks by the RSF and allied militias, impunity for past crimes and new hate speech against marginalized groups. According to the United Nations, fighting between the SAF and the RSF has killed more than 20,000 people as of September 2024. The violence has led to the displacement of more than 10.9 million people, including more than 2.2 million people as refugees to surrounding counties. Famine has been declared in Darfur. It is expected to spread. The scale of the atrocities has been officially acknowledged by the United States. On December 6,2023, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined that between April and December 2023, the SAF and RSF committed war crimes. He also determined that the RSF and their allied militias committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in Darfur.
On January 7, 2025, Secretary of State Blinken determined that the RSF and their allied militias had committed genocide in Sudan. Since the start of the conflict, these groups have systematically committed murder and sexual violence. They have targeted civilians in Darfur based on ethnicity. They have also restricted aid access on the basis of ethnicity.
