ICC stalls Darfur genocide warrant amid Gulf financing concerns, exposing institutional weakness

In January 2025 the United States declared the Rapid Support Forces’ campaign in Darfur a genocide, and ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan told the U.N. Security Council that arrest warrants would be pursued. By mid-2026 the Office of the Prosecutor had a warrant ready against RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo for crimes against humanity and war crimes dating from April 2023, yet the application was quietly shelved. The move coincided with U.S. sanctions on Dagalo and reports that UAE-based firms have financed the RSF, prompting Sudan to ask the ICC to name Emirati actors.

Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Khan later framed the episode as a “breakthrough,” but the office declined comment, invoking a duty of confidentiality. The ICC’s only successful Darfur case remains a 2020 surrender by a mid-level Janjaweed commander, while senior figures such as Omar al-Bashir, Ahmad Harun and Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein remain at large. The episode highlights the court’s limited enforcement power and vulnerability to great-power politics.