\n<\/p>\n
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court said Monday they are taking steps to preserve evidence from Sudan’s Darfur region of possible war crimes carried out by a paramilitary force after it seized a key government stronghold and reportedly killed hundreds of people.<\/p>\n
The court \u201cis taking immediate steps regarding the alleged crimes in El-Fasher to preserve and collect relevant evidence for its use in future prosecutions,\u201d the prosecutor\u2019s office said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The alleged atrocities \u201care part of a broader pattern of violence that has afflicted the entire Darfur region\u201d and they \u201cmay constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
Last week, the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary group, captured the key city of El-Fasher after besieging it for 18 months.<\/p>\n
Witnesses have reported fighters going house to house, killing civilians and committing sexual assaults. According to the World Health Organization, groups of gunmen killed at least 460 people at a hospital<\/a> and abducted doctors and nurses.<\/p>\n Many details of the hospital attack and other violence in the city have been slow to emerge, and the total death toll remains unclear.<\/p>\n The fall of El-Fasher heralds a new phase<\/a> of the brutal, two-year war between the RSF and the military in Africa\u2019s third-largest country.<\/p>\n The court\u2019s chief prosecutor Karim Khan told the Security Council in January<\/a> that there were grounds to believe both government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force, may be committing war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in Darfur.<\/p>\n Karim Khan has stepped down temporarily<\/a> as the ICC chief prosecutor pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct<\/a>, which he categorically denies.<\/p>\n