The Interview

Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, told FRANCE 24 that he had decided to open fresh investigations into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the ongoing fighting in Sudan. He said his office had received numerous reports from many sources of crimes such as destruction of property, executions, killings and rapes.

Khan added that he had informed both camps, the Sudanese Armed Forces led by General Abdul Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, of his move. “We have to find a way to make sure that this time, people are held responsible in a timely fashion,” he said.

He also pledged to "leave no stone unturned" to bring war criminals to justice. He refused to describe some of the crimes committed in West Darfur as “genocide”, saying he couldn’t prejudge the investigation. “The law must mean something” to the people now displaced and fleeing for their lives, he said.

Khan indicated having met both of the warring generals in the past and that they are fully aware of his work to investigate crimes and their perpetrators. He acknowledged that he is not allowed to visit Sudan, despite trying to do since fighting broke out in April. “The door is closed, and there is a deliberate policy of non-cooperation from all parties,” he said. In order to gather evidence, he pointed to satellite imagery, refugees in neighbouring countries and an online portal set up by his office to facilitate the reporting of information by witnesses. In regard to ex-president Omar al-Bashir and two of his ministers, against whom arrest warrants were issued by the ICC for their actions in Darfur two decades ago, he said they were no longer in custody. 

He called on the international community to step up its commitment to bring justice to the people of Sudan. “If we don’t act, we’re going to be viewed as irrelevant and purveyors of false hope and false promises,” he warned – be it in Sudan, Ukraine or Libya. “If we keep showing that we’re not fit for purpose in times of peril, we run the risk of diluting the impact of something that it took the Holocaust and the second World War to create,” he added.     

The failure to do justice to Darfur two decades ago “has sown the seeds for this second round of violence. We need to finally get up and smell the roses. [If we don't,] we’re going to see more violence. We can’t be a toothless tiger,” he concluded. 

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said that Taiwan welcomed the final communiqué of the NATO summit, which criticised China's "stated ambitions and coercive policies". He stressed that NATO had "stated the truth" and that Taiwan appreciated that NATO was "paying attention" to the threat posed by Beijing in the Indo-Pacific region. Wu also said that Taiwan agreed with the US government's assessment that China's President Xi Jinping had not yet decided whether China would attack Taiwan by 2027. "We see no imminence in the Chinese military actions and war is not unavoidable," Wu said.

Wu pointed out that while the war in Ukraine has had severe global economic consequences, a war in the Taiwan Strait would be a "disaster" for the world because about half the world's goods pass through the waterway and approximately 90 percent of high-end semiconductor chips are produced in Taiwan.

The Taiwanese foreign minister said Russia and China were beefing up their military cooperation, pointing to joint military exercises in the Indo-Pacific region. "Russia remains very active" in the Far East despite the war in Ukraine, he stated.

He said Taiwan agreed with the US government's assessment that Chinese President Xi Jinping had not yet decided whether China would attack Taiwan by 2027. "We see no imminence in the Chinese military actions and war is not unavoidable," Wu said. He added, however, that China was "posturing to pressure" Taiwan and trying to reach its goal without the actual use of force.

Wu added that the threat existed and pointed to China's military drills close to Taiwan as a strategy to "compress" Taiwan's reaction time in the event of a conflict. He said Taiwan was trying to "beef up" its defence capabilities and hailed its close cooperation with the US.

Finally, Wu urged the European Commission to begin negotiations with Taiwan over a bilateral investment agreement, noting that that it was also in Europe's interest to start negotiating with Taiwan.      

On the eve of next week's NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told FRANCE 24 he was confident an agreement could be forged to bring Ukraine closer to NATO. In addition to providing practical support and creating a Ukraine-NATO council, he said that a text was being drafted to chart a way forward for Ukraine's future membership in the Atlantic Alliance.

Stoltenberg also stressed that despite claims to the contrary, Ukraine is making progress on the battlefield. He said Western countries were stepping up their weapons deliveries, pointing to the delivery of long-range missiles by the UK, which "is making a difference". He noted that that the training of Ukrainian pilots on F16 fighter jets had begun. While he refused to predict a Ukrainian victory in the coming months, he stated that "Ukraine has the equipment, the training, the ammunition" needed and that NATO is committed to supplying them.

The NATO chief condemned Russia's announcement that it would deploy short-range nuclear weapons to Belarus as "irresponsible nuclear rhetoric". While both the Russian and Belarusian presidents have said that the weapons had begun arriving in Belarus, he noted that NATO hadn't seen any such deployment, only preparations. He added that no change had been detected in the Russian nuclear posture and, as such, NATO had not been required to change its own nuclear posture. With regards to the Wagner mercenary group, he said he hadn't seen large units relocate to Belarus. Asked about the whereabouts of its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, he said "we have intelligence" but that it would not be appropriate for him to share it publicly.  

As for Sweden's NATO membership bid, which is being held up by Turkey, Stoltenberg said there had been "progress" in recent talks he hosted at NATO between both sides and that he would convene a meeting of the leaders of both countries in Vilnius. However, he stressed that there was "no certainty" that this would be enough to break the deadlock. He said that Sweden had delivered on its pledge to toughen its anti-terrorism laws and that it was "time to ratify its membership".  

In an interview with FRANCE 24, the French Minister of State for International Partnerships Chrysoula Zacharopoulou discussed the issue of violence in French society, among its youth as well as whether it exists at the institutional level, following the riots sparked by the police killing of 17-year-old Nahel on June 27. "I don't accept that France is a racist country… I am an example. I was born in Greece. I became French, and President Macron appointed me minister because he promotes diversity, he promotes inclusion." She also expressed her confidence about the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris and underlined the efforts of France to redefine its relationship with Africa.

On July 7, 2021, Haiti's then-president Jovenel Moïse was assassinated by a commando of mercenaries in Port-au-Prince. Two years on, his widow Martine Moïse, who survived the attack, spoke to FRANCE 24 from the Haitian capital. Although several suspects have been arrested over the murder, "the present government seems to be involved" and "things are not going well in Haiti for the investigation", Moïse said. Nevertheless, she insisted that "the truth will come out" eventually.

"We do have an idea of who is behind all this," Martine Moïse said of her husband's murder. Haiti's then-president Jovenel Moïse was assassinated on July 7, 2021 by a commando of Colombian mercenaries at his private residence in the capital Port-au-Prince. However, "it's up to the investigators to say who it is", his widow added. 

On June 2, dual Haitian-Chilean citizen Rodolphe Jaar was sentenced to life in prison in the United States for his role in Moïse's murder. Ten other people accused of planning the assassination from Miami, Florida are currently being held in the US.

The United States has taken "a step in the right direction" with the sentencing of Jaar, Moïse conceded, while calling for the International Criminal Court to get involved in the case – "the last recourse" possible.

She believes that justice must be done above all "for the people" of Haiti, so that they "can at least come to terms with all this".

Moïse went on to say that the current prime minister, Ariel Henry, "has never had any legitimacy" and "is part of the problem". Haiti is suffering from gang violence as well as a deep humanitarian crisis, coupled with profound political instability. 

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), 4.9 million Haitians – almost half the population – do not have enough to eat. Some 1.8 million of them are at serious risk of starvation.

The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi spoke to FRANCE 24 from Vienna and stated that his teams had not observed any Russian military deployment inside the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, despite Ukrainian authorities claiming that Moscow was preparing to attack the site.

Speaking to FRANCE 24 from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, Grossi said that on June 15 he went to Zaporizhzhia. He said the situation was "serious" but stabilising at the nuclear power plant after the destruction of the nearby Kakhovka dam, whose water was used to cool its six reactors. 

"Initials measures were taken by the management of the plant to preserve the needed amount of water, but this will not be enough on the long term," Grossi warned. 

The increase in military activity on the frontline with the Ukrainian counter-offensive adds "an additional layer of concern over a situation which is extremely volatile because the plant is sitting on the front line", Grossi recalled. 

In the context of combat, "the plant is incredibly fragile and open to damage in case of an exchange of fire", he added.

On June 22, President Volodymyr Zelensky asserted that, according to Ukrainian intelligence, Russia had made all the preparations for an attack on the power plant, which could cause a nuclear catastrophe.

Grossi asserted that he "didn't see that kind of development" on the ground, but also that "anything can happen, that is what worries me".

Grossi also raised concern about Iran's nuclear programme. According to his last report, Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium has increased by more than a quarter in three months. 

Nevertheless, he said, "we agreed that Iran collaborates with the agency, limiting some activities, allowing us to add more monitoring capacities".

Negotiations for a rehabilitation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed in 2015, failed in September 2022 and US President Joe Biden’s administration seems to favour an informal and unwritten agreement with Tehran.

Any discussion leading to de-escalation is welcome, said Grossi.

"If there is any alternative kind of agreements, I hope we will be invited to verify that whatever commitments are taken are for real, and not just a piece of paper," he concluded.

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe discusses his country's debt burden, relations with China, as well as plans for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in an interview with FRANCE 24 on the sidelines of the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact in Paris.

The United States’ special climate envoy John Kerry assesses efforts to secure funding for climate action and the green transition in an interview with FRANCE 24 on the sidelines of the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact in Paris.

French President Emmanuel Macron hosted world leaders at a summit in Paris to thrash out funding for the climate transition and post-Covid debt burdens of poor countries, hoping to secure billions of dollars in investment from the private sector.

“There are trillions of dollars waiting to be invested,” Kerry, a former US secretary of state, told FRANCE 24. “That’s what President Macron was addressing in this summit: how do we take those trillions of dollars and excite them to get into the market now in developing economies?”

The former top diplomat said “a lot of good suggestions were put on the table” during the two-day summit, but that challenges remained.

“There are currency challenges, political challenges, so everybody has to step up and begin to take the risk factor out of these investments,” he said.

Read moreExclusive: France's Macron calls for international taxation in push for climate solidarity

Touching on the debt trap holding back the world’s poorer countries, Kerry pointed to growing consensus that global financial institutions including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund needed “to be fine-tuned” in order to tackle the climate emergency.

The US envoy also stressed the need for Washington and Beijing to cooperate on the climate transition, noting that “climate is one issue where both President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden have said we should not be the prisoners of other issues”.

He added: “China and the United states together equal about 40% of all the emissions; if we can’t cooperate together, it’s really going to be hard to reach the goal.”

Click on the player above to watch the full interview.

In an interview with FRANCE 24 on the sidelines of the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, Kenya President William Ruto said the world's multinational financial architecture needs to be "fixed". He also reacted to the ongoing conflict in Sudan, saying "there are already signs of genocide". More than 2,000 people have been killed there since fighting broke out on April 15.

"We pay, especially those of us from the Global South and on the African continent, up to eight times more for the same resources, because of something called risk," Kenya's Ruto said. Calling the current system "broken", "rigged" and "unfair", Ruto said the multinational financial architecture needs to be "fixed". He also insisted on the importance of clarifying climate financing in order to deal with poverty and the "existential threat" of climate change.

Ruto narrowly won re-election in August 2022, but his opponent Raila Odinga claims to have won instead and has since been organising protests. Ruto said: "I don't have a problem with Raila Odinga, we are competitors. I have no problem with Raila Odinga organising protests (...) It's part of democracy." 

Turning to the deadly conflict in Sudan, he said: "There are already signs of genocide. What is going on in Sudan is unacceptable. Military power is being used by both parties to destroy the country and to kill civilians. The war is senseless, the war is not legitimate in any way."

Ruto said he had a regional meeting about the situation in Sudan two weeks ago in a bid to stop the war. But he added: "The issue will not be resolved until we get General al-Burhan, General Hemedti, political leaders and civil society – women's groups and youth groups – to the table." He insisted that this was "feasible".