Bahr Idriss Abu Garda (born 1 January 1963)[1] is the leader of the United Resistance Front, a rebel group fighting against the Sudanese government in Darfur.
[3][4] Abu Garda was summonsed to appear before the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes relating to a 2007 attack in which twelve African Union peacekeepers were killed.
[2] On 20 November 2008, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, presented evidence alleging that Abu Garda and two other rebel commanders were guilty of war crimes in relation to a 2007 operation in which about a thousand rebels surrounded and attacked a camp of African Union peacekeepers in Haskanita, Darfur, killing twelve.
[8][9] On 7 May 2009, a Pre-Trial Chamber found that there were grounds to believe that Abu Garda was responsible on three counts of war crimes: murder, pillaging, and intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a peacekeeping mission.
Abu Garda denied all the charges against him and claimed to be the victim of a dispute between the URF and the JEM, which has said it helped to collect evidence against him.