Two Darfur rebel leaders will be put on trial for the deaths of 12 African peacekeepers in 2007 in the war-torn western region of Sudan, the International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Tuesday.

The ICC has confirmed war crimes charges against Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain (Abdallah Banda) and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus (Saleh Jerbo), both of whom have appeared in court voluntarily and are not in custody.

When they appeared before the court in June last year they urged other war crimes suspects to surrender to justice. 

Both men describe themselves as revolutionaries and have said they intend to clear their names.

This will be the court's first trial for crimes committed in  Sudan's Darfur region.

The Pre-Trial Chamber found “substantial grounds” to believe that both men are criminally responsible as co-perpetrators for three war crimes allegedly committed during the attack on the Haskanita camp in South Darfur state, according to a news release issued by the court.

They are accused of intentionally directing attacks against personnel and material involved in a peacekeeping mission, as well as violence to life and pillaging, the court said in a statement.

The attack resulted in the killing of 12 peacekeepers and the wounding of eight others serving with the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) – a predecessor to the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission, known as UNAMID.

It was allegedly carried out by the troops belonging to the Sudanese Liberation Army-Unity (SLA-Unity), which had broken away from the Sudanese Liberation Movement-Army (SLA/M), under the command of Jerbo, jointly with splinter forces of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), under the command of Banda.

An estimated 300,000 people have died and another 3 million have been displaced in Darfur, where rebels have been fighting Government forces and allied Arab militiamen, known as the Janjaweed, since 2003.

The investigation into the situation in Darfur was officially opened by ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo on 6 June 2005, after being referred to the court by the United Nations Security Council in March 2005.

Since the referral, and in addition to the cases against Banda and Jerbo, public arrest warrants have been issued in the Darfur investigation against Ahmad Muhammad Harun, Ali Kushayb and Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir, as well as the summons to appear for Abu Garda.

None of the outstanding arrest warrants have been executed, and the Sudanese government has openly defied and consistently refused to cooperate with the Court and the international community, a finding of which was made by the Pre-trial Chamber by way of judicial decision and forwarded to the UN Security Council for their attention.

The ICC is the world's first permanent international court to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. There are currently 114 ICC states parties to the Rome Statute, the court's founding treaty.