The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday convicted Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, a former Janjaweed militia leader, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the Darfur conflict more than two decades ago.
Abd-Al-Rahman was found guilty on 27 counts, including rape, murder, and persecution, marking the first conviction in connection with atrocities committed in Sudan’s Darfur region since the United Nations Security Council referred the case to the ICC in 2005. His sentence will be determined after a subsequent round of hearings.
Presiding judge Joanna Korner said the trial chamber unanimously held Abd-Al-Rahman responsible for directing attacks against non-Arab civilians, dismissing his defence that he had been wrongly identified.
“He encouraged and gave instructions that resulted in the killings, rapes, and destruction committed by the Janjaweed,” Korner stated. She added that he had ordered his fighters to “wipe out and sweep away” non-Arab tribes, commanding them, “Don’t leave anyone behind. Bring no one alive.”
The verdict is considered a landmark for the ICC, as it represents the first and only trial addressing the Darfur conflict. The war began in 2003 when non-Arab rebels took up arms against Sudan’s government, accusing it of marginalising Darfur’s population. In response, the government mobilised the Janjaweed militias, unleashing a wave of violence that international observers, including the United States, described as genocide.
Survivors of the Darfur conflict have hailed the conviction as a long-overdue measure of justice.
“As victims, the ruling is a victory for us and for justice,” said Jamal Abdallah, 32, who was displaced from his home in West Darfur in 2003. “The crimes he committed had huge impacts for the last 22 years. We were displaced and made refugees in camps.”
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk described the verdict as “an important acknowledgment of the enormous suffering endured by the victims of his heinous crimes, as well as a first measure of long overdue redress for them and their loved ones.”
In camps across Darfur, displaced residents gathered around a Starlink terminal to watch the live broadcast of the judgment. One elderly man said, “We have been waiting for more than 20 years for this day… we hope there will be reparations for what we have lost.”
The ICC still has outstanding arrest warrants for several senior Sudanese figures, including former President Omar al-Bashir, who faces charges of genocide, and former defence minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein, both reportedly in military custody in northern Sudan.
Another ICC fugitive, former interior minister Ahmed Haroun, is believed to be at large after escaping prison when the current conflict erupted. Reuters reported meeting Haroun in northern Sudan earlier this year, where he dismissed the ICC as a “colonialist institution.”
Since Abd-Al-Rahman’s trial began three years ago, Sudan has plunged once again into conflict. Fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) a force whose origins trace back to the Janjaweed erupted in April 2023. The war has triggered waves of ethnically driven violence, mass displacement, and what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
“The same people who were there in the 2000s are in the RSF now,” said Abdallah. “The reason they repeat their crimes is lack of accountability.”
