Sudan militia leader found guilty of war crimes in Darfur

A Sudanese militia leader was found guilty of having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity over 20 years ago in the Darfur region.

Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, directed Janjaweed, a group supported by the government who terrorized Darfur, killing hundreds of thousands of people.

Kushayb is the first person to be judged by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the atrocities of Darfur. He argued that it was an erroneous case.

The conflict lasted from 2003 to 2020 and was one of the most serious humanitarian disasters in the world.

Five years after the end of this crisis, the Darfur is a key battlefield in another civil war, this time between the Army of Sudan and the paramilitary forces of rapid support (RSF), whose origins are in Janjaweed.

During the Kushayb trial, the survivors described how their villages were burned down, men and boys massacred and women forced sexual slavery.

The militia leader was found guilty of 27 counts, focusing on attacks between 2003 and 2004.

The judges of the ICC noted that the brutal tactics of Janjaweed – including mass executions, sexual violence and torture – were often inflicted by Kushayb and his men.

Before the verdict, a small group of Darfouris patiently waited to enter the court, in the Dutch city of The Hague.

They were no doubt about the central role that Kushayb played in their suffering, with a man saying: “It was he who gave orders. It was he who obtained arms.

“So, if you ask me if he was important in Darfur, I will tell you that he was one of the most important.”

The Darfur War began after the Arab predominance government at the time armed Janjaweed, in order to remove an uprising from the rebels of African black ethnic groups.

Janjaweed systematically attacked the non -Arab villagers accused of supporting the rebels, leading to accusations of genocide.

This same systematic violence always occurs in Darfur within the framework of the Civil War of Sudan.

Many Janjaweed fighters have turned into rapid support forces (RSF), the paramilitary group which currently fights against the Army of Sudan.

Groups in the United Kingdom, the United States and the Rights have accused the RSF of having carried out ethnic cleaning against the non-Arab communities of Darfur since the start of the conflict in 2023.

Kushayb will be sentenced to a later date.