The Hague (AFP) – The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday hands down its verdict on a feared Sudanese militia chief accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity during brutal attacks in Darfur.
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known by the nom de guerre Ali Kushayb, faces 31 counts of crimes including rape, murder and torture allegedly carried out in Darfur between August 2003 and at least April 2004.
Prosecutors say he was a leading member of Sudan’s infamous Janjaweed militia, who participated “enthusiastically” in multiple war crimes.
But Abd-Al-Rahman, who was born around 1949, has denied all the charges, telling the court they have got the wrong man.
“I am not Ali Kushayb. I do not know this person… I have nothing to do with the accusations against me,” he told the court at a hearing in December 2024.
Abd-Al-Rahman fled to the Central African Republic in February 2020 when a new Sudanese government announced its intention to cooperate with the ICC’s investigation.
He said he then handed himself in because he was “desperate” and feared authorities would kill him.
“I had been waiting for two months in hiding, moving around all the time, and I was warned that the government wanted to arrest me, and I was afraid of being arrested,” he said.
“If I hadn’t said this, the court wouldn’t have received me, and I would be dead now,” added the suspect.
Fighting broke out in Sudan’s Darfur region when non-Arab tribes, complaining of systematic discrimination, took up arms against the Arab-dominated government.
Khartoum responded by unleashing the Janjaweed, a force drawn from among the region’s nomadic tribes.
The United Nations says 300,000 people were killed and 2.5 million displaced in the Darfur conflict in the 2000s.
‘Severe pain’
During the trial, the ICC chief prosecutor said Abd-Al-Rahman and his forces “rampaged across different parts of Darfur”.
He “inflicted severe pain and suffering on women, children and men in the villages that he left in his wake”, said Karim Khan, who has since stepped down as he faces allegations of sexual misconduct.
Abd-Al-Rahman is also thought to be an ally of deposed Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the ICC on genocide charges.
Bashir, who ruled Sudan with an iron fist for nearly three decades, was ousted and detained in April 2019 following months of protests in Sudan.
He has not, however, been handed over to the ICC, based in The Hague, where he also faces multiple charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
ICC prosecutors are hoping to issue fresh arrest warrants related to the current crisis in Sudan.
Tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced in a war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which grew out of the Janjaweed militia.
The conflict, marked by claims of atrocities on all sides, has left the northeast African country on the brink of famine, according to aid agencies.
Local leaders in the Kalma camp in South Darfur are renting a Starlink satellite internet connection on Monday to let survivors watch the verdict.
The area is under RSF control, and the camp is facing a cholera outbreak and a severe hunger crisis.
