Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday sentenced a former Darfur militia leader to 20 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kushayb, was convicted in October on 27 counts, including murder, torture, and rape, committed in Sudan’s Darfur region more than two decades ago.
Presiding judge Joanna Korner said he “not only gave orders that led directly to the crimes but also personally perpetrated them.”
The 76-year-old was a senior commander of the government-backed Janjaweed militias. The court imposed a joint 20-year sentence, which the judges noted means he is likely to die in prison.
Prosecutors had sought a life sentence, while his defence argued for leniency, citing his age and claiming mistaken identity.
His conviction and sentencing mark the completion of the ICC’s first full trial concerning the Darfur conflict.
The war in Darfur began in 2003 when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against Sudan’s government, accusing it of marginalising the region.
In response, the government in Khartoum mobilised the Janjaweed militias to suppress the rebellion. The violence that followed led to allegations of genocide, with the United States and human rights groups accusing the militias of a campaign of ethnic cleansing against non-Arab communities.
The UN Security Council referred the Darfur situation to the ICC in 2005.
Violence has again engulfed Darfur and much of Sudan since April 2023, following clashes between the national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The RSF is widely seen as having evolved from the Janjaweed militias.
Recent fighting in Darfur, particularly around the city of al-Fashir, has triggered a new wave of ethnically-motivated killings and mass displacement.