Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman a notorious militia leader will spend about 20 years in jail for a host of war crimes committed in Sudan’s western province of Darfur.
According to the International Criminal Court, Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman had been convicted in October on 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region.
The 76-year old militia leader becomes the first person to be tried by the ICC for atrocities committed during the civil war. He had argued the charges were a case of mistaken identity.
Abdal Raman not only gave the orders which led directly to the crimes but… also personally perpetrated some of them,” Judge Korner told the court.
The conflict in question lasted from 2003 to 2020 and was one of the world’s gravest humanitarian disasters, with allegations of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the region’s non-Arabic population.
Five years after the end of that crisis, Darfur is a key battleground in another civil war, this time between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), whose origins lie in the Janjaweed.
During Kushayb’s trial, survivors described how their villages were burned down, men and boys slaughtered and women forced into sex slavery.
Judge Korner said Kushayb had given orders to “wipe out and sweep away” non-Arab tribes and told soldiers “don’t leave anyone behind. Bring no one alive.”
The charges against Kushayb centred on attacks committed between 2003 and 2004.
The Darfur war began after the Arab-dominated government at the time armed the Janjaweed, in an attempt to suppress an uprising by rebels from black African ethnic groups.
The Janjaweed systematically attacked non-Arab villagers accused of supporting the rebels, leading to accusations of genocide.
