The International Criminal Court (ICC) has sentenced Sudanese militia leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, to 20 years in prison for atrocities committed during the Darfur conflict over two decades ago.
Kushayb, aged 76, was convicted in October on 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was a prominent leader of the Janjaweed, a government-backed militia accused of terrorizing Darfur, killing hundreds of thousands, and committing widespread human rights violations.
During the sentencing, presiding judge Joanna Korner stated:
“Abdal Raman not only gave the orders which led directly to the crimes but… also personally perpetrated some of them.”
Kushayb is the first person tried by the ICC for crimes committed during the Darfur civil war, which lasted from 2003 to 2020 and is regarded as one of the world’s gravest humanitarian crises, with allegations of ethnic cleansing and genocide targeting non-Arab populations in the region.
He had previously claimed the charges were a case of mistaken identity. Dressed in a light blue suit and tie, Kushayb stood quietly as the sentence was read in court.
Even five years after the end of the Darfur crisis, the region remains unstable, now serving as a battleground between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group whose origins trace back to the Janjaweed.-AP
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