ICC sentences Darfur militia 'axe murderer' to 20 years over war crimes
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday sentenced a former senior Janjaweed commander to 20 years for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Sudan's Darfur more than two decades ago.
In October, the ICC found Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman, also know as Ali Kushayb, guilty "beyond any reasonable doubt” on 27 counts of atrocities, including murder, torture, and orchestrating rape and other crimes carried out by Janjaweed militias in 2003-2004.
Abd-al-Rahman, 76, is the first militia leader to be convicted for atrocities committed Darfur, marking a landmark for the court, to which the UN Security Council referred the Sudan case in 2005.
The militia leader listened impassively as presiding Judge Joanna Korner read the verdict, according to reports.
Korner said Abd-Al-Rahman "personally perpetrated" beatings, including with an axe, and gave orders for executions.
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"Days of torture began at sunrise... blood ran freely in the streets... there was no medical help, no treatment, no mercy," said Korner, as she read out testimony from victims.
She added that he had personally walked on the heads of wounded men, women and children.
'The stuff of nightmares'
The Janjaweed were the primary armed actors in the Darfur conflict in the early 2000s and were responsible for widespread atrocities and the ethnic cleansing of non-Arab communities. In 2013, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) - now at war with the Sudanese army - were formed as an offshoot of the Janjaweed.
Abd-al-Rahman has been in ICC custody since 9 June 2020, after voluntarily surrendering himself.
Prosecutor Julian Nicholls told the court: "You literally have an axe murderer before you. This is the stuff of nightmares."
According to ICC records, 74 witnesses testified, 1,861 items were admitted into evidence, and the Trial Chamber authorised 1,591 victims to participate in proceedings. The trial ran from April 2022 to December 2024.
In November, Nicholls said before the court that Abd-al-Rahman “was an enthusiastic, energetic, effective perpetrator. He committed these crimes knowingly, wilfully and with, the evidence shows, enthusiasm and vigour”.
Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International regional director for east and southern Africa, said: “This long overdue verdict goes some way in providing justice for the victims of Ali Kushayb and should serve as a significant milestone in the pursuit of justice for crimes committed in Darfur more than two decades ago.
“The conviction should serve as a warning to those committing abuses in the context of the ongoing Sudan conflict that they will one day be held individually accountable.”
The ICC still has outstanding arrest warrants for Sudanese officials accused of war crimes, including former president Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted for genocide.
The conflict in Darfur, during which hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed, lasted from 2003 to 2020. Although the crimes in Abd-al-Rahman’s case were committed more than 20 years ago, atrocities in the region have continued.
The ICC is currently gathering evidence on crimes allegedly committed by the RSF last month in the city of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, including extrajudicial killings, torture and mass rape.
Last month Darfur Governor Minni Minnawi told Middle East Eye's Peter Oborne that the RSF had killed 27,000 Sudanese in el-Fasher within days of the city falling. A UK parliamentary committee was told by academic sources last week that a conservative figure of 60,000 people had been massacred in el-Fasher since the RSF seized the city in late October.
The city’s fall to the RSF has driven mass displacement and starvation in a region already scarred by a deep humanitarian crisis after nearly three years of civil war.
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