The International Criminal Court (ICC) has convicted a leader of the Janjaweed militia of playing a leading role in a campaign of atrocities committed in the Sudanese region of Darfur more than 20 years ago.

Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known by the nom de guerre Ali Kushayb, was convicted at The Hague-based court of multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, torture and forcible transfer, committed from August 2003 to March 2004.

United Nations has said that 300,000 people were killed and that 2.5 million others displaced by the Darfur conflict in the 2000s.

It was the first time the ICC had convicted a suspect of crimes in Darfur. The court ruled that the atrocities, including mass murders and rapes, were part of a government plan to snuff out a rebellion in the western region of Sudan.

ICC Presiding Judge, Joanna Korner, read out 27 guilty verdicts. She said, “The chamber is convinced that the accused is guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crimes with which he has been charged.”

Korner detailed harrowing accounts of gang rapes, abuse and mass killing. “The accused was not only giving orders … but was personally involved in the beatings and later was physically present and giving orders for the execution of those detained,” said the ICC Judge.

Prosecutors had accused Abd-al-Rahman of being a leading member of Sudan’s infamous Janjaweed militia, which participated “enthusiastically” in war crimes.

During the trial, the ICC Chief Prosecutor, Karim Khan said that Abd-al-Rahman and his forces “rampaged across different parts of Darfur.”

Khan, who has since stepped down as he faces allegations of sexual misconduct, said, Abd-al-Rahman “inflicted severe pain and suffering on women, children and men in the villages that he left in his wake.”

Abd-Al-Rahman had denied all the charges against him in the trial, which opened in April 2022, insisting the court was prosecuting 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.

However, Korner asserted that the court was “satisfied that the accused was the person known … as Ali Kushayb,” dismissing defence witnesses who had denied that.

Abd-al-Rahman fled to Central African Republic in February 2020 when a new Sudanese government announced its intention to cooperate with the ICC investigation.

He said that he then handed himself in because he was “desperate” and feared authorities would kill him.

Sentencing To Take Place At A Later Date

Abd-Al-Rahman will face a sentencing hearing at a later date. He is eligible for a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Abd-Al-Rahman’s crimes were committed during the war that erupted in Sudan in 2003 when he was commanding one of the Arab tribal militias that the central government in Khartoum outsourced to crush an armed campaign by mostly non-Arab armed groups who were rebelling against Darfur’s political and economic marginalisation.

Many of those Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed, were later repackaged into the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which has been fighting a civil war with the Sudanese army since April 2023.

Abd-al-Rahman is also thought to be an ally of the deposed Sudanese president 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 after months of protests in Sudan.

He has not, however, been handed over to the ICC, based in The Hague, where he also faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

ICC prosecutors are hoping to issue fresh arrest warrants related to the current crisis in Sudan. Since 2023, tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced in war.