ICC Convicts Militia Leader for War Crimes in Darfur

On Monday, October 6, 2025, the International Criminal Court (ICC) convicted Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kushayb, of 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in massacres and atrocities committed in Sudan’s Darfur region between 2003 and 2004. The guilty verdict covered war crimes including torture, murder, and rape, as well as multiple crimes against humanity such as forcible population transfer and persecution.

Kushayb, a senior commander in the Janjaweed militia, played a leading role in orchestrating a campaign of violence that targeted non-Arab communities in western Sudan. During the trial, which began in April 2022, the court heard testimony from 56 witnesses, including survivors who described villages burned to the ground, men executed, and women subjected to sexual violence. The panel of three ICC judges unanimously found Kushayb guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Sentencing is expected at a later date, with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

The verdict marks  the first ICC conviction linked to the Darfur conflict, more than 20 years after the atrocities took place. Three other Sudanese officials including former president Omar al-Bashir remain wanted by the ICC on war crimes and genocide charges. Bashir, who was ousted in a 2019 coup, is currently held in Sudanese custody on separate domestic charges.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk welcomed the ruling, calling it an important acknowledgment of the enormous suffering endured by the victims of Kushayb’s heinous crimes, as well as a first measure of long-overdue redress for them and their loved ones.

The Darfur conflict which began in 2003 and ended in 2011, after the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebelled against Khartoum’s rule, accusing the government of marginalisation. In response, the Sudanese government armed and funded Arab militias, collectively known as the Janjaweed, to suppress the insurgency. What followed was a scorched-earth campaign that the court later described as an all-out military assault on non-Arab ethnic groups perceived to support the rebels. The conflict killed an estimated 300,000 people and displaced more than 2.5 million, according to UN figures.

In March 2005, the UN Security Council referred the Darfur situation to the ICC, granting the court jurisdiction under the Rome Statute to investigate and prosecute individuals responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The investigation led to the issuance of arrest warrants for several Sudanese officials, but Kushayb’s case became the first to reach a verdict.

Today, conflict continues in Sudan, where the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group that evolved from the Janjaweed, remains locked in a brutal power struggle with the Sudanese army. The conviction, therefore, stands as both a rare moment of accountability and a stark reminder that the cycle of violence in Darfur has yet to end.