The International Criminal Court (ICC) has sentenced Sudanese militia commander Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman , better known as Ali Kushayb , to 20 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur more than 20 years ago.
Kushayb, 76, was convicted in October on 27 charges linked to attacks carried out in 2003 and 2004. He is the first person to be tried by the ICC for crimes committed during the Darfur conflict.
Kushayb was a senior leader of the Janjaweed, a government-backed militia accused of burning villages, killing civilians and carrying out widespread sexual violence. The group’s brutal campaign in Darfur contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions from their homes.
‘He gave the orders and took part in the crimes’
Wearing a light blue suit, Kushayb stood silently as Judge Joanna Korner announced his sentence on Tuesday.
The court found that he not only commanded fighters but also personally took part in attacks. Judge Korner said Kushayb ordered his men to “wipe out” non-Arab communities and told them to “leave no one alive”.
During the trial, survivors described villages being torched, men and boys killed, and women forced into sexual slavery.
A conflict with lasting scars
The Darfur war lasted from 2003 to 2020 and became one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The Arab-led government armed the Janjaweed to crush a rebellion by non-Arab ethnic groups, triggering accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Five years after that conflict ended, Darfur is again one of the main fronts in Sudan’s current civil war , this time between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The RSF grew out of the Janjaweed, and the same patterns of violence have re-emerged.
The US, UK and human rights groups accuse the RSF of committing ethnic cleansing against non-Arab communities since 2023. The RSF denies this.
Will the conviction matter today?
Judge Korner said the sentence was meant to serve both “retribution and deterrence”, especially given the renewed violence in Sudan.
But experts doubt it will change much on the ground. Dr Matthew Benson-Strohmayer, Sudan Research Director at the London School of Economics, said both conflicts have been marked by “militias hired to terrorise civilians” and “sexual violence used as a weapon”. He said he hoped the verdict would have an impact but “sincerely” doubted it.
Most survivors from the first Darfur war are still displaced, and several ICC arrest warrants remain outstanding. Among them is one for former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted for genocide — a charge he denies. Bashir is believed to be in military custody after being removed from power in 2019.
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