Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman, known as Ali Kushayb, has been sentenced by the International Criminal Court to 20 years for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur in 2003–2004. The ICC had found him guilty on 27 counts, including murder, torture, rape and other abuses carried out by Janjaweed militias. He is the first militia leader convicted for atrocities in Darfur since the UN Security Council referred the situation to the court in 2005. During the sentencing, the presiding judge detailed acts he personally carried out or ordered, including beatings with an axe and executions, with victims’ testimony describing days of torture and widespread brutality.

The Janjaweed were central to the Darfur conflict and responsible for ethnic cleansing of non-Arab communities. Abd-al-Rahman surrendered himself to the ICC in 2020, and the trial ran from April 2022 to December 2024, with 74 witnesses, more than 1,800 pieces of evidence and over 1,500 participating victims. Prosecutors described him as an active and willing perpetrator, calling the crimes “the stuff of nightmares.” Rights groups, including Amnesty International, said the verdict offers long-delayed justice for victims and signals that individuals responsible for such abuses will eventually be held to account.

Despite the conviction, major ICC arrest warrants remain outstanding, including for former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir. Atrocities in Darfur have continued long after the period covered in Abd-al-Rahman’s case, and the ICC is now collecting evidence of new crimes by the Rapid Support Forces in el-Fasher. Reports from regional officials and researchers describe mass kil-lings, displacement and severe humanitarian deterioration following the city’s fall to the RSF, underscoring the ongoing scale of violence in a region still deeply marked by decades of conflict.