THE HAGUE — A Sudanese militia leader has been found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur more than two decades ago, marking a historic verdict by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, widely known as Ali Kushayb, was convicted on 27 counts related to atrocities carried out between 2003 and 2004 while commanding the Janjaweed, a government-backed militia that terrorized Darfur, killing hundreds of thousands of people.

Kushayb is the first person to stand trial at the ICC for the Darfur conflict. He denied the charges, claiming mistaken identity.

The judges found that Kushayb and his forces were responsible for mass executions, sexual violence, torture, and the destruction of villages during attacks targeting non-Arab communities accused of supporting rebel groups.

Survivors who testified recounted horrific abuses, men and boys slaughtered, women enslaved, and entire villages burned to the ground.

Outside the courtroom in The Hague, Darfuri observers expressed relief at the verdict. “He was the one who gave the orders. He was the one who got the weapons,” one man told reporters. “He was one of the most important ones.”

The Darfur war, which lasted from 2003 to 2020, became one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing against Sudan’s non-Arab population.

Five years after that conflict officially ended, Darfur has again become a major battleground this time between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), whose roots lie in the Janjaweed.

Rights groups and Western governments, including the UK and the US, have accused the RSF of carrying out fresh ethnic cleansing in the region since Sudan’s civil war reignited in 2023.

Kushayb’s sentencing will be announced at a later date. — Agencies