Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday sentenced Janjaweed militia leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman — widely known as Ali Kushayb — to 20 years in prison for a campaign of terror carried out in Sudan’s Darfur region more than two decades ago.
Kushayb was convicted in October on 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, and the orchestration of mass rapes and brutal attacks on civilians.
ICC investigators concluded he played a central role in coordinating militia assaults during the height of the Darfur conflict, which killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.
He surrendered in the Central African Republic in June 2020 and was transferred to ICC custody shortly afterwards.
His trial, which opened in April 2022, featured testimony from 56 prosecution witnesses, statements from victims’ representatives, and 18 defence witnesses before closing arguments in December 2024.
The case is the ICC’s first conviction linked to Darfur, a conflict the UN once described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
