Ali Kushyab found guilty in landmark ICC ruling on Darfur atrocities.

Photo via Human Rights Watch

KAVYA GULATI: In a historic judgement on Oct. 6, the International Criminal Court (ICC) found Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman—better known as Ali Kushayb—guilty of 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the brutal campaign in Darfur between 2003 and 2004. 

This is the Court’s first conviction related to the Darfur conflict and the first stemming from a UN Security Council referral. The ruling, handed down in The Hague after a three-year trial, marks a milestone in international justice—and a moment long awaited by survivors of the violence. 

Presiding Judge Joanna Korner, alongside Judges Reine Alapini-Gansou and Althea Violet Alexis-Windsor, ruled that Kushayb ordered, coordinated and took part in widespread attacks targeting non-Arab communities in West Darfur. The crimes included murder, rape, torture, persecution and attacks on civilians in towns like Bindisi, Mukjar and Deleig. 

“He encouraged and gave instructions that resulted in the killings, the rapes and destruction committed by the Janjaweed,” Judge Korner said, citing evidence that Kushayb told his forces to “wipe out” non-Arab tribes and to “bring no one alive.”

Kushayb, a former senior Janjaweed commander, surrendered to the ICC in 2020 after evading capture for over a decade. His trial began in April 2022. Sentencing will follow, and the verdict remains open to appeal. A reparations process for victims is also expected. 

The Janjaweed, Arab militias armed and backed by Sudan’s government, were mobilised in 2003 to crush a rebellion by Darfur’s non-Arab population. The group’s attacks, characterised by mass killings, systematic rape and village burnings, have prompted the US and human rights groups to describe the violence as genocide. 

This case marks the first time the ICC has secured a conviction for gender-based persecution and the first conviction from the 2005 Security Council referral. It also brings renewed attention to Sudan’s unresolved legacy of violence, both past and ongoing. The ICC’s Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan called the ruling “a crucial step toward closing the impunity gap in Darfur” and praised the “bravery of thousands of Darfuri victims who hoped and fought for justice.”

Though the Darfur war officially ended in 2020, the region is once again gripped by violence as Sudan’s military battles the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)—a paramilitary group with direct roots in the Janjaweed. Since 2023, human rights groups and Western governments have accused the RSF of ethnic cleansing against non-Arab communities in Darfur.

During Kushayb’s trial, survivors gave harrowing testimonies of homes torches and women enslaved. The court’s 355-page judgement detailed a pattern of targeted ethnic violence—one that experts say continues under new banners in the current civil war. 

The ICC has outstanding arrest warrants for other Sudanese figures, including former President Omar al-Bashir and ex-ministers Ahmad Harun and Abdel Raheem Hussein, all accused of similar crimes.

For Darfur’s victims, this conviction may offer the first glimmer of accountability in a decades-long struggle for justice. Whether the ICC can build on this moment and deliver justice for others still awaiting trial remains to be seen. 

Kavya Gulati is a staff writer for On The Record from London, UK, and a freshman in the SFS studying IPOL.