ICC Issues Landmark Darfur Sentencing, Jails Janjaweed Militia Leader for Atrocities
December 9, 2025
The International Criminal Court has delivered a historic sentencing, imposing a 20-year prison term on Janjaweed militia leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, widely known as Ali Kushayb. The ruling marks the court’s first completed trial related to the Darfur conflict.
Abd-Al-Rahman was convicted in October on 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, rape, and orchestrating widespread attacks by Janjaweed forces more than two decades ago. Judges rejected defence claims that he held limited authority, concluding he both ordered and personally carried out brutal crimes.
Presiding judge Joanna Korner noted that “Abd-Al-Rahman not only gave orders that led directly to the crimes but also personally perpetrated them.” The chamber issued a joint sentence of 20 years, a term that likely ensures the 76-year-old will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Prosecutors had sought a life sentence, describing him as “literally an axe murderer” for killing two victims with an axe. Defence lawyers argued mistaken identity and claimed that anything beyond seven years would effectively amount to a life term due to his age.
The sentencing brings closure to the ICC’s first case stemming from the 2003 conflict, when non-Arab rebel groups took up arms against Sudan’s government over decades of marginalization. Khartoum responded by deploying the Janjaweed militias, unleashing mass violence that the United States and human rights groups later described as genocide.
The United Nations Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005, enabling the court to pursue individuals responsible for the gravest crimes when national courts could not.
Although Abd-Al-Rahman’s conviction closes one chapter, the conflict’s legacy persists. Renewed fighting erupted across Sudan in 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, widely viewed as successors to the Janjaweed. In Darfur – especially the city of al-Fashir – ethnic killings and mass displacement have worsened, underscoring the continued relevance of accountability efforts like this sentencing.
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