ICC to deliver long-awaited verdict in Sudan war crimes trial

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is set to announce its long-awaited verdict Monday in the case of Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, a Sudanese leader accused of leading brutal attacks in Darfur more than two decades ago.

Abd-Al-Rahman, widely known as Ali Kushayb, is charged with 31 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, and torture. Prosecutors allege he played a central role in orchestrating violence across Darfur between August 2003 and April 2004 as a senior commander of the Janjaweed group.

The defendant, believed to have been born around 1949, has rejected the allegations outright. “I am not Ali Kushayb. I do not know this person... I have nothing to do with the accusations against me,” he told the court during a December 2024 hearing.

Prosecutors described him as an “enthusiastic participant” in a campaign of systematic terror. During the trial, former ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said Abd-Al-Rahman and his men “rampaged across different parts of Darfur,” inflicting “severe pain and suffering on women, children and men in the villages that he left in his wake.”

Abd-Al-Rahman fled to the Central African Republic in 2020, after Sudan’s transitional government signaled willingness to cooperate with the ICC. He later surrendered voluntarily, saying he feared being killed by local authorities.

“I had been waiting for two months in hiding, moving around all the time, and I was warned that the government wanted to arrest me,” he testified. “If I hadn’t said this, the court wouldn’t have received me, and I would be dead now.”

The accused is believed to have maintained close ties with former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who remains wanted by the ICC for genocide and crimes against humanity. Bashir was toppled in 2019 after months of popular protests but has not been handed over to The Hague.

In South Darfur, residents of the Kalma camp, now under RSF control, have reportedly pooled resources to rent a Starlink satellite connection to stream Monday’s verdict. The camp is currently battling a severe hunger crisis and a cholera outbreak.