A Sudanese militia leader has been found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Darfur region more than 20 years ago.
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, was a prominent leader of the Janjaweed, a government-backed militia responsible for terrorizing Darfur and killing hundreds of thousands, according to BBC, as reported by Gazeta Express.
Kushayb is the first individual tried by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for atrocities in Darfur. During the trial, he claimed mistaken identity as his defense.
The Darfur conflict, which lasted from 2003 to 2020, is considered one of the worldâs worst humanitarian crises, with allegations of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the non-Arab population of the region.
Even five years after that crisis, Darfur remains a key battleground in another civil conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group whose roots trace back to the Janjaweed.
