Sudan Media Forum
By Amal Mohammed Al-Hassan
October 29, 2025 (NAIROBI) – Al-Taghyeer – Ali Abd al-Rahman, known as “Kushayb,” awaits sentencing scheduled for this coming November 17 after being convicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on October 6 of 27 counts, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, which involve murder, rape, and the persecution of civilians in the Darfur region.
The Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) expressed its expectation that the sentence would be life imprisonment, noting in a press conference held via media on October 8 that he would be transferred to another country to serve his prison sentence.
Kushayb’s trial began after he surrendered himself in the Central African Republic in June 2020, based on an arrest warrant issued against him by Pre-Trial Chamber I of the ICC on April 27, 2007, which was linked to the Bashir government leader, Ahmed Haroun.
Kushayb’s atrocities
The back and feet of “Adam” (a pseudonym), a resident of the Mukjar locality, still bear the marks of the iron used to burn him in 2004. Ali Kushayb’s forces had arrested him on charges of allegiance to (Abdel Wahid al-Nur’s) forces and tortured him by burning him with a hot iron—”the traditional iron heated with charcoal”—and jumping on his stomach until his intestines protruded.
More than twenty years after that incident, “Adam,” now in his sixties, still suffers from the effects of the torture, and the abdominal pain never leaves him.
This was recounted to “Al-Taghyeer” by Badour Zakaria, a human rights defender and documenter of the Mukjar violations. She emphasized that the stories of the victims and their families are countless and that the case at the ICC only addressed Kushayb’s violations in specific times and places, while many events have yet to be told.
Zakaria told “Al-Taghyeer” that the story of “Amna,” the wife of an Omda (local chief), will never leave her memory. While the region learned of her husband’s death from his famous “Seiko” watch found at (Khor Kushayb), his forces attacked her after identifying her as the Omda’s wife as she tried to flee (Mukjar) with her children on a donkey’s back. They beat her on the head with a rifle butt until she lost consciousness.
“When she removed the cloth from her head, she found a bald circle in the middle of it; the area where she was beaten never grew hair again,” Badour Zakaria continued. “It seems the murder of her husband and the blows to her head affected her memory; past events are no longer clear in her mind.”
Landmarks of brutality
Khor Kushayb, located southeast of the Mukjar locality near the former UNAMID headquarters, is considered one of the landmarks bearing witness to the brutality with which the Janjaweed leader treated local citizens. He would lead men there to execute and bury them.
Near the infamous khor (gully) lie other mass graves, visible as you exit Mukjar towards (Garsila). There were local efforts to build a fence around it to commemorate the victims, but these were cut short by the outbreak of the April 2023 war.
Badour Zakaria said the attacks carried out by Kushayb in the Mukjar area and other regions were under the direct instructions of the leader in the dissolved National Congress Party, Ahmed Haroun, and with the support of the Bashir government.
According to information she obtained from survivors, the area witnessed several famous attacks starting in August 2003, another in February 2004, and another in March of the same year. She noted that the targeting was aimed at areas controlled by the head of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), Abdel Wahid al-Nur.
A criminal carrying an axe
Zakaria said most attacks were carried out using camels, horses, and motorcycles, with a few vehicles, while using Kalashnikovs, DShKs (heavy machine guns), and RPGs.
“The Fur and their property belong to you” was a famous phrase of Kushayb’s, by which he granted permission to his Janjaweed forces to loot all property, practice persecution, mass rape, murder, and torture. According to eyewitnesses, he was also known for carrying an axe, which he used to strike people anywhere on their bodies. Zakaria relayed from eyewitnesses that he would force men to lie on their stomachs until the helicopter carrying Ahmed Haroun landed in the area, and they would perform the same prone line-up during takeoff, in scenes meant to impose power, control, and humiliate the tribes accused of rebellion against the state.
Forms of torture
Among the most famous torture methods practiced by Kushayb’s forces on the residents of Mukjar, Bindisi, Deleij, and Kadom—the areas under investigation and charges at the ICC—was setting plastic bottles on fire and then dripping the molten liquid onto people’s naked bodies.
Bodies were also burned with hot irons, heads were shaved with glass shards, and some died from the overcrowding and lack of oxygen in the prisons.
“Tayara Qam” (“The plane took off”) was a torture method that killed detainees who could not endure its repetition three times. The method involved tying the detainee, lowering him upside down with his head down and feet up, and swinging him.
According to the human rights defender, she met “Yahya” (pseudonym), who miraculously survived this torture method up to the fifth time, which put him in a coma. When he awoke, he found that three prisoners who were being tortured in the same way had died.
The arm of the state
Kushayb, who led the Janjaweed forces in the (Wadi Salih) areas, represented an official arm of Omar al-Bashir’s government, as he was a member of the Central Reserve Police and held the rank of Sergeant Major, according to Muneim Adam, director of the Sudan Human Rights Center and a lawyer. Adam confirmed that Kushayb transformed into a tribal militia leader after leaving the official forces, targeting the Fur, Zaghawa, and Masalit components.
The Bashir government provided protection to Kushayb, despite the investigations of the first ICC Prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, finding evidence of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and acts of genocide carried out within the framework of the “scorched earth” policy, according to Salih Mahmoud, head of the Darfur Bar Association.
Mahmoud told “Al-Taghyeer” that “Bashir’s refusal to surrender Kushayb and Ahmed Haroun led the ICC to charge him (Bashir) with obstructing international justice, and he was considered a primary partner in all the crimes.”
Mahmoud held the Bashir regime and the post-revolution military-civilian coalition government responsible for obstructing justice for the crimes in Darfur by refusing to surrender Omar al-Bashir, Ahmed Haroun, Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein, and Ali Banda.
Mahmoud said the failure to surrender the wanted men is a “negative mark on the record of the civilian component headed by Abdalla Hamdok, who ignored the cries of the victims.”
He added: “The wanted are still free and enjoy the protection of the Port Sudan government. Civil forces must organize a long and broad campaign to force the government to surrender the wanted.”
“When new lists are issued, we must be ready to force any government, whether the de facto government in Port Sudan or Nyala, to quickly surrender the wanted.”
The army protects criminals
The director of the Sudan Human Rights Center agreed with Mahmoud regarding the complicity of the current authorities with those wanted by the ICC, holding the army leadership responsible.
Adam told “Al-Taghyeer” that revoking the license of the Al Arabiya correspondent after her report last month revealed Bashir’s location is one of the indicators of the Port Sudan government’s refusal to cooperate with the ICC.
Adam described Kushayb’s trial as a trial of the former regime, to which the army belongs, which used the Janjaweed as an arm to strike tribes of African affiliation. He pointed to the “misunderstanding” of the Port Sudan government, which “sent delegations to attend the trial, thinking it was a trial of the RSF.”
“The presiding judge of the court spoke clearly that the instructions were issued from Bashir and Haroun to Kushayb.”
Furthermore, lawyer Muneim Adam confirms that the style of crimes committed by Kushayb resembles the style of RSF crimes during the current war, especially in El Fasher and other areas, alongside media campaigns talking about the RSF “going to the Northern State and Merowe.” He warned, “This is a very dangerous style of hate speech that will lead to future prosecutions of RSF members.”
Shameful silence
As soon as the conviction verdict was issued against Kushayb, welcoming statements poured in, while marches erupted in several Darfur IDP camps, celebrating the decision and demanding the surrender of the other wanted individuals.
However, the authorities in Port Sudan, the Islamists, and the armed movements allied with the army chose silence, except for a post written by the leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement, Minni Arko Minawi, the day after the decision, which did not mention, near or far, the necessity of surrendering Bashir and the other wanted men.
Political analyst Mohammed Latif said the armed movements’ position on the decision “revealed the truth of the contradiction” in which these movements, with their unprincipled positions, are living, which “do not express the interests of Darfur’s citizens.”
Latif accused the movements of achieving huge gains from the peace agreement in the name of the people of Darfur, including obtaining positions and control over the Sudanese economy, while the ordinary Darfuri citizen “did not benefit at all, despite the huge sums received by the leaders of the movements, especially Jibril (Ibrahim) and Minawi.”
Speaking to “Al-Taghyeer,” Latif expressed his surprise at the movements’ silence on Kushayb’s conviction, which is fundamentally a conviction against the violations committed in Darfur. “The simplest thing would be for these movements to issue a statement supporting the verdict and demanding further accountability,” he stressed, noting that their silence confirms that the citizen was never their concern.
Regarding the Islamists’ position, Latif affirmed that their stance has been declared since the beginning of the court proceedings. “They considered it a targeting of Sudan, and we cannot expect them to support it in any way.” Latif asserted that they were surprised by the verdict because “they had bet that the accusations were fabricated by the opposition.”
Latif asserted that the ICC’s ruling is a conviction of the entire former regime, “because a court of this transparency and justice will not issue an unjust verdict.”
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The Sudan Media Forum and its member institutions publish this material, prepared by (Al-Taghyeer) newspaper, to document the trial held for the accused Ali Kushayb for the crimes he committed in Darfur 20 years ago. The material reminds us of the importance of documentation in cornering crime and confirms that criminal acts do not expire with a statute of limitations.
