As someone who has worked in Darfur as a humanitarian, I share the deep emotions that many Sudanese and friends of Sudan are feeling today. The conviction of Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, widely known as Ali Kushayb, by the International Criminal Court marks a moment of long-overdue accountability for some of the darkest crimes committed during the Darfur conflict. It is a historic milestone, but justice remains only half done until all those responsible for the genocide and mass atrocities face trial.
Ali Kushayb was one of the most feared militia leaders of the Janjaweed forces that terrorized the people of Darfur in the early 2000s. As a senior commander operating in the Wadi Salih and Mukjar areas of West Darfur, he directed and participated in systematic attacks on villages largely inhabited by the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa communities. His forces murdered hundreds of civilians, tortured men, raped women, burned homes, destroyed food supplies, and displaced tens of thousands. He personally led assaults on villages, often riding on horseback or in armed vehicles, and oversaw mass executions, arbitrary detentions, and the deliberate targeting of civilians based on their ethnic identity. The International Criminal Court found him guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, persecution, torture, and rape for his role in these atrocities.
The verdict is both a legal and moral acknowledgment that what happened in Darfur was not forgotten. It affirms that the world recognizes the genocide for what it was, a campaign of extermination orchestrated under state authority and executed with calculated brutality. The testimony of survivors, particularly women who endured unthinkable sexual violence, was given the dignity of being heard and believed. The fact that a panel of three female judges delivered the judgment adds powerful symbolism to this moment. The voices of Darfuri women, long silenced, finally resonated within the halls of international justice. His conviction therefore not only provides justice for the thousands of victims of Bindisi, Mukjar, Deleig, and other villages, but also builds a strong legal foundation for future prosecutions of those who planned and financed the genocide.
Yet this is only one step. The Darfur genocide was not the crime of one man but the result of a system designed to destroy communities under the banner of counterinsurgency. Those who conceived, financed, and enabled these crimes still walk free. Former President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, former Defense Minister Abdel Rahim Muhammad Hussein, and former Interior Minister and South Kordofan Governor Ahmad Muhammad Harun remain wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Their continued evasion of justice is a painful reminder of how fragile accountability remains. Until these men and others responsible for atrocities in Darfur, Kordofan, and Blue Nile are arrested and tried, justice for Sudan will remain incomplete.
The current situation in Sudan only reinforces how relevant this verdict is. The atrocities unfolding today in Darfur, Kordofan, and Khartoum are not isolated events but the continuation of the same structures of impunity that allowed Kushayb and his commanders to act with absolute power twenty years ago. The destruction of villages, ethnic targeting, sexual violence, and starvation tactics are tragically familiar. The failure to hold past perpetrators accountable has emboldened new ones, perpetuating a cycle of violence and denial that still defines Sudan’s tragic landscape.
Having lived and worked in Darfur, I have seen the human cost of these crimes, the villages reduced to ashes, the mass graves hastily covered, the haunting silence of survivors who lost everything but their will to live. No verdict can bring back the lives lost or undo the pain, but it can restore a measure of dignity and truth. The conviction of Ali Kushayb should not be seen as closure, but as a renewed call for global action and Sudanese resolve to bring every perpetrator, no matter how powerful, before the law. Justice that stops halfway is not justice at all. The people of Darfur have waited long enough, and the world owes them not sympathy, but accountability.
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