Darfur militia leader is first person on trial at the International Criminal Court for atrocities in western Sudan
- Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman faces 31 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the conflict in the western Sudanese region
- The United Nations says 300,000 people were killed and 2.5 million people were displaced in the 2003-04 Darfur conflict
A former Sudanese militia leader Tuesday becomes the first person to go on trial at the International Criminal Court for atrocities in Darfur, which was ravaged by a brutal conflict.
The trial at The Hague-based tribunal opens as some 45 people were killed last week in Darfur in fresh clashes between rival ethnic groups.
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, 72, an ally of deposed Sudanese strongman Omar al-Bashir, was a senior commander of the Janjaweed militia – a notorious armed group created by the government.
Abd-Al-Rahman faces 31 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in 2003-04 in the arid western Sudanese region.
The United Nations says 300,000 people were killed and 2.5 million people were displaced in the 2003-04 Darfur conflict.
Back then, fighting broke out when black African rebels, complaining of systematic discrimination, took up arms against Bashir’s Arab-dominated regime.
Khartoum responded by unleashing the Janjaweed, a force drawn from among the region’s nomadic tribes.
