Darfur: the trial of the “colonel of colonels” opens before the ICC

Published on: 05/04/2022 – 08:14 Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, former Sudanese militia leader, will be the first person to be tried before the International Criminal Court on Tuesday for the abuses committed in Darfur nearly twenty years old. A collaborator of former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, he is accused of 31 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He is nicknamed “colonel of colonels”. Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, a former militia leader, will be the first person to be tried before the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday April 5 for the atrocities committed in Darfur, the scene of a bloodbath. nearly 20 years ago. At least 45 people died the week before these hearings in new tribal clashes in this region of western Sudan, regularly bereaved by violence, according to local security authorities. Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, 72, a collaborator of former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, was the leader of the Janjawid militia, a proxy force for the Sudanese government accused of abuses during the Darfur conflict. Also known by his name Ali Kosheib, he is accused of 31 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed in 2003-2004 in Darfur.>> To read – Instability and violence in Darfur rekindled by the coup d’etat in SudanThe conflict erupted at the time when members of ethnic minorities had taken up arms against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum. Khartoum responded with the Janjawid, a force drawn from nomadic tribes in the region. Human rights groups said they had carried out “systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing” targeting the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups. The human toll of the conflict is estimated at 300,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced, according to the United Nations. In April 2007, the ICC, headquartered in The Hague, issued an arrest warrant for Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman. The latter fled to the Central African Republic in February 2020 when the new Sudanese government announced its intention to cooperate with ICC investigators. He surrendered in June 2020 to the ICC after 13 years on the run, and denies the charges to against him. Colonel of Colonels According to ICC prosecutors, the militia leader, backed by Sudanese forces, carried out attacks on villages in the Wadi Salih area of ​​Darfur in August 2003. During these attacks, at least 100 villagers were murdered, women and girls were raped and members of the predominant Fur ethnic group were forcibly transferred and persecuted. supplied the Janjawid militias under his command.Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman being the first suspect to be tried for war crimes committed in Darfur, this trial represents “a rare and long-awaited chance for the victims and communities terrorized by the Janjawid to see an alleged leader brought to justice,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement. Omar al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan with an iron fist for three decades before being deposed in April 2019 after months of protests, as well as two other leaders have been claimed for more than ten years by the ICC for ” genocide” and crimes against humanity during the Darfur conflict. ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said a military coup in Sudan in October marked a setback in the court’s work, the north-east African country being rocked by worsening unrest. With AFP