The leader of the Sudanese paramilitaries sentenced to death in absentia

A court in Port Sudan on Monday sentenced Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), to death for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed in West Darfur. Fifteen other senior members of the paramilitary group received the same sentence.

Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, nicknamed "Hemedti," was tried and convicted in absentia by a court in Port Sudan, a city under the control of the Sudanese army. The trial concerned alleged atrocities committed in el-Geneina, the regional capital of West Darfur, including the assassination in June 2023 of the state's governor, Khamis Abbakar.

The court also found the sixteen defendants guilty of orchestrating attacks against civilians, mass destruction and looting, as well as strikes targeting schools, places of worship, and residential neighborhoods. Among those convicted were Hemedti's brother and deputy, Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo, another brother, Al-Qoni Hamdan Dagalo, and the RSF commander for West Darfur, Abdul Rahman Juma Barkallah.

Special Judge Mohamed Al-Amin ordered the confiscation of all FSR assets and asked the authorities to request Interpol Red Notices for the arrest and extradition of the convicts.

The Sudan Founding Alliance, of which the FSR is a member, called the trial a "sham" that "doesn't even warrant a comment." The paramilitary group has not yet directly responded to the verdict, but had previously rejected all accusations of war crimes since the beginning of the conflict.

This conviction is the first court ruling targeting the leadership of the RSF since the outbreak of the civil war in April 2023. Its practical impact, however, remains uncertain: the group still controls large swathes of western Sudan, and its leaders remain beyond the reach of the army. Hemedti's whereabouts are not publicly known.

UN investigators and several human rights organizations accuse the RSF and allied Arab militias of carrying out ethnically motivated attacks against the Masalit population in Darfur. In early July, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court stated that he had "concrete evidence" linking RSF officials to war crimes.

A Human Rights Watch report published in May 2024 estimated that the campaign waged around el-Geneina between April and November 2023 killed thousands of people and forced hundreds of thousands more to flee. The organization considered these acts to be war crimes and crimes against humanity, part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Masalit and other non-Arab communities.

Both sides are also accused of human rights violations: UN investigators established last year that the Sudanese army had also targeted civilians and vital infrastructure, including health facilities. Since the start of the conflict, more than 150,000 people have died, approximately 12 million have fled their homes, and some 28 million are facing acute hunger, according to humanitarian agencies.