ICC to wrap up war crimes trial of feared Sudan militia chief

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -The war crimes trial of a feared Sudanese militia chief accused of rape, murder, and torture across the Darfur region of Sudan during the country's brutal civil war wraps up this week.

The International Criminal Court will hear three days of closing arguments from Wednesday in the case of Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known by the nom de guerre Ali Kushayb.

A leader of Sudan's infamous Janjaweed militia, Abd-Al-Rahman faces 31 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Prosecutors have accused Abd-Al-Rahman, an ally of deposed Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, of being an "energetic perpetrator" of murders in the Darfur war in 2003-04.

Described as the "colonel of colonels", he is suspected of being responsible for brutal attacks on villages in the Wadi Salih area of Darfur in August 2003.

"Civilians were attacked, raped and murdered, their homes and villages were destroyed, thousands were forcibly displaced," the ICC prosecutor at the time, Fatou Bensouda, told the court during the trial.

READ: ICC prosecutor 'extremely concerned' about Darfur, calls for evidence

"Men were loaded onto vehicles, taken a short distance away and executed in cold blood. Mr Abd-Al-Rahman was present at and directly participated in these callous crimes," she charged.

Current ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said that Abd-Al-Rahman and his forces "rampaged across different parts of Darfur".

Abd-Al-Rahman, born in 1949, has denied all the charges.

- 'Significant progress' -

Fighting broke out in Darfur when non-Arab tribes, complaining of systematic discrimination, took up arms against Bashir's Arab-dominated government.

Khartoum responded by unleashing the Janjaweed, a force drawn from among the region's nomadic tribes.

The United Nations says 300,000 people were killed and 2.5 million displaced in the Darfur conflict.

Bashir, who ruled Sudan with an iron fist for three decades, was deposed and detained in April 2019 following months of protests in Sudan, and is wanted by the ICC for genocide.

He has not been handed over to the ICC, based in The Hague, to face multiple charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Abd-Al-Rahman fled to the Central African Republic in February 2020 when the new Sudanese government announced its intention to cooperate with the ICC's investigation.

Four months later, he surrendered voluntarily.

His trial is the first-ever stemming from a UN Security Council referral.

Prosecutor Khan is also hoping to issue warrants relating to the current situation in Sudan.

READ: 'Atrocious' Sudan war pushing refugees further afield: UNHCR chief

Tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced in a war between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudan's army.

The conflict, marked by claims of atrocities on all sides, has left the northeast African country on the brink of famine, according to aid agencies.

On Monday, a Sudanese military air strike on a market in North Darfur killed more than 100 people, according to a pro-democracy lawyers' group.

Both sides have been accused of targeting civilians and deliberately shelling residential areas.

The army on Tuesday dismissed the accusations against it as "lies" spread by political parties backing the RSF.

The ICC last year opened a new investigation for war crimes in the region, and Khan said it had made "significant progress".

"I hope by my next report, I will be able to announce applications for warrants of arrest regarding some of those individuals that are the most responsible," he said.