The International Criminal Court has sentenced a former leader of the Janjaweed militia to 20 years in prison for committing atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region.
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, 76, also known as Ali Kushayb, was sentenced on Tuesday following his conviction in October for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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This is the first time the ICC has convicted a suspect of crimes in Darfur, a region that is once again seeing mass atrocities amid a vicious civil war, between the government-linked Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which traces its origins back to the Janjaweed militia.
The court had unanimously convicted Kushayb on 31 counts, including attacks against civilians, murder, torture, rape, pillaging, destruction of property, persecution, and forcible transfer of population between 2003 and 2004.
‘Extermination, humiliation and displacement’
Abd-Al-Rahman was a leading member of Sudan’s infamous Janjaweed militia who participated “actively” in multiple war crimes during the civil war, the court found.
Judge Joanna Korner who passed the sentence said he had “personally perpetrated” beatings, including with an axe, and given orders for executions.
She cited victims who said he had carried out a “campaign of extermination, humiliation and displacement”.
Abd-Al-Rahman had consistently denied during his trial being a high-ranking official in the Janjaweed militia, a largely Arab paramilitary force armed by the Sudanese government to kill mainly Black African tribes in Darfur.
He insisted from the opening of his trial in April 2022 that he is “not Ali Kushayb” and that the court had the wrong man – an argument rejected by the judges.
Prosecutors had called for a life sentence, noting that among his crimes, Abd-Al-Rahman killed two people with an axe.
“You literally have an axe murderer before you. This is the stuff of nightmares,” prosecutor Julian Nicholls said at a pre-sentencing hearing.
Defence lawyers had asked for a seven-year jail term.
The court noted that the time Abd al-Rahman has spent in detention – from the date of his surrender on June 9, 2020, until the date of the judgment – will be deducted from his sentence.
Horror has returned to Darfur, with the latest conflict displacing millions of people and creating a deep humanitarian crisis (File: Reuters)
‘Desperate’
Fighting broke out in the Darfur region in the 2000s, when non-Arab tribes, complaining of systematic discrimination, took up arms against the Arab-dominated government.
Khartoum responded by unleashing the Janjaweed, a force now known as the Popular Defence Forces and drawn from among the region’s nomadic tribes.
The United Nations says 300,000 people were killed and 2.5 million more were displaced in the conflict.
Abd-Al-Rahman had fled to the Central African Republic in February 2020, when a new Sudanese government announced its intention to cooperate with the ICC’s investigation.
He said he then handed himself in because he was “desperate” and feared authorities would kill him.
The Darfur region has suffered further since a civil war between the military-run government and RSF erupted in April 2023.
Both sides are accused of committing atrocities – although mainly the RSF – and millions have been displaced and are at risk of famine, creating an urgent humanitarian crisis.
Thailand’s foreign minister has told Al Jazeera that Cambodia is “not ready” for peace negotiations and that the renewed border conflict between the two countries provides no space for a diplomatic solution.
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Gaza City – An Israeli sniper shot my six-year-old sister at a family friend’s wedding in northern Gaza during the ceasefire on November 3.
In the Daraj quarter, far from the Israel-controlled yellow area, Sundus was playing on the first floor of a wedding hall with other kids, happy with her new clothes, while the wedding itself was taking place upstairs.
Suddenly, she collapsed.
Shouts filled the hall on the second floor. Bullets whistled loudly among the guests. One bullet hit the bridesmaid in the jaw, and another hit the groom’s cousin in her shoulder. The bride’s white dress turned red — the wedding stopped before anyone danced.
Maria, my seven-year-old sister, came running. “Sundus is sleeping on the ground and won’t wake up.”
Mum ran to the first floor, searching everywhere for Sundus, but found only a pool of blood. Her phone rang, “We are in the Baptist Hospital [al-Ahli Arab Hospital]. Come quickly,” her brother Ali said.
“An Israeli sniper shot the child Sundus Hillis in the head,” the news circulated as we were on the way to the hospital. We knew nothing about our little one.
When we arrived, Sundus was lying in a hospital bed. Blood covered her beautiful face, staining the makeup and the colourful clothes she had been overjoyed to wear.
“Sundus, oh love. Wake up,” Mum begged her, but she only groaned weakly.
“Two bullets in her head,” a nurse inspecting Sundus’s injury told Mum.
Two holes, one bullet, and some parts of the brain lost, the medical report showed.
In the ICU
Sundus was moved to Al-Shifa Hospital.
Before she entered the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the neurosurgeon tapped her right hand – she unconsciously moved it. But when he tapped her left hand and leg, nothing moved.
Sundus underwent a three-hour-long surgery and remained in the ICU. We were permitted to visit for only 15 minutes. When I first entered the room, the doctor guided me to a child with a swollen face and a bandaged head, tubes everywhere, who bore very little resemblance to my beautiful Sundus.
One day passed, and Sundus was still kept in the ICU until another patient in critical condition needed the bed, and she was moved to the inpatient ward.
She finally woke up after two days, unable to see or move the left side of her body. No matter how much I talked to her, the only response I got was loud cries.
She was rubbing her face, trying to look at anything but failing. “My eyes are crossed … I can’t see anything. Why have you made me like this?” she would shout.
The wedding she had been looking forward to for days had disappeared from her memory. In her mind, she is still sleeping in our cousins’ shelter, where she was before the wedding hall.
Sudnus, trying to draw, in her hospital bed [Courtesy of Eman Hillis]
Sundus, who used to chatter all the time, could now only groan weakly. I used to make her draw just for a moment of quiet, but now I try to get her to speak, and she cries.
Dad, too, who used to complain, begs her to make noise, but we get nothing except: “Stop talking. My head hurts.”
“Why have you buried me alive?” she once shouted at Mum, after agonising, futile attempts to roll over in the hospital bed.
Hung by blockade
A few days after the surgery, Sundus was able to feel the brightness of light. She was able to see apparitions sometimes; at other times, she was unable to see at all.
When she sensed the disappointment in our voices, she started guessing. That the red butterfly was blue or that the pink doll was a pink rose.
I saw Sundus get angry at herself because she couldn’t move, then burst into tears – it’s a loop she suffers daily.
The neurosurgeon had no clear answers for us when we asked whether she would return to her normal self. A simple “inshallah” was his answer for all questions.
We had to face him several times with specific questions to get a clear answer.
“She needs physical therapy, and it’s up to God whether she will regain her mobility or not … her vision will improve to a certain extent, but it won’t go back to how it was,” he said.
Sundus didn’t stop moaning in pain, and the hospital did not have proper resources. We had to scour the streets for painkillers and other things for her.
One day, I needed to find a medical cap to cover her wound – but found nothing in four pharmacies, walking through destroyed streets. Another time, I needed surgical gauze and could only find another kind, but she needed anything, urgently, so I had to buy what I found.
I tried every international organisation to help get her out of Gaza. I sent her medical reports to anyone who might be able to help – all to no avail.
Sundus heard talk of evacuation and started to dream of being able to move and see again.
“The damage is done. Whatever the bullet damaged cannot be repaired by a surgeon,” a foreign doctor told us via messaging after he looked at Sundus’s records remotely, and our last bit of hope was shattered.
Her condition deteriorated as the medical care was limited in the destroyed hospital. Her injury became infected and needed another surgery, in which she lost a significant amount of blood.
It felt like Israel shot Sundus, then used the blockade to tighten a rope around her neck.
Sundus in the wheelchair at Al-Shifa Hospital [Courtesy of Eman Hillis]
Evading death
For two years, we’ve been making impossible decisions to avoid injury to anyone in the family.
When Israel issued warnings to the north of Gaza, we evacuated to the south. When Israel warned of a ground operation in Khan Younis, we evacuated to Rafah.
When the ground operation in Rafah was announced, we rushed to Deir el-Balah. We only returned to northern Gaza as the truce took effect in January 2025.
We slept in the streets, sheltered from bombs under the thin fabric of tents. For months, we endured starvation, not approaching aid drops or the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Besieged Palestinians in Gaza know what harsh fate awaits them when injured.
We felt like we owned the land when the ceasefire took effect, feeling lucky to have lost only our home and suffered from malnutrition. Then an Israeli sniper took that relief from us.
What did little Sundus do for the Israeli soldier to shoot her in the head? We are supposedly in a ceasefire.
Ironically, my friends everywhere, instead of condemning the shooting, first asked me if Sundus had been in the “yellow area” that is held by Israel.
All the times we nearly died while trying to stay in the “safe zone” crossed my mind as I repeated that she was not, sharing the location of the wedding hall with tens of people.
The president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Felix Tshisekedi, has accused Rwanda of violating a newly signed US-brokered peace deal, as the Kigali-backed M23 armed group pressed ahead with a rapid advance on a town near the border with Burundi.
Tshisekedi told lawmakers on Monday that Rwandan forces had carried out attacks in several locations in South Kivu province in the days since he and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, signed a peace accord in Washington, DC on December 4, aimed at ending years of conflict.
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“Despite our good faith and the recently ratified agreement, it is clear that Rwanda is already violating its commitments,” Tshisekedi alleged, claiming that the Rwandan army had carried out and supported attacks with heavy weaponry “on the very day after the signing”.
There was no immediate comment by Rwanda. The Anadolu news agency cited Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe as calling similar accusations against the Rwandan army “ridiculous” and an attempt to shift blame.
Rwanda denies backing M23, but says it faces a threat from armed groups with links to the 1994 Rwandan genocide present in eastern DRC.
Thursday’s signing of the accord, which saw both sides reaffirm their commitment to a United States- and Qatar-brokered agreement reached in June, was hailed by US President Donald Trump as a new chapter for the region, even as fighting continued.
“It is an amazing day: Great day for Africa, great day for the world and for these two countries,” Trump said at the time.
Clashes near Burundi border
In eastern DRC, the M23 armed group has been advancing on the town of Uvira near the border with Burundi, the last major urban centre in South Kivu province yet to fall to the group, the AFP news agency reported.
Quoting local and military sources, the agency reported that hundreds of Congolese and allied Burundian troops had sought refuge inside Burundi amid the group’s advance.
Recent clashes were also reported near Luvungi, a settlement about 60km (40 miles) north of Uvira. Quoting residents, the Reuters news agency reported that M23 fighters had seized the village.
Fighting was also reported in the nearby town of Sange, situated between Uvira and Luvungi, with Reuters reporting that as many as 36 people were killed in apparent bomb or grenade attacks.
On Monday, Burundi’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned what it said was an attack by Rwanda on its soil near Cibitoke, a town bordering Rwanda and the DRC, which had wounded two people, including a 12-year-old child.
Reporting from Goma, the biggest city in eastern DRC, Al Jazeera’s Alain Uaykani said tensions were high as M23 advanced on Uvira.
He said the DRC had been concentrating military resources in the area preceding months to try to ward off any advance.
“But this could not stop the advance of M23,” he said, adding that “disorganisation” between the DRC’s military and its allies was adding to the challenges of defending against the group.
Washington ‘deeply concerned’
The US State Department said it was “deeply concerned by the ongoing violence in eastern DRC”.
“Rwanda, which continues to provide support to M23, must prevent further escalation,” a spokesperson said.
A senior Trump administration official told Reuters that the US was monitoring the situation “including areas where actions on the ground do not yet align with the commitments made”. The official said the administration was working with both sides, and that Trump had made clear he was “expecting immediate results”.
While Trump hailed the “miracle” agreement signed on Thursday, which includes an economic component intended to secure US supplies of critical minerals, observers were sceptical that it would bring peace.
Florida’s governor has designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) a “foreign terrorist organisation”.
Ron DeSantis posted his executive order to list the United States-based Muslim civil rights and advocacy group on social media on Monday.
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The move follows a similar declaration by the Republican governor of Texas last month. CAIR has rejected the labelling by both states and mounted legal challenges.
In a separate post, DeSantis asserted that the Florida Legislature is “crafting legislation to stop the creep of Sharia law, and I hope that they codify these protections for Floridians against CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood in their legislation”.
The designation, which triggers heightened oversight by state law enforcement agencies and establishes financial and operational restrictions, was also declared against the Muslim Brotherhood.
DeSantis’s order asserted that CAIR was “founded by persons connected to the Muslim Brotherhood”, which, without offering evidence, the governor asserted was attempting to establish “a world-wide Islamic caliphate” and has direct links to Hamas.
The order instructs Florida agencies to prevent the two groups and those who have provided them with material support from receiving contracts, employment and funds from a state executive or cabinet agency.
Neither CAIR nor the Muslim Brotherhood is designated as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US government.
However, President Donald Trump has ordered the start of a process to label the branches of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan as “terrorist” organisations, citing their alleged support for Hamas.
CAIR’s Florida chapter told The Associated Press news agency that it plans to sue DeSantis in response to what it called an “unconstitutional” and “defamatory” proclamation.
The group accused the Florida governor of serving foreign interests and lashing out at CAIR due to its civil rights work.
“From the moment Ron DeSantis took office as Florida governor, he has prioritised serving the Israeli government over serving the people of Florida,” CAIR and its Florida chapter said in a statement.
“He hosted his very first official cabinet meeting in Israel. He diverted millions in Florida taxpayer dollars to the Israeli government’s bonds. He threatened to shut down every Florida college’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, only to back off when CAIR sued him in federal court.”
Founded in 1994, CAIR has 25 chapters around the country. Last month, it asked a federal judge to strike down the designation declared against it by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
In a lawsuit, CAIR said Abbott’s move was “not only contrary to the United States Constitution, but finds no support in any Texas law”.
On Monday, it said DeSantis and Abbott are both “Israel First politicians” and asserted that their designations are intended to silence American Muslims critical of US support for Israeli war crimes.
![Sundus in the wheelchair at Al-Shifa Hospital [Courtesy of Eman Hillis]](https://i0.wp.com/www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Sundus-in-the-wheelchair-at-Al-Shifa-Hospital-1765272805.jpg?w=696&ssl=1)
