A court in the Sudanese army's wartime capital opened the trial on Monday of paramilitary commander Gen Mohamed Dagalo and former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok on charges of inciting the country's 31-month-old civil war.
Gen Dagalo's Rapid Support Forces have been fighting the national army since April 2023, when a power struggle with his one-time ally, army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, boiled over into violence.
Mr Hamdok was toppled in a 2021 military coup that derailed Sudan's democratic transition after the 2019 ouster of dictator Omar Al Bashir and plunged the vast Afro-Arab nation into political and economic chaos.
Mr Hamdok, who lives in exile outside Sudan, has long been accused by the Sudanese military of supporting Gen Dagalo and his RSF. The two also face charges of war crimes and breaching the country's constitution before an antiterrorism court in Port Sudan.
A statement by the judiciary said Gen Dagalo and Mr Hamdok, who are being tried in their absence, are among 201 defendants in a case brought by a committee created by Gen Al Burhan more than two years ago to investigate alleged crimes by the RSF.
The trial began on Monday in Port Sudan on the Red Sea, the wartime capital and seat of the military-backed government. It was not immediately clear how many of the 201 defendants were in custody.
Chief prosecutor Maher Said told the court the committee has identified 12,400 cases against the RSF, Mr Hamdok and others, who include Gen Dagalo's two brothers, Abdel Raheem and Al Qoony, and veteran opposition leader Yasser Arman.
The charges facing the defendants, according to the judiciary's statement, include incitement of war, undermining the constitutional order, war crimes, crimes against humanity and supporting a rebellion against the state. Other charges include murder, forced displacement, assassinations, looting and sexual violence.
If convicted, the defendants could face death or long-term jail terms.
The army and the RSF are accused of war crimes in Sudan's civil war, with the paramilitary facing charges of ethnically motivated killings, looting and sexual violence. The army and allied militias are blamed for indiscriminate shelling that claimed hundreds of civilian lives, arbitrary detentions and summary executions of suspected collaborators.
Tens of thousands have been killed since the war began, and more than 12 million have been displaced. The war also gave rise to the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 20 million of the nation's 50 million people facing hunger.
The trial in Port Sudan underlines how far the two sides are from returning to the negotiating table despite repeated calls by regional and international powers for them to declare a three-month humanitarian ceasefire, followed by a longer one and peace negotiations.
Gen Al Burhan, also Sudan's de facto ruler, has repeatedly pledged to press on fighting until the RSF is vanquished or surrenders. The RSF has shown openness towards a negotiated settlement.
Both sides have their own governments, with the military's seated in Port Sudan while that of the RSF is headquartered in Nyala, in Darfur, a vast western region that is fully under the paramilitary's control.
