A court in Sudan has sentenced Gen Mohamed Dagalo, commander of Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, to death for his alleged part in ethnically motivated killings in Darfur, the military-aligned judiciary said.
Twelve other members, supporters and allies of the RSF, which has been fighting the national army since 2023 in a civil war, also received death sentences meted out by a counter-terrorism court in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, seat of the military-aligned government.
The 12 include Gen Dagalo's brothers, RSF deputy commander Abdel Rahim Dagalo and Al Qoony Dagalo, RSF member.
In a five-hour hearing, the court convicted the 13 of crimes against humanity and genocide.
The group was tried and sentenced in absentia. It is difficult to see how the court or authorities in army-held regions can arrest those convicted and carry out the death sentences.
However, the court ruling illustrates deepening animosity between the two warring parties and reduces the prospects of peace talks to end a war that has killed tens of thousands, displaced about 14 million and created the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 20 million facing hunger.
The killings in question took place in Darfur in June 2023, three months after the war broke out following months of tension between army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and Gen Dagalo over their future roles in a democratic Sudan. The fighting began in the capital, Khartoum, then spread throughout the rest of the country.
The victims in the Darfur killings were mostly members of the non-Arab Masalit tribe in the city of Geneina. Thousands are believed to have been killed and tens of thousands more fled to neighbouring Chad.
The killings drew international outcry, accusations by the International Criminal Court of genocide and sanctions against the paramilitary.
The second largest case of alleged genocide blamed on the RSF took place last October, when the paramilitary carried out ethnically targeted killings, widespread sexual violence and enforced disappearances when it seized the city of El Fasher in Darfur, according to an independent UN fact-finding mission.
In a report released in February, it said the RSF's actions bore “hallmarks of genocide” against non-Arab communities and indicated a persistent risk of further atrocities. It demanded the perpetrators be brought to justice.
In turn, the Sudanese Armed Forces have been blamed for the killing of thousands in indiscriminate bombings, as well as using chemical weapons against the RSF in Khartoum.
The US last week delivered its strongest condemnation yet of the Sudanese army over its use of chemical weapons, demanding immediate international inspections and warning of further consequences if the military-backed government failed to comply.
The criticism came as the US imposed a second round of sanctions on authorities based in Port Sudan after determining they had failed to meet the conditions required to return to compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention.
With the war now in its fourth year, the army controls the capital Khartoum along with the central, northern and eastern parts of the country, while the RSF occupies Darfur, an area roughly the size of France, parts of neighbouring Kordofan and the southern Blue Nile state.
Al Shafie Ahmed contributed to this report from Kampala, Uganda
