The International Criminal Court has convicted former leader of the Janjaweed militia of past
war crimes committed in Sudan's western Darfur region. Ali Mohamed Ali Abdelrahman was unanimously
convicted by a three-judge panel on 27 charges of playing a leading role in the atrocities
committed between 2003 and 2004. Abdelrahman was also found guilty of ordering summary executions
of scores of prisoners and of personally killing captive civilians. The judges ruled that he was a
senior commander in the Janjaweed militia during the Darfur conflict. The conflict erupted when
rebels from the region began fighting the armed forces under then-President Omar al-Bashir
Al-Bashir's government responded with a scorched-earth campaign of aerial attacks and raids
carried out by the Janjaweed, killing over 300,000 people and displacing almost 3 million
Abd al-Rahman is set to be sentenced at a later date and faces a maximum life sentence
The ruling marks the first time the Haque court has convicted a suspect of crimes in Darfur