On Sunday, the anti-terrorism and crimes against the state court in Port Sudan sentenced Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, and 15 other defendants to death in absentia.
According to the Sudan Tribune, they were convicted for their roles in the killing of West Darfur Governor Khamis Abdullah Abakar, crimes against humanity, war crimes, prohibited warfare, and genocide in el-Geneina.
Presided over by special judge Mohamed al-Amin, the ruling constitutes the first judicial conviction of the paramilitary group’s leadership since the outbreak of Sudan’s war on 15 April 2023.
The trial centred heavily on the 2023 assassination of Governor Khamis Abakar, a day after he denounced an RSF shelling on the el-Jamarik neighbourhood.
Human Rights Watch concluded in 2024 that actions in the capital of West Darfur, el-Geneina, constituted ethnic cleansing and possibly genocide against the Masalit people and other non-Arab communities.
