The Sudanese Anti-Terrorism Court on Sunday sentenced in absentia the leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) group, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – alias Hemedti – to death after finding him guilty of “genocide” and crimes against humanity in the war that has plagued the African country since 2023.

The president of the court, Al Maamun al Jawad, declared during a hearing held in the judicial complex of Port Sudan – an area in the northeast of the country controlled by the Army – that two of Hemedti’s brothers and 13 other defendants also received the same sentence, which in Sudan is carried out by hanging.

Likewise, they were found guilty of the murder of the former governor of the western Darfur state, Jamis Abdalá Akbar, who was kidnapped and dismembered on June 14, 2023, shortly after accusing the RSF of committing widespread violations and genocide in that area, now dominated by the paramilitaries.

The convicted individuals were sentenced under articles of the Sudanese Penal Code relating to the perpetration of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, rape, looting, forced displacement, and incitement to hatred.

Furthermore, because the convicted individuals are at large, the judge ordered coordination with Interpol to “detain them in any country where they are found, repatriate them to Sudan, and confiscate the properties of the RSF.”

He also indicated that the condemned killed “thousands of people of the African Masalit ethnicity systematically, destroyed their residential neighborhoods in Al Geneina (capital of West Darfur), raped women, looted shops and banks, buried people alive, prevented the evacuation of the wounded, and forcibly displaced thousands.”

The Anti-Terrorism Court began its work in April 2025 after the referral of the case file by the National Commission of Inquiry on Crimes and Violations of National Legislation and International Humanitarian Law, in order to try the defendants in absentia from the RSF.

In addition to Hemedti, the accused include his two brothers, Abdulrahim and Al Goni, the former RSF commander for West Darfur state, Abdulrahman Yuma, among other high-ranking paramilitary officials such as Tiyani al Tahir Karshoum Bellah, Idris Hassan Ibrahim Harun, and Hamdan al Gali Asil.

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