New Delhi, July 14 -- PORT SUDAN - A Sudanese court handed down its most significant verdict of the civil war on Tuesday, sentencing Rapid Support Forces commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, and 15 senior RSF officers to death in absentia for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in West Darfur. The verdict represents the first conviction of the RSF's founder for the atrocities that have defined the conflict, but Hemedti's current whereabouts remain unknown and the sentence may never be enforced.

The Port Sudan tribunal convicted Hemedti and his co-defendants of orchestrating systematic attacks on civilians in el-Geneina, West Darfur's capital, including the June 2023 killing of West Darfur Governor Khamis Abaka...