A court in Sudan’s army-controlled city of Port Sudan has sentenced Rapid Support Forces commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, his deputy and brother Abdelrahim Dagalo, and 14 other defendants to death in absentia.
The Anti-Terrorism and Crimes Against the State Court ordered that the defendants be hanged after convicting them over the June 2023 killing of former West Darfur governor Khamis Abdallah Abakar and atrocities committed during the violence in El Geneina.
The ruling was issued following a trial held without the defendants present. The court convicted them on charges that included war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, according to Sudanese state media and reports citing the judgment.
The court held Hemedti responsible for planning and carrying out the crimes, while Abdelrahim Dagalo was convicted of planning and participating in them. The verdict is the first death sentence issued against the RSF’s senior leadership since war erupted between the paramilitary group and the Sudanese Armed Forces in April 2023.
Abakar was seized and killed in El Geneina in June 2023, hours after he publicly accused the RSF and allied militias of committing atrocities against civilians in West Darfur.
Videos circulated at the time appeared to show armed men taking the governor from his office. His mutilated body was subsequently found, prompting widespread accusations that RSF personnel and allied fighters were responsible.
The RSF denied responsibility for Abakar’s killing at the time and said it would investigate the incident.
His death came amid a broader campaign of violence in El Geneina, where thousands of civilians were killed and large sections of the city’s ethnic Masalit population were displaced. International investigators and rights organisations have accused the RSF and allied militias of carrying out systematic killings and other abuses in West Darfur.
The defendants were not present to contest the charges, and the practical enforcement of the sentences would require them to be taken into the custody of authorities aligned with the Port Sudan government.
The RSF had not immediately issued a public response to the ruling.