On 8 September 2026, the International Criminal Court heard submissions on reparations for the victims of Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as “Ali Kushayb”, the former Janjaweed leader convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur in 2003 and 2004.
It was the first reparations proceeding to arise from a Security Council referral, and the first time the Court must decide what the convicted owes to victims of a war still being fought. Addressing the judges on behalf of the General Coordination Committee of the IDPs and Refugee Camps in Sudan (GCC), one of the largest victims’ associations in the world representing millions of IDPs currently residing in IDP camps all over Darfur, was Abdulbasit Mohamed, a Darfuri lawyer with the Wayamo Foundation.
Abdulbasit Mohamed was born in Central Darfur, near Garsila, and is a member of the Fur community that Kushayb’s forces attacked; the villages named in the judgment are where his family lived and his ancestors are buried. Under the al-Bashir regime he represented Fur clients in the courts of Khartoum, and was detained for doing so.
The GCC was formed in 2005, in the wake of Security Council Resolution 1593, to give the survivors of the Darfur war a direct voice with the international community. It represents the displaced communities of the camps across Darfur and eastern Chad, and the Trust Fund for Victims has told the Court it would play a central role in any reparations process. Earlier this year, following in-depth consultations with the GCC, Wayamo filed an amicus brief on behalf of the group.
