The International Criminal Court has sentenced a Sudanese militia leader, identified as Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, to 20 years in jail for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the country’s civil war two decades ago.

The court had already convicted Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, of 27 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including rape, murder, and torture, in the western Darfur region between 2003 and 2004.

The 76-year-old was a leading member of Sudan’s infamous Janjaweed militia who participated “actively” in multiple war crimes during the civil war, the court found.

The presiding judge, Joanna Korner said Abd-Al-Rahman “personally perpetrated” beatings, including with an axe, and gave orders for executions.

She cited victims who said he had carried out a “campaign of extermination, humiliation and displacement”.

Korner read out in court harrowing testimony from victims of the suffering they had endured under the Janjaweed.

“Days of torture began at sunrise… blood ran freely in the streets…There was no medical help, no treatment, no mercy,” said Korner.

She said that Abd-Al-Rahman had personally walked on the heads of injured men, women, and children.

Prosecutor Julian Nicholls had called for a life sentence, telling the court: “You literally have an axe murderer before you. This is the stuff of nightmares.”

Abd-Al-Rahman had denied being a high-ranking official in the Janjaweed militia, a largely Arab paramilitary force armed by the Sudanese government to kill mainly black African tribes in Darfur two decades ago.

He fled to the Central African Republic in February 2020 when a new Sudanese government announced its intention to cooperate with the ICC’s investigation.

He said he then handed himself in because he was “desperate” and feared authorities would kill him — a claim the court rejected.

Korner said this voluntary surrender was one of several factors that mitigated the sentence, along with his age and good behaviour in detention.

“The chamber would have pronounced a higher sentence had it not been for the mitigating circumstances discussed above,” said Korner.

The time he had already spent in detention since June 2020 would be deducted from the sentence.