A Sudanese court in Port Sudan on Sunday issued an absentia death sentence against Rapid Support Forces commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and others, for charges of committing crimes against humanity and genocide, as the war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces enters its fourth year.

The ruling is the first against Dagalo since the outbreak of the war, and comes amid accusations against him and his brothers Abdul Rahim and Al-Qoni Dagalo and 13 others of committing massacres in the city of El Geneina that killed 15,000 residents, including the governor of West Darfur, according to the judge's reading of the verdict published by the official Sudanese news agency.

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The court is located in Port Sudan in the east of the country, where the army-aligned government moved during the Rapid Support Forces' control of Khartoum before returning to the capital after the army recaptured it last year.

Areas of Influence

The war has divided Sudan into areas of influence: the army controls the east and north, while the Rapid Support Forces control Darfur in the west and areas in Kordofan in the south. Dagalo, known as Hemedti, and his two brothers are accused of killing West Darfur Governor Khamis Abakar during violent attacks by the Rapid Support Forces on El Geneina in 2023, which also included massacres against the non-Arab Masalit tribe that resulted in between 10,000 and 15,000 deaths.

Communication with Interpol

The court instructed to contact the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to communicate with the countries where the convicts are located for their extradition. The Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan issued a decision in August 2024 to form a committee to investigate the crimes of the Rapid Support Forces, headed by the public prosecutor, and the committee filed the case with the court in 2025. The Rapid Support Forces deny involvement in genocide crimes. Dagalo's whereabouts remain unknown, but he appears in video footage from time to time, most recently during a visit to Uganda.

Worst Humanitarian Crisis

The war between the army led by al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces led by Hemedti, al-Burhan's former deputy, broke out in April 2023, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and millions of displaced people, causing the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Al-Burhan and Hemedti were allies in their 2021 coup that ended civilian participation in the transitional government that succeeded the regime of former President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted by widespread popular protests in 2019. During the first months of their alliance, the 2019 Constitutional Document was issued, replacing the Sudanese constitution and making the Rapid Support Forces part of the Sovereign Council that governed the country during the transitional period following the coup.

Bloody Battles

However, disagreements over integration into the army and command of the forces under its framework sparked a conflict between the two leaders, which quickly turned into bloody battles more than three years ago. In March 2025, al-Burhan issued an amendment to the 2019 document that included removing the Rapid Support Forces from the constitutional articles regulating the Sovereign Council and military courts.