# Sudan's Port Sudan court sentences RSF leader Hemedti and 15 others to death in absentia for Darfur war crimes
> A court in Port Sudan sentenced Rapid Support Forces paramilitary leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, and 15 co-defendants to death in absentia on July 12, convicting them of killing West Darfur Governor Khamis Abbakar and of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur; the ruling is the first against RSF leadership since Sudan's civil war began in April 2023

**Meta:** type: event · date: 2026-07-12 · heads: Who Decides, How Wars Actually End · 5 takes · 4 lenses · 5 regions

## Summary

A court in Port Sudan, the Sudanese Armed Forces' de facto administrative capital, sentenced [Sudan War](/en/entity/sudan-war) paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo ("Hemedti") and 15 co-defendants to death in absentia on July 12. The charges cover the killing of West Darfur Governor Khamis Abbakar and war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur, according to Sudanese state media. The verdict is the first judicial ruling against RSF leadership since [Sudan War](/en/entity/sudan-war) erupted in April 2023. Asharq Al-Awsat and Arab News (Gulf) led on the full charge-sheet; Eye Radio (South Sudan) emphasised the symbolic weight of naming the governor's killing as the lead count.

## Why it matters

The ruling is symbolic in the near term: Hemedti operates from territory the Port Sudan judiciary cannot reach, making enforcement unenforceable now. It nonetheless establishes a formal legal record of RSF command responsibility for Darfur atrocities, which bears on future ICC referrals, African Union engagement and any post-war accountability process, particularly given the findings in [Amnesty: RSF committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in El Fasher](/en/n/sudan-rsf-el-fasher-amnesty-jul2).

## What to watch

- Whether the ruling prompts ICC or African Union engagement on a parallel international proceeding.
- RSF and Hemedti response, and whether the verdict is used as a propaganda tool to frame the SAF judiciary as illegitimate.
- Any shift in UAE, Saudi or Libyan positions on RSF support following a formal genocide conviction on record.

## Regional takes (batched by bias / lens)

### Gulf, factual AFP-backed first report
- **Arab News** (Saudi Arabia, en) — Earliest verified report, citing AFP: noted the court functions under the army-controlled judiciary in Port Sudan and that the ruling is the first against RSF leadership since the war began in April 2023; flagged the enforceability problem without elaborating, since Hemedti controls territory outside SAF reach.
  > "A Sudanese court sentenced Dagalo and 15 others to death in absentia for killing a regional governor and committing war crimes in Darfur, in the first such ruling since April 2023."
  Source: https://www.arabnews.com/node/2650639/middle-east

### pan-Arab, full charge-sheet framing
- **Asharq Al-Awsat** (London / pan-Arab, en) — Most detailed account: named all four charge categories (war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, attacks against civilians and public facilities); gave the ruling's historical significance as the first judicial action against RSF command structure and raised the enforceability problem explicitly.
  > "The court convicted Dagalo and others of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and attacks on civilians, the first ruling against RSF leadership since April 2023."
  Source: https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5295179-sudan-court-sentences-rsf-leader-death-absentia

### South Sudanese independent broadcaster, regional African perspective
- **Eye Radio** (South Sudan, en) — Covered the ruling from a South Sudanese standpoint, anchoring the story in the killing of Governor Abbakar of West Darfur; Eye Radio's positioning as a leading independent broadcaster in South Sudan provides East African regional weight and context on cross-border displacement absent from Gulf coverage.
  > "A Sudanese court sentenced RSF leader Dagalo and 15 others to death in absentia over the killing of West Darfur Governor Khamis Abbakar and other war crimes."
  Source: https://www.eyeradio.org/sudanese-court-sentences-rsf-leader-dagalo-to-death-in-absentia/

### unlabelled
- **Capital FM Africa** (Kenya, en) — 
  Source: https://capitalfm.africa/sudan-court-sentences-rsf-leader-hemedti-to-death-in-absentia-over-darfur-crimes/
- **The Frontier Post** (Pakistan, en) — 
  Source: https://thefrontierpost.com/sudan-court-sentences-rsf-leader-to-death-in-absentia/

## Across the graph
- Related: [[sudan-war-dossier]], [[sudan-rsf-el-fasher-amnesty-jul2]], [[sudan-famine-displacement-crisis]], [[sudan-ofac-colombian-mercenaries-jul4]]
- Entities: Sudan War

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Canonical: https://rbtfl.xyz/en/n/sudan-daglo-death-sentence-jul13