This file photo shows General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo in Juba, South Sudan, on Oct. 21, 2019. (Phoyo: Reuters).

A Sudanese court has sentenced Rapid Support Forces (RSF) leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, and 15 others to death in absentia over the killing of West Darfur Governor Khamis Abbakar and other war crimes.

According to AFP, the ruling was issued on Sunday by a court in Port Sudan, the army’s de facto administrative capital. It is the first court judgment against the RSF leadership since fighting erupted between the paramilitary group and the Sudanese army in April 2023.

State news agency SUNA reported that the court convicted Dagalo and the other defendants of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and attacks on civilians and public facilities.

Those sentenced include Dagalo’s brother and deputy, Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo, as well as several RSF officers and tribal leaders from communities in West Darfur.

The case relates to the killing of West Darfur Governor Khamis Abbakar in June 2023, shortly after RSF forces seized Al Geneina, the state capital. Abbakar was killed hours after publicly accusing the RSF and allied militias of attacking civilians.

United Nations experts have said between 10,000 and 15,000 people, most of them from the Massalit ethnic community, were killed during the violence in Al Geneina. The RSF has repeatedly denied allegations of genocide and other war crimes.

The court said it would seek the arrest and extradition of those convicted through Interpol and other international channels after referring the case to Sudan’s Supreme Court for review.

The conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF began after a dispute between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Dagalo over plans to integrate the paramilitary force into the national army.

The war has since killed tens of thousands of people, displaced more than 11 million others, and triggered what the United Nations has described as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises.