After neglect for some time, world attention is again reverting to Darfur, Sudan as horrifying stories emerge of the brutalities going on there. Ironically, that is against the backdrop of a historic happening: the first verdict of the International Criminal Court (ICC) concerning events in the same area more than two decades ago.

The Court examined 1,861 items of evidence and 74 witnesses before ruling last month that Ali Muhammad Ali Abd Al Rahman, better known as Ali Kushayb, was guilty of 27 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed between August 2003 and March 2004. It triggered nightmarish memories of the time when I headed the UN in Sudan with a grandstand view of these atrocities.

The judge spoke with cold authority and obviously suppressed feelings as she dissected Ali Kushayb’s misdeeds: murder, execution, rape, forced displacement, property destruction and pillage, persecution, torture and other inhumane mistreatments, and obscure “outrages against human dignity” that hinted at unspeakable abominations. What else was left in the catalogue of inhumanity?

The judge’s litany was a masterclass for students of abuse and barbarity. Not just to understand what happened and how but, more importantly, why? What causes an educated, respected former Sudanese military officer to turn against the people among whom he has lived all his life? Ethnic hatred appears to be the poison: Ali Kushayb hails from an Arab tribe and his victims were largely the non-Arab Fur.

At least 300,000 non-Arab Darfuris, mostly of black African origin, were slaughtered and 2.7 million displaced. The ICC case was important because its investigations showed how modern genocides happen and give crucial insights for stopping and preventing them.

Through the proceedings sat the elegantly groomed Ali Kushayb, looking like a benign grandfather. His calm academic demeanour betrayed his role beyond the direct perpetration of evil acts to that of designing them and motivating others to carry them out. He reminded me of the genocide commanders I encountered in Kigali central prison – as smart as they were malign.

Former senior commander of the Sudanese Janjaweed militia Ali Muhammad Ali Abd Al Rahman was found guilty of 27 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed between August 2003 and March 2004. AFP

My own emotions were complicated. On one hand, I felt vindicated – at last. But I felt no triumph as Ali Kushayb was here only because he had surrendered voluntarily, calculating that he was safer under lock-and-key than pursued by friends-turned-enemies when Sudanese politics shifted. Meanwhile, top ringleaders, charged with genocide, remain at large.

Neither did I feel relief and hope because Darfur continues to be the centre of Sudan’s continued agony with no resolution in sight. The mass atrocities reported in the North Darfur city of El Fasher last week add to the long list of human rights abuses that have taken place in the country since war erupted in April 2023.

I wondered if my mood came from the austere setting of the Court, which resembled the mortuary of the hospital where I once practised medicine, and the honourable judges were like pathologists explaining their diagnosis while poring over an interesting body. Sudan is not dead, but millions endure a living death.

I dwell so much on feelings because those are all that is left two decades after the first genocide of the millennium wiped out everything else. Ali Kushayb is in his late 70s and the survivors are ageing fast too.