Darfur celebrates arrest of ICC fugitive

War-ravaged Darfur has hailed the arrest of former Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb, who has been indicted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC). As previously reported in Legalbrief Today, the former warlord who was arrested in the Central African Republic last week is expected to be transferred to The Hague to face trial. The ICC has charged Kushayb with 504 assassinations, 20 rapes, and the forced displacement of 41 000 people. Government negotiators and the Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel alliance in February agreed to hand deposed dictator Omar al-Bashir and the other ICC indictees to the court. Kushayb subsequently fled from Rahad El Berdi in South Darfur and crossed the border into the CAR. ’I couldn't believe it at first,’ said Badria Saleh, who lives in a refugee camp in the South Darfur region. ‘Kushayb killed my husband and my brother as they were burying a relative in 2013,’ she told AFP. A report on the News24 site notes that Hassan al-Senousi, another displaced Darfuri at the Al-Sarif camp near South Darfur's regional capital Nyala, said Kushayb's arrest brought him ‘deep satisfaction’. ‘Kushayb attacked our village with five cars and killed my brother and 35 other villagers,’ he said. The Darfur conflict broke out in 2003 when ethnic African rebels, complaining of systematic discrimination, took up arms against the al-Bashir’s regime.