On Tuesday, victims of alleged war-related atrocities in Sudan asked Kenyan prosecutors to investigate allegations of torture and sexual violence committed by members of a notorious paramilitary group.
This is the first attempt to prosecute members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group that has been fighting the Sudanese army for more than three years, outside of Sudan.
This group, accused by human rights organizations of committing atrocities amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, maintains ties with the Kenyan government. Kenyan President William Ruto also hosted the head of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, for talks he presented as aimed at advancing peace efforts in Sudan, an initiative that sparked diplomatic tensions.
The complaint filed by the international legal organization Legal Action Worldwide details acts of torture and sexual violence committed by members of the RSF in various locations in and around Khartoum between April 2023 and March 2025, a period during which the Sudanese capital was controlled by the paramilitaries.
The 12 victims are urging the Attorney General of Kenya to approve the prosecution of 10 RSF members, some of whom are believed to reside in Kenya.
The Associated Press contacted RSF for comment.
According to this latest complaint, the victims were held in inhumane conditions, with little or no food, limited access to water and inadequate sanitation facilities.
They claim to have been beaten, burned, suffocated, subjected to electric shocks, and victims of sexual abuse, including rape. Some were allegedly forced to transport corpses from the detention centers.
Antonia Mulvey, founder of Legal Action Worldwide, said Kenya should consider prosecuting the alleged crimes under the 2008 International Crimes Act.
“For Sudanese victims, this represents a rare and urgent path to justice at a time when opportunities for accountability remain extremely limited. The Sudanese judicial system is currently inaccessible, unavailable, and ineffective,” she said.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been at war with the Sudanese army since April 2023, when tensions between the two sides escalated into open conflict in Khartoum and other parts of the country.
This group originated from the infamous Janjaweed Arab militias, accused of committing widespread atrocities in the early 2000s against communities identifying as being from East or Central Africa in the Darfur region of western Sudan.
RSF has been accused by human rights organizations and the United Nations of committing atrocities during the conflict that could constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, particularly in Darfur, where the group maintains a strong presence.
Willis Otieno, a Kenyan lawyer who filed the complaint locally, said that some information suggested that some of the individuals targeted had links to Kenya and that the country had the legal framework necessary to investigate and prosecute such crimes.
Mr. Otieno described the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions of Kenya as competent, adding: "We are confident that the DPP will act."
The RSF has already been accused of massacres, gang rapes and ethnically motivated crimes, notably last October during an assault on the town of El-Fasher in Darfur, in which more than 6,000 people were killed in three days.
UN-mandated experts have described this offensive as having "the characteristics of genocide".
In one of its latest decisions, the Biden administration accused the group of genocide and imposed sanctions on its commanders, including Dagalo.
The war has claimed at least 59,000 lives in three years, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, an American conflict monitoring group that said this figure was very likely an underestimate given the difficulties in counting.
This conflict has caused the world's largest humanitarian crisis, with approximately 34 million people — or nearly two out of three Sudanese — in need of assistance, according to the UN.
