The Sudanese authorities released Janjaweed leader Musa Hilal and a number of his sons and aides, after five years of detention by the regime of ousted President Omar al-Bashir.
Hilal, leader of the Sudanese Revolutionary Awakening Council, was arrested after clashing with the Rapid Support Forces and refusing to integrate with them. He also announced his resistance to the campaign of Bashir’s government to disarm the movement.
The spokesman for the Council, Ahmed Mohammad Babiker, welcomed the authorities' decision, saying Hilal and the other detainees were released following a pardon and "the case against them was canceled.”
Babiker thanked mediators who helped with the case and demanded the release of all prisoners and detainees of the Revolutionary Awakening Council.
The Rapid Support Forces launched a military operation in the tribal leader’s hometown North Darfur in 2017. Hilal was arrested along with dozens of Council members and was deported to Khartoum under heavy security.
The military court charged them with "robbery, premeditated murder, and criminal association,” which could lead to the death penalty under Sudanese criminal law.
Hilal worked as an advisor for the federal government, before falling out with Bashir. He left Darfur and founded the Revolutionary Awakening Council.
The government then replaced him with Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the current deputy leader of Sudan’s ruling council. Dagalo was promoted to major general and appointed commander of the Rapid Support Forces.
Hilal belongs to the Rizeigat tribe, one of the largest tribes in Darfur with Arab origins, and he is the son of the leader of one of the largest subtribes called al-Mahamid. Hilal has power in the midst of his clan and family.
He became famous after the outbreak of war in Darfur in 2003, as an ally of Bashir's government during the military campaign against rebel groups.
The ousted vice president, Ali Osman Taha, released Hilal from Port Sudan prison, where he was serving a sentence for a criminal misdemeanor. Back then, the government supplied him with arms and money to mobilize Arab tribes against the uprising in Darfur.
Rebel leaders accuse Hilal of burning villages as well as killing and displacing thousands of civilians in the region. They demand including him on the wanted list of the International Criminal Court for his involvement in war crimes and genocide.
Human Rights Watch accuses Hilal, as the supreme leader of the Janjaweed militia, of being responsible for the ethnic cleansing campaign in Darfur between 2003 and 2004.
In April 2006, the UN Security Council imposed a travel ban and a freeze on the assets of Musa Hilal and three of his associates.
According to the UN estimates, about 300,000 were killed and millions displaced during the Darfur war.
