He is accused of being a senior commander of thousands of pro-government "Janjaweed" fighters during the height of the conflict between 2003 and 2004 as reported by various international media.

Wearing a face mask and a dark suit, Ali did not speak as a court officer read out the 31 charges against him including persecution, murder, torture, and rape. He has yet to make a plea, though his defense team has argued in earlier legal filings that Abd-Al-Rahman is not the man known as Ali Kushayb, among other arguments.

ICC's Chief Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda told the confirmation of charges hearing that she would show that Abd-Al-Rahman had led attacks on towns and villages and was implicated in more than 300 murders and raids that forced 40,000 mainly ethnic Fur civilians to flee from their homes.

"The evidence shows that Mr. Abd-Al-Rahman was a knowing, willing and energetic perpetrator of these crimes," Bensouda told the hearing.

Bensouda noted that Ali was feared and revered in equal measure as the 'colonel of colonels', as he was a senior leader of the infamous Janjaweed militia in the Wadi Salih and Mukjar localities.

Darfur's conflict erupted in 2003 when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against Sudan's government, accusing it of neglecting the arid, western region. In retaliation, Khartoum mobilized mostly Arab militias to crush the revolt, unleashing a wave of violence that Washington and some activists said amounted to genocide.

Sudan's former president Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who is facing ICC charges of orchestrating genocide and other atrocities in Darfur, was deposed in 2019 and remains in prison in Khartoum. Ali meanwhile is the first suspect to be tried at the ICC over the conflict.

Sudan is not a state party to the court but the situation in Darfur was referred to the Hague-based court by the United Nations Security Council in 2005. However, Defence lawyer Cyril Laucci said that he intends to contest the ICC's jurisdiction over crimes committed in Darfur because of issues with the UN referral.