Twelve Sudanese people who say they survived torture and sexual violence asked Kenyan prosecutors to investigate 10 members of Sudan's Rapid Support Forces, in the first effort to prosecute members of the paramilitary group outside Sudan.
The complaint was filed by Legal Action Worldwide, a Switzerland-based legal organisation. It describes alleged crimes at locations in and around Khartoum between April 2023 and March 2025, when the RSF controlled the Sudanese capital. Some of the named suspects are believed to be living in Kenya, according to the complainants' lawyers.
The survivors allege they were detained in degrading conditions with little food, restricted water and inadequate sanitation. Their accounts include beatings, burns, suffocation, electric shocks, rape and other sexual abuse. Some said they were forced to move bodies from detention sites. These are allegations submitted for investigation and had not been tested in court. The Associated Press sought comment from the RSF.
Legal Action Worldwide founder Antonia Mulvey said Kenya could pursue the allegations under its International Crimes Act of 2008. Willis Otieno, the Kenyan lawyer who lodged the complaint, said information linked some persons of interest to Kenya and argued that prosecutors had the authority to act. The request now requires a decision from Kenya's Director of Public Prosecutions.
The lawyers said domestic remedies in Sudan were not realistically available because the justice system was inaccessible and ineffective during the war. Mulvey also noted that the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction in Sudan is limited to Darfur, rather than alleged offences around Khartoum.
The filing carries diplomatic sensitivity. Kenyan President William Ruto has hosted RSF commander Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo for talks presented as peace efforts, a relationship that contributed to tensions with Sudan. The complaint nevertheless asks Kenyan institutions to assess alleged crimes independently of those political ties.
The RSF has fought Sudan's military since April 2023, when a struggle between the two forces became open warfare. The paramilitary group developed from the Janjaweed militias accused of atrocities in Darfur in the early 2000s. Rights groups and the United Nations have accused RSF members of conduct that may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, particularly in Darfur.
The broader conflict has produced enormous loss. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project estimated at least 59,000 deaths over three years while cautioning that reporting barriers likely made the true toll higher. The UN said about 34 million Sudanese people needed assistance.
The Kenyan complaint does not itself establish criminal guilt. Its immediate significance is procedural: survivors have placed detailed allegations before a national prosecutor with legislation that could permit investigation of international crimes committed elsewhere.
