[2] He hoped to return Sudan swiftly, but by December the Sudanese government threatened his family and imprisoned a brother to question him about Adeeb.
[6] In March 2009, after the indictment of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court Youssef stated "It’s a very happy day for every Darfurian”.
[2] In June 2009 Youssef stated he had been tortured for 11 months in Darfur after revealing atrocities aimed against black Africans in the region.
[1] In 2018 Youssef obtained a PhD from the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University.
[3][7] Youssef was one of the developers of the Darfur Emergency Response Operation, which assists in programs for internally displaced persons (IDP) camps.
[3] As of 2009, Youssef had lost 33 family members in the conflict in Darfur, including his grandmother whom he found burned in his home village.
[11] In January 2021 Youssef reportedly paid 170,000 Sudanese pound to avoid an attack from 200 Arabs on the Hamidiya internally displaced persons camp near Zalingei.
[12] In May 2021 Youssef criticized the appointment of Minni Minnawi as Darfur Regional Governor by Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, calling it a hasty decision, which needed consultation.
[16] On 31 August 2021 students of the University of Zalingei protested at the former UNAMID site, as they tried to open the gates they were fired upon by security forces.
[21] In November 2021, Youssef together with Mohamed Hassan Al-Taishi, a former member of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, and the ousted Minister of Justice, Nasredeen Abdulbari spoke with European ambassadors to Sudan on steps to be taken to restore democracy.
[20] In July 2022, commenting on the reported death of 168 individuals in Darfur, Youssef stated that: "the violence is the result of a communal conflict that was never resolved in all past peace agreements".
[25] In November 2023 he stated that conflict in Sudan was more ethnical than political, with genocidal acts being committed and that the effects were worse than the previous war in Darfur with the humaniterian conditions suffering due to lack of foreign aid.