A child soldier and former rebel commander of the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has been convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity in a landmark case in Uganda.
Thomas Kwoyelo was found guilty of murder, kidnapping and looting.
He denied all 78 charges against him.
Kwoyelo is the first LRA commander to appear in court in Uganda, marking a turning point for the country’s justice system.
The trial took place in the town of Gulu in northern Uganda, the region terrorized by the LRA for more than two decades.
Kwoyelo has been in prison for the past 14 years, which analysts say is partly due to the size and complexity of the case.
Joseph Kony founded the LRA in Uganda more than 20 years ago, claiming that he was seeking a government based on the Ten Commandments of the Bible.
The group was notorious for dismembering people and kidnapping children to use as soldiers and sex slaves. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced from their homes by the conflict.
The LRA first operated in northern Uganda, then moved into the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, where Kwoyelo was arrested in 2009, and later into the Central African Republic (CAR).
The group has been largely wiped out. But Mr. Kony, wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, has never been captured.
Human Rights Watch has previously criticized the delays in Kwoyelo’s case, saying there has been limited accountability overall for crimes committed during the 25-year conflict, including abuses by Ugandan state forces.
In 2021, Senior LRA commander Dominic Ongwen was sentenced to 25 years in prison by the ICCwho decided not to impose a maximum life sentence on him, because he had been abducted and manipulated as a child by rebels who had killed his parents.
Kwoyelo says he was also abducted by LRA fighters at age 12 while walking to school.
Thousands of former LRA members have been granted amnesty under a controversial Ugandan law after they left and renounced the rebel group.
But Kwoyelo did not have this opportunity and his punishment is not yet known.
More about the LRA:
Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.
Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfricaon Facebook on BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
BBC Africa Podcasts
