THE HAGUE, Netherlands
The child soldier turned "Lord's Resistance Army" commander had been accused of crimes against humanity during a brutal campaign of terror in northern Uganda.
The International
Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, convicted
former Ugandan warlord Dominic Ongwen on Thursday of war
crimes.
In reading out detailed
descriptions of atrocities committed by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) —
which had been one of Africa's most brutal rebel groups — an ICC judge
said that Ongwen had ordered the killings and abductions of civilians,
including children.
Ongwen was accused of
70 counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, torture, sexual
slavery and using child soldiers, between 2002 and 2004 in northern Uganda when
he led a brigade of the LRA.
For more than 20 years,
its fighters subjected northern Uganda to a reign of
terror before withdrawing to neighboring Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC) and South Sudan.
Ongwen himself was
abducted by the rebels as a child while on the way to school and was forced to
serve as a child soldier.
His case is the first
at the ICC to involve an alleged perpetrator and victim of the same war crimes.
He pleaded not guilty
when the proceedings began in 2016, and has denied the charges. He will be
sentenced at a later date, and could face life behind bars.
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