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On Monday, a military court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo convicted former militia chief Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka of war crimes including murder, sexual slavery and child recruitment.
He and another former militia leader, Serafin Lionso, are sentenced to life in prison.
“This verdict is a source of enormous hope for the many victims of the conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: their suffering has been heard and recognized, and impunity is not inevitable,” said Leila Zerrougui, head of the peace mission of the UN in Congo-Kinshasa. Reuters.
The judgment against them two men lasted two years. They were convicted of crimes between 2010 and 2014, including carrying out attacks on villages in the Walikale area in the eastern part of the country in 2010, where 380 men, women and children were raped and 287 were killed.
According to the Swedish aid authority Sida, this is one of the largest mass rapes in contemporary Congolese history.
No sheka shepherd Authorities were already looking for him in January 2011, but he was at large for a long time. He ran for parliament in November of that year and was placed on the UN sanctions list. It was not until 2017 that he surrendered to the UN peacekeeping force.
A successor to Sheka’s militia, NDC-Renove, has in recent years been one of the largest armed groups in the eastern part of the country and previously had close ties to the national army. An army spokesman told Reuters they would continue to investigate former military personnel and bring them to justice.
