A court in Uganda has delivered a verdict, sentencing former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Thomas Kwoyelo to 40 years in prison for his role in the group’s brutal two-decade reign of terror. The sentence, announced on Friday by Judge Michael Elubu in Gulu, marks a historic moment, as it is the first time an LRA member has been convicted by Uganda’s judiciary for war crimes.
Kwoyelo’s conviction stems from a trial that saw him found guilty of 44 offenses, including murder and rape, in August. This landmark trial, the first atrocity case tried under a special division of the high court focused on international crimes, provided a measure of closure for victims who endured unimaginable suffering under the LRA’s brutal rule.
Read Also: ANC Ex-Spokesperson, 6 Others Charged with Fraud in SA
Background
The LRA, founded in the late 1980s, has been notorious for its horrific campaign against the Ugandan government, led by Joseph Kony. Their tactics included dismemberment, torture, and the abduction of thousands of children, who were forced into service as sex slaves and child soldiers.
Kwoyelo, believed to be in his fifties, served as a senior LRA commander responsible for overseeing the treatment of wounded fighters. Captured in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2009, he spent 14 years in pre-trial detention. While his defense argued he was a child victim of the LRA himself, forced to join at age 12, witnesses presented compelling evidence of his involvement in killings and torture.
In his sentencing, Judge Duncan Gasagwa cited Kwoyelo’s recruitment as a child, his lower ranking within the LRA, his expression of remorse, and his willingness to reconcile with victims as factors that swayed the decision to avoid a death sentence.
Despite Kony’s capture in 2012, the LRA, designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, continues to operate in parts of Central Africa.
Source: Al Jazeera
