A child soldier who became a rebel commander in 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 convicted of 44 charges including murder, kidnapping and robbery.
He denies all 78 charges against him.
Of the remaining 34 charges, Kwoyelo was acquitted of three counts of murder and 31 other charges were dismissed.
Kwoyelo became the first LRA commander to be tried in a Ugandan court, marking a pivotal moment for the country’s justice system.
The trial was held in the city of Gulu in northern Uganda – an area terrorized by the LRA for more than two decades.
Dressed in a dark suit and red tie, the former LRA commander showed no emotion as he responded to the long list of guilty verdicts.
A judge reads the names of civilians who were killed on Kwoyelo’s orders.
One notorious incident was an attack on a refugee camp for civilians at Pagak in northern Uganda in 2004. Dozens of women and children were beaten to death with wooden clubs.
Kwoyelo has been in custody for the past 14 years, in part due to the scale and complexity of the case, analysts say.
Joseph Kony founded the LRA in Uganda more than two decades ago and claims to be fighting to establish a government based on the 10 Commandments of the Bible.
The group is notorious for dismembering people and kidnapping children to use as soldiers and sex slaves. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes because of the conflict.
The LRA initially operated in northern Uganda before moving to neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, where Kwoyelo was captured in 2009, and then the Central African Republic (CAR).
The group has been largely wiped out. But Mr Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, has never been arrested.
Human Rights Watch has previously criticised the delay in Kwoyelo’s case and said overall there has been limited accountability for crimes committed during the 25-year conflict, including abuses by Ugandan state forces.
In 2021, Senior LRA commander Dominic Ongwen has been sentenced to 25 years in prison by the ICC.decided not to sentence him to life in prison because he had been kidnapped as a child and groomed by rebels who had killed his parents.
Kwoyelo said he was also kidnapped by LRA fighters when he was 12 years old while walking to school.
Thousands of former LRA members have been granted amnesty under a controversial Ugandan law, after leaving and renouncing the rebel group.
But Kwoyelo, who has yet to be convicted, has not been given this option.
