The International Criminal Court has issued a statement and confirmed 70 charges against former Lord Resistance Army commander Dominic Ongwen.
The ICC pre-trial chamber II confirmed the charges against Ongwen and committed him to trial
“Today, 23 March 2016, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (“ICC” or “Court”) issued a decision confirming 70 charges brought by the Prosecutor against Dominic Ongwen and committed him to trial before a Trial Chamber” reads the statement posted on Website.
Ongwen, aged 40, was charged with 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in northern Uganda, where the group originated, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).
He was forcefully abducted from northern Uganda into the LRA ranks around age 10 and the rebel group gave him military training. He rose to become a senior commander implicated in serious abuses across Central Africa, says HRW.
The LRA rose up against the government in northern Uganda under the leadership of warlord Joseph Kony in the late 1980s and is notorious for having abducted tens of thousands of children to serve as fighters and sex slaves and has killed and wounded thousands of civilians.
Having earned a reputation for carrying out massacres and mutilating civilians, the LRA left Uganda about a decade ago and has roamed across parts of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Sudan and CAR since then, eluding efforts to defeat them.
