Former Congolese rebel leader Roger Lumbala was given a 30-year prison sentence for complicity in crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002-2003.
Lumbala, accused of being one of the masterminds of atrocities in the Second Congo War, has been on trial since last month after he was arrested in France in 2020.
Read moreDR Congo ex-rebel leader Lumbala's trial opens in France
For human rights organisations, the trial was a historic opportunity to challenge the impunity enjoyed by warring parties in eastern DR Congo, where fighting continues despite a "peace" agreement ratified in Washington in early December.
Lumbala, who briefly served as trade minister then ran for president in 2006, insisted he was merely a politician with no soldiers or volunteers under his control.
For more than a month, the court heard about rape used as a weapon of war, sexual slavery, forced labour, torture, mutilation, summary executions, systematic looting, extortion, and the plundering of resources, including diamonds.
Operation 'Erase the Slate'
The alleged atrocities were committed in 2002-2003 during Operation "Erase the Slate", conducted in the northeast of the country by the Rally of Congolese Democrats and Nationalists (RCD-N) – Lumbala's rebel group.
The RCD-N was supported by neighbouring Uganda and allied with the MLC group of the current Congolese Minister of Transport, Jean-Pierre Bemba.
During the trial, one man told how his brother had his forearm amputated and was then executed after being unable to eat his severed ear.
Women recounted rapes by soldiers, often gang rapes committed in front of parents, husbands, and children.
The victims were mostly Nande or Bambuti Pygmies, ethnic groups accused by the attackers of siding with a rival faction.
Lumbala was tried under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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