African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
Africa InsidersCongo-Kinshasa
Home›African Arguments›Africa Insiders›Africa Insiders: DR Congo’s Terminator won’t be back

Africa Insiders: DR Congo’s Terminator won’t be back

By Africa Insiders
November 14, 2019
2422
0

M23 fighters loyal to Bosco Ntaganda move along the road towards Goma as Peacekeepers observed gathering of armed people North of the city, the 1st of March 2013. Credit: MONUSCO/Sylvain Liechti

The essentials: Congolese warlord Bosco “The Terminator” Ntaganda has been sentenced to 30 years in prison by the International Criminal Court for atrocities committed in 2002 and 2003.

The context: In July, Ntaganda, 46, was found guilty of 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, rape and sexual slavery during conflicts in DR Congo’s northeast Ituri region. He is the first person to be convicted of sexual slavery at the international court and the first to receive a 30-year-sentence, the maximum the court can pass.

Ntaganda fought alongside Paul Kagame to dislodge the genocidal regime in Rwanda in 1994. After that, he was the commander of operations for the Forces Patriotiques pour la Liberation du Congo (FPLC) one of several rebel factions battling for control in the DRC. He also served as a general in the Congolese Army. As rebel commander, he conscripted child soldiers and used them as bodyguards. Female fighters, some as young as nine, were forced into sexual slavery under his watch. Villagers say he commandeered massacres: In Kiwanja, he led an attack where 150 people were killed in a day.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Ntaganda in 2006, but he continued to live publicly. He formed the M23 militia group and continued attacks in North Kivu province well into the early-2010s, even as he appeared on the US wanted list for attacking peacekeepers. In 2013, after loosing a violent conflict with an opposing faction within M23, he turned himself in at the US embassy in Rwanda and requested to be transferred to the ICC. Ngatanda pleaded not guilty to all the crimes, but the judges were not convinced and finally sentenced him last week.

The good: The judgement is a powerful message to war criminals across the continent: no one is untouchable. That message is needed as violence continues in parts of central Africa and elsewhere. It is worth acknowledging that the ICC also successfully sentenced Thomas Lubanga, the chief commander of the FPLC to a 14-year-sentence. He was the first person to be sentenced by the court.

The bad: Congolese people continue to ask why it took so long to stop Ntaganda and why it is taking so long to bring peace to the DRC where fighting continues. Enablers of war criminals like Ntaganda, who has at times benefited from the support of both the governments of the DRC and Rwanda, continue to hold high posts in the region. As Vava Tampa writes in The Guardian: “Ntaganda did indeed commit the killings – but to us Congolese, he did so in large part because the world seems to care so little about Congolese lives.”

The future: Ntaganda is already appealing his sentence, but a lighter sentence is not likely based on the evidence reviewed in court. Meanwhile, human rights activists are pushing for compensation for Ntaganda’s victims. 

  • Congolese Warlord Sentenced to 30 Years for War Crimes (The New York Times)
  • A brutal warlord has been convicted – so why doesn’t it feel like a triumph? (The Guardian)
  • ‘Terminator’ warlord jailed for life for Congo war crimes (The Independent)
  • Court sentences Congo warlord to 30 years for atrocities (AP)
  • Congolese rebel leader known as ‘the Terminator’ given 30 years in jail for war crimes (CNN)
  • War crimes judges jail Congolese warlord Ntaganda for 30 years (Reuters)
  • Watch: DRC’s Ntaganda guilty of crimes against humanity, war crimes (Al Jazeera)

Discuss with @Shollytupe on Twitter


Pay what you want for the FULL Africa Insiders Newsletter!

We hope you enjoyed this Free Edition of the Africa Insiders, but is only a taste of the full experience. This week, the Full Edition also covered:

  • What we are talking about: Africa’s monetary union 
  • Continental health corner: The unaffordable diet 
  • Tweet of the week: KFC proposal turns into dream wedding 
  • Links of the week: Everything Africa-related that is worth your time and attention

To upgrade, email [email protected], telling us the price you’d like to pay.

Yes, you decide the price as long as it’s at least $2 per month to cover the transaction costs.

If you are unsure what to pay, we recommend $10, but it’s up to you and we won’t judge. If you give more ($15/month, $50/month, $100/month!), your extra donation above $10 will go into a special fund for AfricanArguments.org to commission in-depth articles by African writers and journalists that will be free to read for everyone.

Again, just email [email protected] and let us know any amount of $2 or more and you’ll get the Full Africa Insiders Newsletter for the price that feels right to YOU!


The Africa Insiders’ Newsletter is a collaboration between AfricanArguments.org and @PeterDoerrie, with contributions from @_andrew_green and @Shollytupe and assistance from Stella Nantongo. Part of the subscription revenue is funding in-depth and freely accessible reporting and analysis on African Arguments.

Previous Article

Mozambique: An unexpected landslide, an expected crisis

Next Article

Why Tanzania’s local elections are more important ...

mm

Africa Insiders

The Africa Insiders Newsletter is a weekly newsletter brought to you by African Arguments. Written by leading journalists and analysts, it it made up of snappy, insightful updates on the major developments that have hit the week's headlines, and those that should've.

Leave a reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Facebook's ride in Bangui. Credit: Daniel Ziegler.
    Central African RepublicSociety

    Looking for a ride in one of the world’s most fragile nations? Try Facebook.

  • Politics

    Simba Makoni: no regrets about splitting anti-Mugabe vote in 2008 – By Magnus Taylor

  • Politics

    Preview: Mugabe won–Britain lost – By Richard Dowden, Prospect

Subscribe to our newsletter

Click here to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and never miss a thing!

  • 81.7K+
    Followers

Find us on Facebook

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Recent Posts

  • The unaccountability of Liberia’s polluting miners
  • Africa Elections 2023: All the upcoming votes
  • “Poking the Leopard’s Anus”: Legal Spectacle and Queer Feminist Politics
  • Introducing Parselelo and a new climate focus
  • The ‘Hustler’ Fund: Kenya’s Approach to National Transformation

Editor’s Picks

Climate crisisEditor's Picks

What African governments must fight for at COP27

African delegations must demand loss and damage reparations, that fossil fuels stay in the ground, and that false solutions are abandoned.  Climate change remains Africa’s biggest “existential challenge” and we ...
  • President Emmanuel Macron of France during his three-country tour in Africa. Credit: Présidence de la République du Bénin.

    Liberté, Egalité, Impunité

    By Billy Burton
    August 16, 2022
  • A woman and child walk past barbed wire in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Credit: Eduardo Fonseca Arraes.

    How Sierra Leone abolished the death penalty and what others could learn

    By Makmid Kamara & Sabrina Mahtani
    November 2, 2021
  • Refugees from Ukraine at the Polish border on 27 February 2022. Credit: Alexander Somto (Nze) Orah.

    “Only Ukrainians, not Blacks”: Fleeing African students face racism

    By Ope Adetayo
    March 3, 2022
  • Africa covid vaccine rollout map

    Covid-19 vaccine rollout in Africa tracker: An interactive map

    By Catherine Kyobutungi
    September 29, 2021

Brought to you by


Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • en English
    am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
By continuing to browse this site, you agree to our use of cookies.
en English
am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu