\n A former militia leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo was sentenced Monday to life in prison for war crimes and mass rape, a decision hailed by the United Nations.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka was convicted of \"murder, rape, sexual slavery, enlisting children under 15 years old\" a decade ago, a military court ruled.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UN representative in DR Congo, Leila Zerrougui, said the ruling showed that \"impunity is not inevitable\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Sheka founded the Nduma Defence of Congo (NDC) militia, active in DR Congo's restive North Kivu province, where he claimed to be fighting the Rwandan Hutu rebels of the FDLR.\n<\/p>\n
\n The authorities issued the warrant for Sheka's arrest in January 2011 after a series of attacks in which the NDC and two other groups allegedly raped nearly 400 people in 13 villages between July 30 and August 2, 2010.\n<\/p>\n
\n The NDC was also accused of having recruited at least 154 children into its ranks.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sheka turned himself in to UN peacekeepers in July 2017.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We are satisfied with this verdict, it is a strong signal to other warlords...,\" Kahindo Fatuma, a spokesman representing the victims, told AFP. \"The victims will be a little bit relieved,\"\n<\/p>\n
\n NGOs also welcomed the ruling.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The authorities have proven today that they are capable of handling an incredibly complex case, both legally and from a security point of view,\" Daniele Perissi, head of the Great Lakes Program of the NGO TRIAL International, said in a statement.\n<\/p>\n
\n Dozens of armed groups are active in eastern DR Congo, a lawless region rich in mineral resources. They have wrought havoc there in the decades since the official end of a 1998-2003 war, which claimed millions of lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A former militia leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo was sentenced Monday to life in prison for war crimes and mass rape, a decision hailed by the United Nations. Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka was convicted of \"murder, rape, sexual slavery, enlisting children under 15 years old\" a decade ago, a military court ruled. The UN […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-46056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n