A former child soldier-turned-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 found guilty on 44 counts, including murder, kidnap, and pillaging, in a trial that marks a watershed moment for the country’s judicial system.
The trial, held in Gulu city in northern Uganda, where the LRA terrorized the region for more than two decades, saw Kwoyelo become the first LRA commander to be tried by a Ugandan court. Despite denying all 78 charges brought against him, Kwoyelo was acquitted of three murder charges, and 31 other charges were dismissed.
In a solemn courtroom, Kwoyelo, dressed in a dark suit and red tie, showed no emotion as a judge read out the names of civilians killed on his orders. One particularly horrific incident mentioned was an attack on a camp for displaced civilians in 2004, where dozens of women and children were beaten to death with wooden clubs.
Kwoyelo has spent the last 14 years in detention, with analysts attributing the lengthy process to the scale and complexity of the case. The LRA, led by Joseph Kony, was notorious for its brutal tactics, including chopping off people’s limbs and abducting children to use as soldiers and sex slaves, forcing hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
While the LRA has largely been wiped out, with Kony still at large and wanted by the International Criminal Court, rights groups have criticized the delays in accountability for crimes committed during the conflict. In 2021, senior LRA commander Dominic Ongwen was jailed for 25 years by the ICC, with Kwoyelo claiming he too was abducted by LRA fighters at the age of 12.
Thousands of former LRA members have been granted amnesty under Ugandan law, but Kwoyelo was not given this option and is yet to be sentenced. The case serves as a reminder of the atrocities committed during the conflict and the long road to justice for its victims.
