Gambia’s newly elected president has vowed to free all political prisoners and urged exiles who fled the 22-year reign of Yahya Jammeh to return from abroad and help him reform the tiny West African country, writes Carley Petesch “A new Gambia is born,” Adama Barrow said in an interview with …
Read More »Major who handed over Ongwen still waiting for $5m reward
An officer who says he arrested Dominic Ongwen in January 2015, is still waiting for the $5 million that the US promised in 2013 as a reward for information that would lead to the capture of the LRA leader. According to a report in France’s LeMonde, Major Amat Mounir of …
Read More »Survivors of LRA massacre watch their tormentor’s trial
Lukodi, Uganda | AFP | Alanyo Juzima wipes the tears from her eyes and points at the flickering image of a smartly-dressed man in a suit projected onto the classroom wall. “He’s the one,” she says. Juzima scrutinises the picture in front of her, of Dominic Ongwen in the dock …
Read More »‘Ferocious’ ex-LRA commander denies brutal war crimes
The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | Child soldier-turned-warlord Dominic Ongwen was known as a “ferocious and enthusiastic” rebel fighter, the International Criminal Court heard Tuesday, as he became the first-ever member of Uganda’s brutal Lord’s Resistance Army to go on trial. “Dominic Ongwen became one of the most senior commanders …
Read More »ONGWEN: In the name of God, I deny all these charges
The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | Child soldier-turned-warlord Dominic Ongwen denied 70 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity on Tuesday when he became the first member of Uganda’s brutal Lord’s Resistance Army to ever go on trial. Ongwen, 41, is also the first former child soldier to be …
Read More »VIDEO: ICC in focus, introduction to Ongwen trial
VIDEO: The trial in the case of The Prosecutor v. Dominic Ongwen is scheduled to open on Tuesday, 6 December 2016, at 9.30 (The Hague local time), before Trial Chamber IX of the International Criminal Court (ICC), composed of presiding Judge Bertram Schmitt, Judge Péter Kovács, and Judge Raul Cano Pangalangan. The …
Read More »Trial opens at ICC of first LRA warlord
The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | Former child soldier-turned-warlord Dominic Ongwen on Tuesday become the first member of Uganda’s brutal Lord’s Resistance Army to go on trial in a landmark case before the International Criminal Court keenly watched by thousands of victims. Ongwen, now in his early 40s, will also …
Read More »Uganda’s brutal Lord’s Resistance Army, past and present
Kampala, Uganda | AFP | One of Africa’s longest-surviving rebel groups, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has terrorised parts of central Africa for 30 years. Its leaders are violent pariahs and fugitives from international justice, hunted by US special forces and African armies. Founder Joseph Kony remains on the loose, …
Read More »Uganda rebel Ongwen: victim turned killer
Kampala, Uganda | AFP | Abducted by gunmen as a 10-year-old boy on his way to school, Dominic Ongwen rose to become one of the most feared commanders in Uganda’s brutal Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The former child soldier, now in his early 40s, goes on trial before the International …
Read More »What is at stake in ICC trial of LRA’s Ongwen?
Trial to open of former child soldier turned LRA warlord The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | Dominic Ongwen, the former child soldier who became a Lord’s Resistance Army warlord, will go before war crimes judges on Tuesday in a trial which presents the International Criminal Court with its “most difficult …
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