DRC: Laurent Nsubu Katende, militiaman leader of Kasai, sentenced to life imprisonment

The city of Kananga, capital of Kasai Central province.

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This customary chief was the commander of a militia linked to the armed insurgency of Kamuina Nsapu, an insurgency that fought against government forces between 2016 and 2019. He and his militia are accused of having committed crimes. Abuses against civilian populations in Kasai Central province in early 2017. He was sentenced this afternoon by the Kananga military court.

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Laurent Nsubu Katende

was found guilty of war crimes for murder, torture, mutilation, rape, arson and looting during attacks on villages in Kazumba territory in early 2017.

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Violences au Kasaï

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More than 230 people joined as civil parties.

About fifty of them were able to testify during the hearings.

For Maître Dominique Kambala, lawyer for the civil parties, this verdict is a relief, especially since the victims obtained financial reparations.

"

I felt a sigh of relief from the people who were saying

'there you have it, he took himself for a warlord, he is reduced, there is no longer the reign of impunity. Here is that whoever will no longer dare to stand up. his little finger to lift the machete or the knife ".

So there is this feeling of justice. 

"

This is the first judgment in this conflict which pitted militias against government forces and which, according to the NGO Trial International, has claimed more than 3,000 victims.

For its coordinator Guy Mushiata, this verdict is also a strong message against impunity in this province.

We have a message: all those who are presumed perpetrators of crimes that are still going on, at one time or another they could be caught, and these serious crimes of human rights violations are imprescriptible.

At any time, the Congolese justice will be able to catch up with them and judge them.

 "

The NGO hopes that this trial will set a precedent: to judge the perpetrators of crimes committed by the militias, but also to judge the massacres committed by the Congolese army and other security forces during this conflict.

Note that it is in this same province of Kasai that two United Nations experts, the American Michael Sharp and the Swedish Zaida Catalan, as well as four Congolese who accompanied them, were kidnapped and killed in March 2017. The trial of their alleged killers is still pending.

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