International criminal court judges have convicted a Congolese rebel chief known as “the Terminator” of war crimes, including directing massacres of civilians and rape, in a significant victory for prosecutors in The Hague.

Bosco Ntaganda, 45, was a key leader who gave orders to target and kill civilians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s volatile, mineral-rich Ituri region in 2002 and 2003, the head judge, Robert Fremr, said.

The atrocities included a mass killing at a village where people, including children and babies, were “disembowelled or had their heads smashed in”, the judge said. Ntaganda was also responsible for the rape and sexual slavery of underage girls, and for recruiting troops under the age of 15. He was also guilty ofpersonally killing a Roman Catholic priest, the court said.

Ntaganda fulfilled a very important military function and he was one of the key leaders of the rebel group, judges said, adding that his skills were held in high regard. “In relation to these direct orders to target and kill civilians, Mr Ntaganda endorsed criminal conduct by his own orders,” they said.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/08/drc-rebel-commander-bosco-ntaganda-the-terminator-convicted-over-war-crimes

He becomes the first person convicted of sexual slavery by the ICC.

His lawyers had argued that Ntaganda was a victim, having also been recruited as a child soldier.
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Ntaganda surrendered at the US embassy in in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2013.

Analysts said it was an act of self-preservation, motivated by the danger he was in after losing a power-struggle within his M23 rebel group.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-48907866