A Ugandan court sentenced Thomas Kwoyelo, a former mid-level commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), to 40 years in prison for war crimes on Friday. This marks a significant ruling, as Kwoyelo is the first senior LRA member to face Uganda’s judiciary for his actions.
In August, Kwoyelo was convicted of multiple war crimes, including murder, rape, enslavement, torture, and kidnapping. His actions were part of the brutal tactics employed by the LRA, a rebel group led by Joseph Kony, whose campaign of violence aimed to overthrow the Ugandan government from the late 1980s.
The LRA, based in northern Uganda, terrorized local communities with extreme violence, including abductions, mutilations, and other heinous acts. Known for their cruelty, LRA fighters often inflicted severe injuries on civilians, including hacking off limbs and using crude weapons to carry out killings.
