The International Criminal Court on Friday sentenced former Congolese militia leader Germain Katanga to 12 years in jail for his role in war crimes related to a deadly 2003 attack on an eastern village.
Katanga was in March found guilty of “murder as a crime against humanity” and “murder as a war crime.” He was also convicted of attacks on a civilian population, and destroying enemy property and pillaging.
However, the court acquitted Katanga on charges of rape and sexual slavery as well as using child soldiers. Deploying child soldiers, a war crime under the Statute of Rome, could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt, the court said.
The charges related to the massacre of several hundred civilians from the Hema ethnic group in 2003 during the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
On February 24, 2003, militias from the Lendu ethnic group — to which Katanga belongs — and other allied tribes were alleged to have attacked the Hema village of Borogo in the Ituri district in the north-east of the country.
The fighters are said to have killed, plundered and raped their way through the village, leaving around 200 civilians dead.
Congolese authorities arrested and surrendered Katanga, who is also known as Simba, to the ICC in 2007. The almost seven years Katanga has spent in detention will be deducted from the sentence.
