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Lord's Resistance Army

Ugandan court sentences rebel commander to 40 years for war crimes

KAMPALA, Oct 25 (Reuters) - A Ugandan court on Friday sentenced Thomas Kwoyelo, a mid-level commander in the Lord's Resistance Army rebel group, to 40 years in prison for war crimes.
Reuters
UGANDAN REBELS ASSEMBLE AHEAD OF TALKSRebels from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) on their way to an LRA camp set up in Owinykibul in Sudan Tuesday, 19 September, 2006. EPA/STEPHEN MORRISON

Kwoyelo was found guilty of dozens of war crimes that included murder, rape, enslavement, torture and kidnap in August, the first time a senior member of the group had been tried by Uganda's judiciary.

Founded in the late 1980s with the aim of overthrowing the government, the LRA brutalised Ugandans under the leadership of Joseph Kony for nearly 20 years as it battled the military from bases in northern Uganda.

The insurgents were notorious for horrific acts of cruelty, including rapes, abductions, hacking off victims' limbs and lips and using crude instruments to bludgeon people to death.

(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Hereward Holland and Toby Chopra)

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