A Ugandan court has sentenced former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Thomas Kwoyelo to 40 years in prison after a landmark war crimes trial, marking the first conviction of an LRA leader by a Ugandan court.
Kwoyelo was found guilty of 44 charges, including murder, rape, kidnapping, and pillaging, but denied all accusations. The trial took place in Gulu, northern Uganda, a region heavily impacted by LRA violence during the group’s two-decade-long insurgency. Among the many atrocities attributed to the LRA was a brutal 2004 attack on a displaced persons camp in Pagak, where dozens of women and children were killed.
The International Crimes Division of the Ugandan High Court ruled out a death sentence or life imprisonment for Kwoyelo, considering his abduction by the LRA at age 12 and his forced recruitment as a child soldier. The court noted that Kwoyelo had shown remorse and was assessed to no longer pose a threat to society.
The LRA, founded by Joseph Kony in the late 1980s, terrorized Uganda and neighboring countries, forcibly displacing hundreds of thousands and maiming countless civilians. While the LRA initially operated in northern Uganda, the group eventually moved into the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Kwoyelo was captured in 2009, and later the Central African Republic. International efforts to capture Kony failed, and he is no longer considered a significant threat to Uganda.
Kwoyelo originally faced 78 charges; he was acquitted of three murder charges, and 31 others were dismissed. Having spent 15 years on remand, Kwoyelo will serve a remaining 25 years in prison. His lawyers plan to appeal, with the court allowing 14 days to file. A separate hearing will address reparations for Kwoyelo’s victims.
This case echoes the conviction of another LRA commander, Dominic Ongwen, who was sentenced by the International Criminal Court to 25 years in prison in 2021.
