A court in France has handed former Congolese rebel leader Roger Lumbala a 30-year prison sentence after convicting him of complicity in crimes against humanity linked to the Second Democratic Republic of Congo war.
The judgment was delivered in Paris on Monday and has been praised by international justice groups as a significant move toward accountability for one of Africa’s most devastating conflicts, which killed millions between 1998 and 2003.
Lumbala, now 67, had faced the possibility of a life sentence. Prosecutors argued that he played a key role in serious human rights abuses committed by fighters under his control. Reading the ruling, court president Marc Sommerer said the judges found Lumbala guilty of ordering or assisting acts such as torture and other inhumane treatment, summary killings, rape used as a form of torture, sexual slavery, forced labour, theft, and large-scale looting.
The case centres on a military operation known as “Erasing the Board,” carried out in 2002 and 2003 in northeastern DRC. The campaign was led by the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo alongside the Rally for Congolese Democracy, National, an armed faction backed by Uganda and headed at the time by Lumbala. The operation specifically targeted members of the Nande and Bambuti communities, who were accused of supporting rival armed groups.
Following the verdict, Lumbala’s defence lawyer, Hugues Vigier, declined to make any public comment.
