ICC convicts Central African Republic rebels over war crimes

Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona and Alfred Yekatom have been sentenced for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The International Criminal Court has convicted two leaders of a predominantly Christian rebel group in the Central African Republic for multiple war crimes committed against Muslim civilians during the country’s civil war in 2013 and 2014, sentencing each to more than a decade in prison.

The former president of the CAR Football Federation, Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona, along with Alfred Yekatom, a rebel leader known as “Rambo,” were found guilty on Thursday of their involvement in atrocities including murder, torture and attacking civilians.

The court sentenced Yekatom to 15 years for 20 war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Ngaissona received 12 years for 28 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The charges stem from their roles as senior leaders in a militia known as the anti-Balaka, which was formed in 2013 after mainly Muslim Seleka rebels stormed the capital Bangui in March of that year and toppled then-President Francois Bozize, a Christian.

The violence that ensued left thousands of civilians dead and displaced hundreds of thousands of others. Mosques, shops and homes were looted and destroyed.

The ICC’s presiding Judge Bertram Schmitt read harrowing details in The Hague of the violence committed by the militia against suspected Seleka Muslims.

Yekatom’s men tortured one suspect by cutting off his fingers, toes, and one ear. This man’s body was never found. Others were killed and then mutilated.

Appearing in court dressed in a light brown suit and waistcoat, white shirt, and dark tie, Yekatom listened impassively as the judge read out the verdict.

Dressed in a bright blue jacket, Ngaissona nodded to the judge as his sentence was delivered.

The court found Yekatom not guilty of conscripting child soldiers and acquitted Ngaissona of the charge of rape.

Both men had pleaded not guilty to all charges laid out in the trial, which opened in 2021. It is the first case at the ICC, which began in May 2014, to focus on the violence that erupted after the Seleka seized power in the CAR in 2013.

Yekatom was extradited to The Hague in late 2018, after being arrested in the CAR for firing his gun in parliament. Ngaissona was arrested in France in December 2018 and extradited to The Hague.

The trial of an alleged Seleka commander, Mahamat Said Abdel Kani, is ongoing.

Last year, judges at the ICC unsealed another arrest warrant in the investigation. According to prosecutors, Edmond Beina commanded a group of about 100-400 anti-balaka fighters responsible for murdering Muslims in early 2014.

Separate proceedings against Beina and five others at a specially-created court are slated to begin in the CAR on Friday.

The CAR is among the poorest nations in the world and has endured a succession of civil wars and authoritarian governments since gaining independence from France in 1960.

Violence has subsided in recent years, but fighting occasionally erupts in remote regions between rebels and the national army, which is backed by Russian mercenaries and Rwandan troops.