Congolese ‘Terminator’ led rebels who slaughtered and disembowelled civilians with machetes, ICC told
Prosecutors said Bosco Ntaganda used child soldiers and coerced women soldiers into sexual slavery while attacking civilians on ethnic grounds
Former Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda was a dreaded commander whose troops slaughtered civilians with machetes and disembowelled pregnant women, the International Criminal Court (ICC) heard on Tuesday.
In their closing statements against the man nicknamed “The Terminator,” prosecutors described how his rebel army conducted a reign of terror in Ituri, in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, in 2002 and 2003.
“A lot of people were executed by hand, with machetes,” ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told a three-judge bench at The Hague-based tribunal.
“Some of them were disembowelled, even pregnant woman as well. They took the foetuses out of the women,” Bensouda said, quoting a witness’s testimony during the trial.
Ntaganda faces 13 counts of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity for his role in the brutal conflict that devastated the DR Congo’s east more than 15 years ago.
“The evidence has proven beyond all reasonable doubt that Bosco Ntaganda is indeed guilty of the crimes charged against him,” Bensouda said.