The International Criminal Court has confirmed 39 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against fugitive Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, including murder, enslavement, rape, and torture.
Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, waged a brutal insurgency across northern Uganda between 2002 and 2005, leaving more than 100,000 people dead and tens of thousands of children abducted.
The court said there were reasonable grounds to believe Kony was responsible for 29 charges as an “indirect co-perpetrator,” linked to attacks on schools and camps for displaced people. He also faces 10 additional counts as a direct perpetrator for crimes against two women forced to become his “wives.”
Judges noted that a trial cannot begin until Kony is captured, as ICC rules prohibit proceedings in absentia. He has not been seen publicly since 2006, when he denied accusations of brutality, calling them “propaganda.”
A former altar boy, Kony claimed to fight for a nation guided by the Ten Commandments. Survivors, however, recount atrocities marked by forced killings, mutilations, and ritualistic violence.
In September, the ICC held a three-day hearing in The Hague—the first in its history without the accused present. Defence lawyer Peter Haynes argued for suspension of the case, saying Kony could not contest the evidence, but judges rejected the plea.
Victims’ lawyer Sarah Pellet described the LRA’s victims as people whose “bodies were turned into tools of war.”
Ugandan survivors welcomed the court’s decision but voiced frustration over Kony’s continued freedom. “The confirmation of charges is cosmetic,” said survivor Angel Stella Lalam. “It does not heal our pain when he remains at large.”
For many in northern Uganda, justice remains elusive until the ghost of Kony is finally brought before the court.