LRA commander to appear at ICC at The Hague

One of the leaders of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA), Dominic Ongwen, stands accused of four war crimes counts and three of crimes against humanity, including murder and enslavement.

His trial marks the first time a member of LRA is being tried at an international court. The LRA is accused of kidnapping children and turning them into child soldiers or sex slaves.

According to the ICC, the judge at Monday’s pre-trial is expected to verify Ongwen’s identity and inform him of the charges against him in a language he can understand.

The LRA commander was arrested last month after giving himself up to authorities in the Central African Republic. The ICC took him into custody last week.

According to ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, his transfer “brings us one step closer to ending LRA’s reign of terror.”

US and African forces had been searching for Ongwen since 2011, and he is believed to be the deputy to notorious LRA commander Joseph Kony, who is still on the run.

Ongwen was said to be a child soldier, kidnapped by the LRA at the age of ten, with the ICC issuing an arrest warrant in 2005. His extradition comes after ten years that four other LRA commanders and himself were charged, with three of the commanders having since died, and Kony being the only one still at large.

Ongwen is accused of committing atrocities against civilians in Uganda and in parts of Central African Republic, South Sudan and DR Congo.

The LRA rebellion began more than two decades ago in northern Uganda and its estimated 200-500 fighters - many of them child soldiers - have since terrorised large swathes of central Africa.