By DefenceWeb
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague confirmed 39 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) founder and leader Joseph Kony.
The confirmation last week of the charges can only proceed to trial once Kony, currently at large, is found and arrested or hands himself to the court. An ICC statement has it the accused has to be in the Dutch court as per its founding treaty, the ICC Rome Statute.
Judge Althea Violet Alexis-Windsor (presiding) assisted by judges Iulia Antoanella Motoc and Haykel Ben Mahfoudh, found there are substantial grounds to believe Kony is responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, allegedly committed between at least 1 July 2002 and 31 December 2005 in northern Uganda
Kony is Ugandan, reportedly born in 1961. In the three and a half year period quoted by the judges, he was part of protracted armed conflict in northern Uganda, including in the Acholi, Lango, and Teso areas. “At all material times,” the ICC statement reads, “the parties to the armed conflict were the LRA on one side and the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) and associated local armed units, on the other side”.
“The armed hostilities were protracted and exceeded, in intensity, internal disturbances and tensions, such as riots, and isolated and sporadic acts of violence. Furthermore, the LRA carried out a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of northern Uganda.
“Kony and other members of the LRA had an agreement to attack civilians in northern Uganda whom the LRA perceived to be supporting the Ugandan government and to sustain the LRA, by committing the charged crimes, including systemic crimes against children and women abducted and integrated into the LRA.
“The Chamber found substantial grounds to believe that Kony is responsible for 29 charges as an indirect co-perpetrator or, alternatively, for having ordered and induced the commission of crimes committed by the LRA during attacks on a school and internally displaced persons’ camps, as well as systemic crimes committed against children and women abducted and forcefully integrated into the LRA.
“These crimes include the crimes against humanity of murder and attempted murder, torture or alternatively severe abuse and mistreatment as an inhumane act, enslavement, forced marriage as an inhumane act, forced pregnancy, rape, persecution on political grounds, age and gender grounds; and the war crimes of intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population, murder and attempted murder, torture or alternatively cruel treatment, rape, conscripting children under the age of 15 into the LRA and using children to participate actively in hostilities, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, pillaging, and destroying the enemy’s property.
“The Chamber also found substantial grounds to believe that Kony is responsible as a direct perpetrator for 10 charges against two victims, including the crimes against humanity of enslavement, forced marriage as an inhumane act, rape, forced pregnancy, torture, persecution on age and gender grounds; and the war crimes of rape, torture, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy.”
A request for a conditional stay of legal proceedings by Kony’s defence team was rejected by the Chamber. Neither Kony’s defence team nor the ICC Prosecutor can immediately appeal this decision, as the Chamber decided the time limit for filing an application for leave to appeal is suspended until Kony is notified of the decision when he surrenders to the court.
An ICC warrant of arrest for him was issued on 8 July 2005, amended on 27 September 2005 and unsealed on 13 October 2005. On 12 December 2024, ICC pre-trial chamber III scheduled confirmation of charges hearing to commence on 9 September 2025, in the absence of the suspect. On 3 June 2025, the Appeals Chamber confirmed the decision on holding confirmation of charges proceedings in absentia. The confirmation of charges hearing was on 9 and 10 September 2025 at the Court in The Hague. The hearing was held in the absence of the suspect, represented by defence counsel Peter Haynes, KC.
Kony’s notoriety increased in 2012 because of a social media campaign to highlight the LRA’s alleged atrocities. The following year, the US offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest. Despite those efforts, and years of manhunts, he remains a fugitive, and is believed to be hiding in the Central African Republic (CAR). The US and Ugandan armies officially ended their operations to track him down in 2017.
DefenceWeb is Africa’s largest and most trusted defence and security portal
Safe Schools’ Initiative: Billions Spent, Children Still Unsafe