Criminal War Criminal Lubanga announces a new rebel group in East Congo

File – the former Congolese War Thomas Lubanga awaits the judges’ verdict in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, December 1, 2014. (Photo file: Reuters/Michael Kooren)

A convicted war criminal, based in Uganda, announced a new Rebele Movement intention to overcome the Government in the east of the ITuri province of East Congo, creating another potential security threat in the war region.

The formation of the Convention for the People’s Revolution (CPR) by Thomas Lubanga, an Origin of ITUR, comes while Congo’s army faces an unprecedented advance by the M23 rebels, supported by Rwanda, elsewhere in East Congo.

The International Criminal Court provided the first conviction against Lubanga in 2012, under the charge of recruiting children’s soldiers and sentenced him to 14 years in prison.

He was released in 2020, and President Felix Tshisekedi called him into a working group to bring Iuri’s peace. But, in 2022, he was taken hostage for two months by a rebellious group, which he blames in the Government, and now he is based in Uganda.

In the answers written to the questions from Reuters, Lubanga said that CPR has both political and military elements, including men armed in three areas of Itri.

Bringing peace to the area “requires an immediate change in governance and government,” he said, although he added that the group has not launched military operations.

It is not clear how many combatants could control the lubanga. UN experts last year accused him of mobilizing fighters to support a local militia and M23.

Congo’s presidency did not respond to a comment request Monday.

ITURI has been shaken by violence by various armed groups for decades. Doctors without borders last week described “a renewed peak” who killed over 200 civilians and has relocated about 100,000 people from the beginning of the year.

The troops in Uganda are present in Iuri to help the government fight with the Allied Democrat forces (ADF), which is affiliated with the Islamic State and the brutal attacks on villages.

Source: Reuters