The head of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) [official website] Martin Kobler on Sunday commended [UN News Centre report] the sentencing of a former militia commander accused of war crimes. General Jerome Kakwaku was sentenced by a military court to 10 years in prison for his leadership of the Forces armees du peuple congolais (FAPC). According to MONUSCO, under Kakwaku’s leadership between 2003 and 2005 the FAPC committed a series of “gross human rights violations” in the country’s eastern district of Ituri. He was also found accountable for the massacres committed in Kobu and Jicho forest against civilian populations in January 2003.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) [BBC backgrounder] has been the site of considerable human rights abuses committed by both government forces and various rebel groups. Earlier this month Amnesty International [advocacy website] called on [JURIST report] UN peacekeepers and Congolese authorities to protect the country’s civilians from armed rebels that are considered extremely dangerous. Last month rights experts from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights announced the findings of a report alleging a number of summary executions [JURIST report] and forced executions carried out against civilians by Congolese national forces during operation “Likofi” between November 2013 and February 2014. In July the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict presented a report outlining the situation of the child in the DRC, which found the recruitment of child soldiers [JURIST report] persists.