The Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) announced Monday that the trial date for Roger Lumbala has been set. The former Congolese warlord will stand trial in Paris from November 17 to December 19 2025. He has been accused of complicity in and conspiracy to commit crimes against humanity, which allegedly took place during between 2002-2003. He was arrested in France in 2021 and the trial is being held in the country under the principle of universal jurisdiction. CFJ is representing 10 survivors of sexual and gender-based violence and co-represents 5 victims of torture with TRIAL International.

The effects of the two major conflicts in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during the 1990s and early 2000s are still ongoing in the region. This article addresses the significance of Lumbala’s arrest and trial and the implications for accountability in DRC.

The First and Second Congo Wars

Conflict in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has claimed over 5 million lives since 1996. The First Congo War, between 1996-1997, arose in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Millions of refugees had fled Rwanda into DRC (then known as Zaire) and Hutu extremists began forming militias. This caused the Rwandan Tutsi-led government to invade in an attempt to end the threat of the Hutu armed groups and overthrow the dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko. The forces, backed by Uganda, Angola and Burundi were successful in ousting the Mobotu regime and bringing Laurent Kabila into power as the new president. The country’s name was then changed back from Zaire to DRC.

The Second Congo War took place between 1998-2003. It began following the inflammation of tensions between Rwanda and DRC. The newly-installed Kabila had grown concerned about the perception that Rwanda had too much influence over his own government. He expelled all foreign troops from eastern DRC and allowed armed Hutu factions to begin regrouping at the border with Rwanda. This prompted Rwanda to invade in 1998. The war, known as Africa’s World War, involved several other countries, including Angola, Zimbabwe and Uganda, as well as rebel groups. The war was concluded by the signing of the Pretoria Accord in 2002 but, in the two decades since, new conflicts have continued along the Congo-Rwanda border, driven by underlying tensions and the growing competition for the DRC’s reserves of metals and rare earth minerals.

The humanitarian cost

The war and its aftermath have had catastrophic humanitarian consequences, with the International Rescue Committee stating that there had been 5.4 million excess deaths in the region between 1998-2007. In a report from Human Rights Watch in 2002, the organisation asserted that, within the conflict, “the warring parties carry out another war: that of sexual violence against women and girls.” They went on to state that most of the forces involved in the conflict were using sexual violence frequently and, sometimes systematically, as a weapon of war. They said that:

Brutality against civilians, and specifically sexual violence, is an integral part of the war in eastern Congo. Forces involved in acts of sexual violence against women and girls continue to be rewarded by their leadership and by their powerful patrons for their actions.

Mass rape and sexual violence have been reported by numerous NGOs and UN agencies, with studies showing that approximately 1.69 to 1.80 million women in DRC have been raped during their lifetime

Roger Lumbala

Roger Lumbala was the Congolese leader of the RCD-N, a faction of the RCD (Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie/Rally for Congolese Democracy) and a non-state armed group. The group was active in the eastern DRC between 2000-2003. Following this, Lumbala served as the Minister of Commerce in the country from 2003-2005.

The group allegedly committed atrocities during their active years, including an operation called “Erasing the Board.” This operation targeted the civilian populations of Ituri and North Kivu and was given the name because it was designed to “attack “the civilian population and destroy everything of value to them.”

According to a letter dated 25 June 2003 from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the Security Council, “the region witnessed a new scale of violence characterized by premeditated operations using looting, rape and summary execution as tools of warfare.” According to that same letter, Lumbala had issued “a statement in Kampala mentioning that he had given orders to his troops to ‘emasculate any killed RCD-ML soldiers.’”

Lumbala was arrested in Paris in 2020. He was later indicted for his alleged complicity in and conspiracy to commit crimes against humanity including murder, torture, rape, pillage and enslavement, including sexual slavery,  in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between 2002 and 2003

Universal Jurisdiction and the implications for accountability

The indictment and trial of Lumbala are being carried out in France under the principle of Universal Jurisdiction (UJ). This allows countries to prosecute grave international crimes, regardless of where those crimes were committed or the nationality of the accused. It was enshrined in the Geneva Conventions of 1949, placing an obligation on states to respond to the most egregious international crimes, such as crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and torture.

This is not the first time that French courts have utilised UJ to prosecute crimes of this nature. They have previously leveraged the principle to bring prosecutions against those complicit in crimes during the Rwandan genocide and the Liberian Civil War. More recently, they have convicted Syrian officials of crimes against humanity and war crimes and have sentenced them in absentia.

At the time of Lumbala’s indictment, The Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ), TRIAL International (TRIAL), Minority Rights Group (MRG), and Justice Plus said that it was “a historic step towards justice for survivors of mass atrocities in the DRC.”

While the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been investigating the situation in DRC since 2004 and has gained convictions against perpetrators, universal jurisdiction offers an alternative route towards justice for victims. Upon the announcement of the trial date for Roger Lumbala, Yasmine Chubin, the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s Legal Docket Legal Advocacy Director, said that “even after 20 years, these brave survivors have never given up on the promise of justice. They will travel to France to participate and testify in the trial.”