Members of the United Nations Security Council have welcomed the arrival yesterday of Dominic Ongwen from the Central African Republic (CAR) to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.
Dominic Ongwen, a one-time child soldier who rose through the ranks of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), was among five senior commanders of the guerrilla movement indicted by the global court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2005.
Ongwen, 34, defected from the LRA in late December and handed himself over to the Seleka rebels who control swathes of the north and east of the Central African Republic. Seleka then transferred him to the United States forces supporting a regional anti-LRA task force.
In a message yesterday, the UN Security Council members expressed appreciation to all governments that cooperated in the effort to capture Ongwen, notably Uganda, Central Africa, and the United States.
“The members of the Security Council viewed this development as a positive step for international criminal justice and for the fight against impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community, as well as towards efforts to address the threat posed by the LRA,” reads the statement.
The members of the Security Council also thanked the African Union Regional Task Force for its ongoing efforts to counter the threat of the LRA in the region.