Ndarumanga

On June 1^st 2024, a landmark verdict was upheld by the South Kivu Military Court. In May 2023, the Military Tribunal of Uvira had sentenced Munyololo Mbao, alias Ndarumanga, former leader of a Raia Mutomboki faction, to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity, including the world’s first national court conviction for forced pregnancy. Beyond confirming the initial verdict, the South Kivu Military Court also found the Congolese state civilly liable for the crimes committed.

The crime of forced pregnancy is categorized as conflict-related sexual violence and involves the unlawful confinement of one or more women who have been forcibly made pregnant, with the specific intent to alter the ethnic composition of a population or to commit other grave violations of international law. Despite its inclusion in the Rome Statute of the ICC in 1998, it was not prosecuted by the ICC until 2021. This case represents the first time a national criminal court has ever recognized the crime of forced pregnancy as an international crime.

The initial trial had taken place from May 8 to 15, 2023 through a mobile court hearing held near the 121 victims who had filed as civil parties. The court had found Ndarumanga responsible for murder, torture, rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, imprisonment, and other inhumane acts. Financial compensation had been awarded to all victims.

TRIAL International supported the documentation of these crimes and assisted the civil parties’ lawyers. Our work on this case is conducted within the framework of the South Kivu International Criminal Justice Task Force.

On May 15^th 2023, the Military Tribunal of Uvira sentenced Munyololo Mbao, alias Ndarumanga, former leader of a faction of the Raia Mutomboki armed group in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity. Among the charges confirmed by the court is the crime of forced pregnancy, a world first before a national court.