The ICC on June 9, 2014, retained 18 charges against the former DRC warlord.

The International Criminal Court, ICC, on June 9, 2014, unanimously confirmed 18 charges against former Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC warlord, Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, agency reports said. The decision makes him eligible for trial by the court for among others, murder, attacking civilians, rape, sexual slavery of civilians and pillaging.

Other charges include displacement of civilians, destruction of enemy property, and enlistment and conscription of child soldiers under the age of 15 years. The process for confirming the charges held from February 10-14, 2014, with almost 69,000 pages of evidence examined by investigators. Bosco Ntaganda, 41, allegedly committed the crimes between 2002 and 2003.

A former Deputy Chief of Staff of the ‘Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo,’ FPLC, Ntaganda, who is popularly referred to as ‘Terminator,’ surrendered to the ICC on March 22, 2013. Former FPLC Commander, Thomas Lubanga, was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2012 for conscripting children under 15 and using them in hostilities.

The FPLC, drawn from the Hema ethnic group in the conflict-ravaged east of DRC, carried out brutal sectarian attacks against non-Hema groups, including the Lendu, Bira and Nande. Interminable conflicts in the region - exacerbated by its mineral endowment - have left some 60,000 dead since 1999.

Ntaganda was one of the most sought-after fugitives in the Great Lakes region until March 2013 when he handed himself in voluntarily. By then, he had become one of the founders of a new militant group, the defunct M 23, which launched another armed rebellion in the east. With two arrest warrants hanging over him, and the M 23 splitting into bitterly opposed factions, Ntaganda fled to the US Embassy in Rwanda.