Congo army battles convicted war criminal's militia

16/8/2025 6:31

Heavy clashes erupted this week

between Congo's army and a militia founded by a war criminal

convicted at the International Criminal Court but later

released, both sides said, and one civil society activist put

the civilian death toll at 19.



Thomas Lubanga, an Ituri native, told Reuters in March that

he was forming the Convention for the Popular Revolution (CPR)

to topple the regional government, creating another potential

security threat in war-scarred eastern Congo where Rwanda-backed

M23 rebels have also seized significant territory.



At the time, the group had not launched military operations,

he said.



This week, however, Congo's army said the CPR had attempted

multiple attacks and that soldiers had killed 12 of the group's

fighters in two different locations around 30 kilometres (19

miles) north of Bunia, the Ituri capital.



A CPR commander, speaking to Reuters on condition of

anonymity because he was not authorised to brief the media, said

there were clashes but acknowledged the death of just "one of my

men".



Dieudonne Losa, a civil society activist in Bunia, said on

Friday that 19 civilian deaths had been recorded, including 13

elderly women and four young girls.



"What is happening north of Bunia is an unacceptable

situation," Losa said.



The International Criminal Court secured a conviction

against Lubanga in 2012 on charges of recruiting child soldiers

and sentenced him to 14 years in prison.



He was released in 2020 and President Felix Tshisekedi

appointed him to a task force to bring peace to Ituri. But in

2022 he was taken hostage for two months by a rebel group, which

he blamed on the government, and he then based himself in

Uganda.



It is unclear how many combatants Lubanga might control.

U.N. experts last year accused him of mobilising fighters to

support a local militia and M23.