Overview
- Paris's Cour d'assises convicted Lumbala of complicity in crimes against humanity linked to the 2002–2003 Operation “Erase the Slate.”
- Prosecutors depicted him as a key planner who held authority over RCD-N fighters and supplied weapons, though they had sought life imprisonment.
- Rights groups including TRIAL International and the Clooney Foundation called it the first national-court conviction under universal jurisdiction for Second Congo War crimes.
- Testimony described rape as a weapon, sexual slavery, torture, mutilations, executions, forced labour, and systematic looting, with Nande and Bambuti communities targeted.
- Lumbala, arrested in France in 2020 and disputing the court’s legitimacy, largely refused to attend proceedings but was in the dock to hear the verdict.