By: AFAYO SHADRACH BETHEL

The International Criminal Court yesterday threw out an appeal by Dominic Ongwen, a Ugandan child soldier-turned-commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army, against his conviction for war crimes.

Dominic Ongwen, who was himself abducted aged nine by the rebel group led by the fugitive Joseph Kony, was found guilty last year of murder, rape and sexual enslavement in northern Uganda during the early 2000s.

Appeals judges dismissed Ongwen’s arguments about his own past as a child combatant and that he suffered from mental illness, saying that he had a key role in the LRA’s atrocities as an adult.

Defence lawyers argued earlier this year that Ongwen, who is believed to be in his mid-40s, had been scarred by his own experience as a youth in the LRA.