ICC convicts anti-Balaka leaders over atrocities in Central African Republic
Patrice-Edouard Ngaïssona and Alfred Yekatom were found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to 12 and 15 years.
International Criminal Court judges have convicted two senior leaders of the anti-Balaka militia in the Central African Republic of multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity, handing down prison terms that close a landmark case over violence unleashed after the country’s 2013 crisis.
AP reported that former Central African Republic soccer federation president Patrice-Edouard Ngaïssona was sentenced to 12 years in prison, while rebel leader Alfred Yekatom, known as “Rambo,” received 15 years. The court found both men responsible for atrocities including murder, torture and attacks on civilians.
The charges were tied to their roles as senior leaders in the anti-Balaka, a predominantly Christian militia that fought the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels after Seleka seized power in 2013. The conflict quickly became interreligious in character and left thousands dead while displacing hundreds of thousands more.
In the courtroom, presiding judge Bertram Schmitt said anti-Balaka forces attacked localities with Muslim civilians, killing and displacing many of them. That finding captures the essential nature of the case: not isolated battlefield misconduct, but organized violence against civilians linked to militia leadership.
The trial, which opened in 2021, was the first at the ICC to focus on the violence that erupted after Seleka took power. That gives the verdict historical significance beyond the two defendants. It marks one of the few moments in which the international court has directly addressed the sectarian bloodshed that shaped the Central African Republic’s descent into conflict.
The defendants maintained their innocence throughout the proceedings. Their denials did not persuade the judges, who concluded that the evidence supported convictions on serious international crimes.
Victims and community groups welcomed the result as a sign that the court had not looked away. But the verdict also underscores how much of the conflict’s damage remains unresolved, with other proceedings and local trials still moving through the system.
For now, the court has sent a clear message: militia leadership will not be insulated from accountability merely because a war becomes fragmented, local and prolonged. In this case, the punishment is measured in years, but the judgment itself is about the legal record of mass violence.
The verdict also extends beyond the two men. It tells victims in the Central African Republic that international justice can still reach commanders years after the violence, even if the broader conflict has already fragmented into new cases and new armed actors.
The verdict is also a warning to other militia figures in the region. Even years after atrocities take place, the ICC can still move from investigation to conviction, which gives victims at least some measure of accountability.
