French anti-terror prosecutors have announced the arrest of the former head of a rebel group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on charges of “complicity in crimes against humanity”. Roger Lumbala, 62, is a former opposition lawmaker who led the RCD-N party, an armed group suspected by UN investigators of carrying out extrajudicial killings, rapes and cannibalism during the country’s civil war from 1998-2002. The charges concern his actions in 2002 in the north- eastern Ituri region predominantly against the Nande and Twa ethnic groups, the prosecutors told AFP. A United Nations report published in 2003 first pointed the finger at Lumbala, who became a minister in his country’s transition government between 2004 and 2005. Lumbala, who rejects the allegations, was arrested last week following a police investigation launched in December 2016. The French judiciary has the right to arrest and prosecute suspects in cases of crimes against humanity committed abroad.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN