A former militia leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo was sentenced Monday to life in prison for war crimes and mass rape, a decision hailed by the United Nations.
Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka was convicted of "murder, rape, sexual slavery, enlisting children under 15 years old" a decade ago, a military court ruled.
The UN representative in DR Congo, Leila Zerrougui, said the ruling showed that "impunity is not inevitable".
Sheka founded the Nduma Defence of Congo (NDC) militia, active in DR Congo's restive North Kivu province, where he claimed to be fighting the Rwandan Hutu rebels of the FDLR.
The authorities issued the warrant for Sheka's arrest in January 2011 after a series of attacks in which the NDC and two other groups allegedly raped nearly 400 people in 13 villages between July 30 and August 2, 2010.
The NDC was also accused of having recruited at least 154 children into its ranks.
Sheka turned himself in to UN peacekeepers in July 2017.
"We are satisfied with this verdict, it is a strong signal to other warlords...," Kahindo Fatuma, a spokesman representing the victims, told AFP. "The victims will be a little bit relieved,"
NGOs also welcomed the ruling.
"The authorities have proven today that they are capable of handling an incredibly complex case, both legally and from a security point of view," Daniele Perissi, head of the Great Lakes Program of the NGO TRIAL International, said in a statement.
Dozens of armed groups are active in eastern DR Congo, a lawless region rich in mineral resources. They have wrought havoc there in the decades since the official end of a 1998-2003 war, which claimed millions of lives.