KAMPALA, Uganda, Oct 26, (AP): A former commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels was sentenced by a court in Uganda on Friday to 40 years in prison for brutal crimes committed by the group during its insurgency that started in the 1980s. Thomas Kwoyelo - a former child soldier who later became a rebel commander - will serve only 25 years in jail as he has been in government custody for 15 years, the court ruled.

Kwoyelo's jail sentence applies to the most serious crimes he faced, including multiple counts of murder, rape, pillaging, and enslavement. The sentence was delivered by a panel of the High Court that sat in Gulu, the northern city where the LRA was once active. Kwoyelo can appeal. Grace Apio, a Ugandan victim of the LRA insurgency, told The Associated Press that she felt the sentence was lenient.

The sentence "is very little for us, the victims,” she said. "We feel very bad ... This sentence will encourage other people who want to start a war that in Uganda, after committing these atrocities, you will end up with a light sentence and then you come back to society and start your life again.” Kwoyelo was convicted in August on 44 of the 78 counts he faced for crimes committed during the insurgency between 1992 and 2005. Kwoyelo, whose trial began in 2019, had been in detention since 2009 as Ugandan authorities tried to figure out how to dispense justice in a way that was fair and credible.

Human Rights Watch described his trial as "a rare opportunity for justice for victims of the two-decade war between” Ugandan troops and the LRA. Prosecutors said Kwoyelo held the military rank of colonel within the LRA and that he ordered violent attacks on civilians, many of them displaced by the rebellion. The LRA’s overall leader, Joseph Kony, is believed to be hiding in a vast area of ungoverned bush in central Africa. The U.S. has offered $5 million as a reward for information leading to the capture of Kony, who is also wanted by the International Criminal Court.