Congolese ex-rebel leader Roger Lumbala was found guilty by a Paris court on Monday of complicity in crimes against humanity committed during the Second Congo War and was sentenced to 30 years in prison, an official said.

The trial has been hailed by international justice advocates as a milestone in expanding accountability for the conflict that left millions dead.

Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for Lumbala, 67.

Announcing the verdict, court President Marc Sommerer said Lumbala was found guilty of ordering or aiding and abetting torture and inhumane crimes, summary executions, rape constituting torture, sexual slavery, forced labour, theft and pillage.

The allegations concerned a military operation known as "Erasing the Board," carried out in 2002 and 2003 in northeastern Congo by the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo and Rally for Congolese Democracy-National (RCD-N), a Uganda-backed group led at the time by Lumbala.

The operation targeted members of the Nande and Bambuti groups, accused of supporting a rival militia.

Defence lawyer Hugues Vigier declined to comment after Monday's verdict.

MORE THAN 5 MILLION DEAD

The Second Congo War ran from 1998 to 2003. It involved nine countries and killed more than 5 million people, including many who died of hunger and disease.

While some individuals have been tried at the International Criminal Court for crimes committed during the war, Lumbala's trial marked the first time a Congolese national has been tried before a national court in connection with the conflict.

Lumbala was arrested in January 2021 under France's "universal jurisdiction" law, which allows French courts to seek justice related to crimes against humanity committed abroad.

Lumbala refused to testify in the trial, which began last month, questioning the legitimacy of the French court. He attended the verdict.

Yasmine Chubin, legal director of the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which was involved in the trial as a civil party, said using national courts for such cases would allow for arrests of suspects beyond the handful sought by the ICC.

With universal jurisdiction "you sort of tighten the net and make it so that there are lots of different options for people (victims) and nowhere for perpetrators of these crimes to go."

Pisco Paluku Sirikivuya, a 50-year-old nurse from Mambasa in eastern Congo, travelled to Paris to tell the court how RCD-N rebels robbed and injured him, killed his uncle and raped his friend's wife in Congo's Ituri province.

“I am moved and very satisfied with this verdict. We have waited so long," he said on Monday.

"We hope that this will serve as a lesson to those who continue to bring grief to the people of Congo, and particularly to Ituri.”