Joseph Kony case in The Hague begins with accounts of alleged atrocities

Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, which sought to overthrow the Ugandan government from 1986. Photograph: Stuart Price/AP

An international criminal court hearing into charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Ugandan fugitive rebel leader Joseph Kony has begun with accounts of atrocities allegedly committed by his Lord’s Resistance Army.

The ICC’s first in-absentia hearing will confirm charges but cannot progress to a trial in Kony’s absence. The warlord faces 39 counts, including murder, rape, sexual slavery, enslavement and torture, allegedly committed in northern Uganda between July 2002 and December 2005.