Kunti Kamara, a former rebel commander from Liberia, was sentenced to 30 years in jail by a French court on Wednesday for his involvement in crimes against humanity and his use of violence against people during the country’s first civil war.
During her initial trial in Paris in 2022, Kamara, who is currently 49 years old, was given a life sentence.
Following a three-week long appeals trial, the Paris criminal court affirmed Kamara’s guilty sentence for “acts of torture and inhuman barbarity” against civilians between 1993 and 1994, including the a teacher whose heart he reportedly ate.
He was convicted once more of participation in crimes against humanity in 1994 for failing stop soldiers under his command from raping two teenage girls repeatedly.
On Monday, the prosecution pleaded the court to uphold his life sentence.
The accusations made against Kamara stem from the early years of the two wars that would eventually claim the lives of 250,000 people in the country of West Africa between 1989 and 2003.
Mass killings, rapes, and mutilations were prevalent during the battle, and atrocities against civilians were frequently committed by child soldiers who had been recruited by warlords.
Kamara was a regional commander of the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO), a rebel group that fought the National Patriotic Front of ex-president Charles Taylor.
