A French court has authorized Central Africa Republic soccer executive and alleged militia leader Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona to be handed over to The Hague war crimes tribunal, a judicial source said. Ngaissona, who has been described by prosecutors as the “senior leader” of the anti-balaka militia that carried out systematic attacks on the Muslim population in 2013 to 2014, was arrested in France on December 12.

Commissioners and senior staff of the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) in The Gambia held a three-day working meeting to prepare for the start of hearings on January 7th 2019. During the meeting the commission’s legal team, in collaboration with the Research and Investigations Unit, guided commissioners on the development of rules of procedure for the TRRC.

Many countries have endured a violent past or a dictatorship that left behind a trail of human rights violations. During transitions to peaceful societies or democracies, there is a need to address that painful past to ensure that the violations do not recur in future. While some countries have made or are making laudable efforts to deal with the atrocities of the past, others like Kenya are regrettably still at the phase of wishing the painful past away.

Joseph Kabila, the outgoing president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has said he plans to stay in politics and does not rule out running again for the top job in 2023. Kabila, who will be stepping down after long-delayed elections are held on December 23, told Reuters news agency on Sunday that he wanted to protect his “many accomplishments” by remaining in politics. “There is still a long journey ahead and there are still other chapters that will be written before we can write the history books,” he said.