Latest news with #JosephKony
The Sun
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
I'm the Machine Gun Preacher who Gerard Butler played in film – here's how I survived ISIS and 10 assassination attempts
A HOLLYWOOD star who gave up being a drug dealing bikie is now fighting ISIS through the dripping jungles of central Africa. The Machine Gun Preacher is on a mission to rescue child sex slaves on the continent - and is has come up against the notorious terror group. 11 11 The priest, real name Sam Childers, is battling ISIS in the Congo as he continues his holy war to save abused children. He's famously known as being the inspiration behind the movie Machine Gun Preacher. The film starred an A-list cast of Gerard Butler as Childers, Michelle Monaghan as his wife, and Michael Shannon. Machine Gun Preacher told the story of how Childers came to be fighting in Africa after growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Once a criminal, he found God, turned his life to charity work in Africa and dedicated himself to saving children. Machine Gun Preacher - the film - showed him battling Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army in 1997. Now he's released a self-made documentary - trying to raise money to take the fight to ISIS in Congo. He said: "I'm not worried about dying. I'm 62 years old. The last thing I worry about is dying. I worry more about living than dying." After being hammered in the Middle East, ISIS turned to Africa and is now enslaving thousands of children as its militants rampage through impoverished areas. Childers has a network of orphanages, schools, and farms set up across the centre of the continent. I fought ISIS in Syria & I know bloodthirsty thugs are plotting comeback after fall of Assad - Europe must be ready, says Brit fighter But he's come into combat with ISIS as they have expanded into Congo. He said: "We don't want to see our children be kidnapped, sold in prostitution. "We don't want to see none of that so I'm willing to do whatever I have to do... and I'm willing to answer for it. "They are murderers. They're killers. 11 11 11 "I'm not afraid of none of them." Some 5.4million people have been killed in Congo's ongoing conflicts since 1998 - but the wars have gone largely ignored in the West. Three children were beheaded by rebel fighters in February and dozens more killed when they took a village. Childers' belief in God has given the preacher the strength to keep fighting - even against militant Christian groups. The Lord's Resistance Army raped and abducted girls, mutilated them, and enslaved boys into being child soldiers. He said: "I've been ambushed over 10 times. Been in over 10 major battles. They tried to assassinate me over 10 times. "That's just in the Kony War." Despite the gun battles, Childers says that he was in more danger while a bikie and drug dealer in America. 11 11 He said: "I fought in guerrilla warfare, or been in war over 25 years, and I never was shot in Africa. "I was shot once and stabbed 3 times in America." Childers said the soldiering was a means to an end - supporting the good work his organisations do through orphanages and farms. "What you got to realize those rescues and to be active in stuff like that costs a lot of money. "I have a lot of children and orphanages and children's homes that got to be taken care of." Now, he runs a private military company in Congo that works with local forces to try and save children. Childers said many of the children he rescued were severely mentally damaged by their time spent in captivity. He said: "They cannot be kept in a normal orphanage with other children until after one year. "That's if the people believe they're doing well. That's doing the mental evaluations." 11 11 11 But Childers revealed that he preferred to work with children rather than adults, saying they could work through the mental challenges they faced from being victims of rape or violence. But it's not just ISIS that his charities are fighting, with disease and hunger also continuing to kill children. Childers said: "So then we feed over 10,000 meals a day. The majority of the children we feed only eat one meal a day, and that's the meal we're feeding them." Now, the preacher has released a new film trying to raise money for his work. "Our goal is to do a hundred 1,000 downloads by the end of this year and that money's used for children, man, you know. And so, instead of telling everyone, hey, send me $20. "We're asking everyone. Look, you want to hear a good story. You want to hear a good story of redemption. You want to hear a good story of saving people's lives. You want to hear a good story of giving all." Becoming the Machine Gun Preacher Childers was born into a difficult household with a heroin addict mum and drunkard dad. They were always Christians, but in his teens Childers got in with the wrong crowd, he said. "I started doing what they were doing to fit in, smoking cigarettes, smoking marijuana. "12 years old: drinking, eating pills. "13, 14 years old: snorting cocaine. "Then, at 15 years old, I woke up one morning, and here I got a heroin addiction. You know, I'm shooting up cocaine, shooting up heroin." Childers quit school and said he turned himself into one of the biggest drug dealers in Grand Rapids, running narcotics from all over the US. He said: "The only good thing was my dad brought me and my brothers up to be hardworking people. "I always held a job, even though I was a cocaine addict heroin addict. "But I made a lot of money selling drugs." Childers said he always believed in God, but "I thought I had everything I needed. "I had money. I had drugs, guns, women motorcycles." But then in his early 20s, Childers got into a bar fight that was so awful it changed the course of his life. "There were big guys, tough guys laying on the floor crying, holding their guts in. And I said that night, if I get out of here, I'm I'm done living this life." His charity work has seen Childers honoured with the Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice in 2013. What's happening in Congo? ISIS has extended its bloody grip in Africa to the Congo in recent years. The terror thugs are taking advantage of high levels of poverty and an already destabalised nation. ISIS formally announced its arrival in the country - which it calls the Central Africa Province - in 2019. It claimed another rebel group - the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) - as its affiliate in the Congo and neighbouring Uganda. The ADF, originally a Ugandan Islamist rebel group formed in the 1990s and had already established a stronghold in eastern Congo's North Kivu and Ituri provinces. The ADF rebranded to ISIS and adopted its jihadist rhetoric and tactics. The group began releasing propaganda via ISIS's media channels, portraying its local attacks—mainly against civilians, Congolese soldiers, and UN peacekeepers—as part of the global jihad. Hundreds of civilians have been killed in brutal raids, massacres, and bombings by the terror group. The Congolese army has launched several offensives to knock out ISIS - but has struggled to fully eliminate them.
San Francisco Chronicle
03-06-2025
- General
- San Francisco Chronicle
ICC appeals judges greenlight first in absentia hearing over Ugandan rebel leader Kony
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Appeals judges at the International Criminal Court gave a final greenlight Tuesday for the tribunal's first in absentia hearing by allowing the next step in proceedings against notorious fugitive Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony. The Hague-based court has scheduled a so-called confirmation of charges hearing at which prosecutors will present evidence in September to back up charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Kony, despite his whereabouts being unknown. Kony, the leader of the brutal Lord's Resistance Army, faces dozens of counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, sexual enslavement and rape. The ICC's rules do not allow trials entirely in absentia but can in some circumstances move forward with a confirmation of charges even if the suspect is not in custody. Kony's court appointed lawyers had argued his fair trial rights would be violated if the proceedings continued without their client. Judge Erdenebalsuren Damdin said the court has 'adequately robust safeguards' for suspects to allow the confirmation of charges hearing to be held in absentia. The case had been seen as a trial balloon for the court moving forward with other cases where the suspect is not in custody, such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, the Kony decision was limited to situations where the wanted person has fled ICC custody or cannot be found, says Luigi Prosperi, an international criminal law expert at the University of Utrecht. Kony 'is a very peculiar situation,' he told The Associated Press. Kony was thrust into the global spotlight in 2012 when a video about his alleged crimes went viral. Despite the attention and international efforts to capture him, he is still at large. The LRA began its attacks in Uganda in the 1980s, when Kony sought to overthrow the government. After being pushed out of Uganda, the militia terrorized villages in Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan. It was notorious for using child soldiers, mutilating civilians and enslaving women. In 2021, the court convicted Dominic Ongwen, a one-time child soldier who morphed into a brutal LRA commander of dozens of war crimes and crimes against humanity, ranging from multiple murders to forced marriages.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
ICC appeals judges greenlight first in absentia hearing over Ugandan rebel leader Kony
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Appeals judges at the International Criminal Court gave a final greenlight Tuesday for the tribunal's first in absentia hearing by allowing the next step in proceedings against notorious fugitive Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony. The Hague-based court has scheduled a so-called confirmation of charges hearing at which prosecutors will present evidence in September to back up charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Kony, despite his whereabouts being unknown. Kony, the leader of the brutal Lord's Resistance Army, faces dozens of counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, sexual enslavement and rape. The ICC's rules do not allow trials entirely in absentia but can in some circumstances move forward with a confirmation of charges even if the suspect is not in custody. Kony's court appointed lawyers had argued his fair trial rights would be violated if the proceedings continued without their client. Judge Erdenebalsuren Damdin said the court has 'adequately robust safeguards' for suspects to allow the confirmation of charges hearing to be held in absentia. The case had been seen as a trial balloon for the court moving forward with other cases where the suspect is not in custody, such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, the Kony decision was limited to situations where the wanted person has fled ICC custody or cannot be found, says Luigi Prosperi, an international criminal law expert at the University of Utrecht. Kony 'is a very peculiar situation,' he told The Associated Press. Kony was thrust into the global spotlight in 2012 when a video about his alleged crimes went viral. Despite the attention and international efforts to capture him, he is still at large. The LRA began its attacks in Uganda in the 1980s, when Kony sought to overthrow the government. After being pushed out of Uganda, the militia terrorized villages in Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan. It was notorious for using child soldiers, mutilating civilians and enslaving women. In 2021, the court convicted Dominic Ongwen, a one-time child soldier who morphed into a brutal LRA commander of dozens of war crimes and crimes against humanity, ranging from multiple murders to forced marriages.
03-06-2025
- General
ICC appeals judges greenlight first in absentia hearing over Ugandan rebel leader
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Appeals judges at the International Criminal Court gave a final greenlight Tuesday for the tribunal's first in absentia hearing by allowing the next step in proceedings against notorious fugitive Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony. The Hague-based court has scheduled a so-called confirmation of charges hearing at which prosecutors will present evidence in September to back up charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Kony, despite his whereabouts being unknown. Kony, the leader of the brutal Lord's Resistance Army, faces dozens of counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, sexual enslavement and rape. The ICC's rules do not allow trials entirely in absentia but can in some circumstances move forward with a confirmation of charges even if the suspect is not in custody. Kony's court appointed lawyers had argued his fair trial rights would be violated if the proceedings continued without their client. Judge Erdenebalsuren Damdin said the court has 'adequately robust safeguards' for suspects to allow the confirmation of charges hearing to be held in absentia. The case had been seen as a trial balloon for the court moving forward with other cases where the suspect is not in custody, such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, the Kony decision was limited to situations where the wanted person has fled ICC custody or cannot be found, says Luigi Prosperi, an international criminal law expert at the University of Utrecht. Kony 'is a very peculiar situation,' he told The Associated Press. Kony was thrust into the global spotlight in 2012 when a video about his alleged crimes went viral. Despite the attention and international efforts to capture him, he is still at large. The LRA began its attacks in Uganda in the 1980s, when Kony sought to overthrow the government. After being pushed out of Uganda, the militia terrorized villages in Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan. It was notorious for using child soldiers, mutilating civilians and enslaving women.
Washington Post
03-06-2025
- General
- Washington Post
ICC appeals judges greenlight first in absentia hearing over Ugandan rebel leader Kony
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Appeals judges at the International Criminal Court gave a final greenlight Tuesday for the tribunal's first in absentia hearing by allowing the next step in proceedings against notorious fugitive Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony. The Hague-based court has scheduled a so-called confirmation of charges hearing at which prosecutors will present evidence in September to back up charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Kony, despite his whereabouts being unknown. Kony, the leader of the brutal Lord's Resistance Army, faces dozens of counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, sexual enslavement and rape. The ICC's rules do not allow trials entirely in absentia but can in some circumstances move forward with a confirmation of charges even if the suspect is not in custody. Kony's court appointed lawyers had argued his fair trial rights would be violated if the proceedings continued without their client. Judge Erdenebalsuren Damdin said the court has 'adequately robust safeguards' for suspects to allow the confirmation of charges hearing to be held in absentia. The case had been seen as a trial balloon for the court moving forward with other cases where the suspect is not in custody, such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Russian President Vladimir Putin . However, the Kony decision was limited to situations where the wanted person has fled ICC custody or cannot be found, says Luigi Prosperi, an international criminal law expert at the University of Utrecht. Kony 'is a very peculiar situation,' he told The Associated Press. Kony was thrust into the global spotlight in 2012 when a video about his alleged crimes went viral. Despite the attention and international efforts to capture him, he is still at large. The LRA began its attacks in Uganda in the 1980s, when Kony sought to overthrow the government. After being pushed out of Uganda, the militia terrorized villages in Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan. It was notorious for using child soldiers, mutilating civilians and enslaving women. In 2021, the court convicted Dominic Ongwen , a one-time child soldier who morphed into a brutal LRA commander of dozens of war crimes and crimes against humanity, ranging from multiple murders to forced marriages.
