International Criminal Court judges yesterday convicted Congolese rebel chief Bosco “Terminator” Ntaganda of war crimes including directing massacres of civilians and rape, in a badly-needed victory for prosecutors in The Hague.

Ntaganda, 45, was a “key leader” who gave orders to “target and kill civilians” in Democratic Republic of Congo’s volatile, mineral-rich Ituri region in 2002 and 2003, head judge Robert Fremr said.

The atrocities included a massacre at a village where people included children and babies were disembowelled or had their heads smashed in, the judge said.