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The International Criminal Court has officially confirmed 39 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony.

Some shit you should know before you dig in: If you’re unaware, Joseph Kony is a Ugandan warlord who founded and led the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a militant group that originated in northern Uganda in the late 1980s. Under his command, the LRA became notorious for its extreme brutality, including mass killings, mutilations, and the widespread abduction of children who were forced to become child soldiers and sex slaves. The group waged a violent insurgency against the Ugandan government and later expanded its terror across neighboring countries, including South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Central African Republic.

What’s going on now: In a notable development, the ICC has confirmed all 39 charges against Joseph Kony, marking the first time in the court’s history that such charges have been upheld in a suspect’s absence. This means ICC judges reviewed the evidence and found substantial grounds to believe Kony committed the alleged crimes, officially locking in the charges and preparing the case for trial (though under ICC rules, the trial itself cannot begin until Kony is in custody). The charges (ranging from murder, enslavement, rape, torture, and sexual slavery to the forced recruitment of child soldiers) are tied to atrocities committed between 2002 and 2005, when Kony’s LRA was most active in northern Uganda. Of the 39 charges, 29 are for crimes Kony is believed to have orchestrated as an indirect co-perpetrator, while the remaining 10 stem from crimes he allegedly committed directly against two women he forced to become his “wives,” subjecting them to sexual violence, forced pregnancy, and slavery.

ICC judges said there are “substantial grounds to believe” Kony bears individual responsibility for these crimes, which include attacks on schools and internally displaced persons camps.

Despite the formal confirmation of charges, Kony remains a fugitive and has not been seen in public since 2006, when he gave an interview denying the LRA’s crimes and claiming the accusations were propaganda. His exact whereabouts are unknown, and it’s unclear if he’s even still alive.

Kony’s court-appointed defense counsel argued that the proceedings held in his absence violated his right to a fair trial, but ICC judges rejected the claim, stating that continuing the case does not infringe on due process.

More to come.