DR Congo ex-rebel leader Lumbala's war crimes trial opens in Paris

Vice-president of the delegation of M23 rebels, Roger Lumbala attends a press briefing in Uganda’s capital Kampala on January 8, 2013. [AFP]

Former Congolese rebel leader Roger Lumbala goes on trial in Paris Wednesday over atrocities committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo's bloody eastern conflict more than two decades ago.

Lumbala, 67, is accused of complicity in crimes against humanity for his role during the 1998-2003 Second Congo War, which saw more than a half-dozen African nations drawn into the globe's deadliest conflict since World War II.