ICJ Orders Uganda To Pay $325 Million To DRC In Reparations Over A Conflict Two Decades Ago

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Wednesday ordered Uganda to pay $325m to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in reparations over the devastating 1998-2003 conflict that left thousands of people dead, reported Reuters.

 The conflict involved up to nine African countries, including Uganda and Rwanda, which supported rebel groups against the Kinshasa government as they jostled for control of the mineral-rich Ituri region.

“The court notes that the reparation awarded to the DRC for damage to persons and to property reflects the harm suffered by individuals and communities as a result of Uganda’s breach of its international obligations,” the ICJ’s president, US judge Joan E Donoghue, said.

The DRC had claimed more than $11 billion in damages for the occupation of its volatile northeastern Ituri region. But, the ICJ judge Donoghue ordered that Uganda should pay the DRC $225 million for loss of life and other damage to persons that included rape, conscription of child soldiers, and the displacement of up to 500,000 people. The amount included another $40 million for damage to property and $60 million for damage to natural resources including the plundering of gold, diamonds, timber, and other goods by Ugandan forces or rebels they supported.

The DRC initially filed the case with the ICJ in June 1999. The order came more than 15 years after the UN court ruled in a 119-page judgment that fighting by Ugandan troops in DRC breached international law. In 2005 the ICJ ruled that Uganda had to pay reparations, but they were never paid.

Judge Donoghue said the court did not find sufficient evidence to support the DRC’s claim of 180,000 civilian deaths for which Uganda owes reparation. She added that the evidence presented to the court suggests that the number of deaths for which Uganda owes reparations falls in the range of 10,000 to 15,000 persons.