Uganda pays first installment of $325m war reparations to DRC

The Worldwide Courtroom of Justice requested Uganda to pay reparations for its troops’ occupation of DRC again within the Nineties.

Ugandan troopers sing and dance waving their assault rifles as they put together to go away the jap DR Congo city of Bunia April 25, 2003 [File: Patrick Olum/AN/CRB]

Uganda has paid $65m within the first instalment of the $325m it was ordered to pay the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as compensation for losses brought on by wars within the Nineties when Ugandan troops occupied Congolese territory.

“It’s true we now have paid $65m as the primary instalment,” finance ministry spokesman Apollo Munghinda stated on Monday. The fee was made on September 1, he added.

The DRC authorities’s spokesman, Patrick Muyaya, confirmed to Reuters information company that the primary of the 5 instalments had been acquired.

In a case first introduced in opposition to Uganda in 1999, DRC requested the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ) to compel Uganda to pay it $11bn as reparations for the deaths, looting and normal financial harm brought on by Uganda’s navy occupation of components of DRC within the Nineties.

After prolonged proceedings, the ICJ, United Nations’ highest courtroom, dominated in 2005 that Uganda had violated worldwide regulation by occupying components of jap DRC and supporting different armed teams throughout a battle that raged from 1998 to 2003.

The courtroom, which offers with disputes between states and whose rulings are remaining and can't be appealed, ordered the 2 events to barter reparations. In 2015, nonetheless, the DRC informed the courtroom that the talks had stalled.

The ICJ judges lastly dominated in February this yr that Uganda ought to pay $325m in 5 yearly instalments of $65m, beginning in September this yr.

The ICJ broke down the compensation into completely different classes of damages. It assessed $225m for “lack of life and different harm to individuals” that included rape, conscription of kid troopers and the displacement of as much as 500,000 individuals.

Ugandan troopers who had been preventing rebels in DRC for the earlier three years crossed again into Uganda on the Mpondwe border level on October 15, 2001.

The courtroom assessed one other $40m for harm to property and $60m for harm to pure sources, together with the plundering of gold, diamonds, timber and different items by Ugandan forces or rebels they supported.