The International Court of Justice has ordered Uganda to pay $325 million in compensation to Congo for violence in their long-running conflict, which began in the late 1990s.
The reparation order came more than 15 years after a United Nations court decided in a convoluted, 119-page verdict that Ugandan forces’ fighting in Congo violated international law.
“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 court’s president, U.S. judge Joan E. Donoghue, said.
The amount awarded was far less than Congo’s request for more than $11 billion in damages, which he had presented to the court.
The damages were broken down by the court into numerous categories. It assessed $225 million for “loss of life and other damage to persons,” which included rape, child army enlistment, and up to 500,000 people being displaced.
It also assessed $40 million in property loss and $60 million in natural resource damage, which included the robbery of gold, diamonds, timber, and other products by Ugandan forces or rebels they backed.
