Uganda has to pay over 300 million dollars to the Congo. It is about damage from the conflict at the turn of the millennium.
(dpa)
The International Court of Justice has ordered Uganda to pay $325 million in compensation to Congo. This is a total of all the damage that Uganda inflicted on the neighboring country in the conflict over the resource-rich province of Ituri from 1998 to 2003. Uganda must pay the money in five annual installments by 2026, the highest court of the United Nations ruled on Wednesday in The Hague. The judges thus remained well below the sum of more than eleven billion dollars demanded by the Congo. The verdict is binding, an appeal is not possible.
As early as 2005, the judges had ruled that Uganda was responsible for the damage, such as the killing of people, sexual violence, the recruitment of child soldiers and the displacement of people. Since the exact number of victims and the amount of damage could not be determined, the court set lump sums. The country now has to pay around 197 million euros for personal injury. 35 million euros for damage to infrastructure and buildings and 52 million euros for the plundering of natural resources such as gold, diamonds and ores.
Since 1999, the UN court has negotiated the conflict between the two African countries. In 2005, Uganda was found guilty of violating international law for occupying parts of the northeastern province of Ituri and also supporting armed militias.
The court had initially instructed the two countries to negotiate the amount of compensation themselves. But in 2015, Congo appealed to the court again as talks had collapsed.