UN court orders Uganda to pay Congo $325M for violence

A Congolese man looks at the destruction of the Tshopo neighborhood of Kisangani, where Rwandan and Ugandan armies had battled for a week before the Rwandans succeeded in pushing the Ugandan soldiers out in 2000. (AP File)

• The compensation order came more than 15 years after the U.N. court ruled that fighting by Ugandan troops in Congo breached international law
• The sum awarded was well below the request for more than $11 billion

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: The International Court of Justice on Wednesday ordered Uganda to pay $325 million in compensation to Congo for violence in a long-running conflict between the African neighbors that began in the late 1990s.
The compensation order came more than 15 years after the UN court ruled in a complex, 119-page judgment that fighting by Ugandan troops in Congo breached 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, US judge Joan E. Donoghue, said.
The sum awarded was well below the request for more than $11 billion in damages Congo had submitted to the court.
The court broke down the compensation into different categories of damages. It assessed $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.
It assessed 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.