Uganda has paid the Democratic Republic of Congo $65 million as the first instalment of $325 million in war reparations, complying with an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling which held the Uganda People’s Defence Forces’ (UPDF) offensives in Congolese territory between 1998 and 2003 were responsible for loss of lives and property, looting, plunder, and exploitation of natural resources.
DRC government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya announced on Saturday that the first instalment was received on September 1 and will be used to compensate victims’ families. This was then confirmed by Ugandan Finance Ministry spokesperson Apollo Munghinda.
The ICJ in February ordered Kampala to pay Kinshasa $325 million in five instalments by 2026. Any default on these yearly payments would attract a penalty interest rate of 6%.
#Uganda has paid $65m to #DRC as first instalment of $325m it owes its neighbour. DRC sued Uganda at the ICJ in 1999, for invading its territory. Early 2022, court ordered it to compensate for loss of life, displacement, recruitment of child soldiers & plundering DRC’s resources.
— Patience Atuhaire (@patuhaire) September 12, 2022
The ruling mandated $225 million in damages for deaths, injuries, and sexual violence, $60 million for looting, plunder, and exploitation of natural resources, and $40 million for property damage.
The DRC first approached the ICJ in 1999 to demand $11 billion in war damages from the Ugandan military. Six years later, ICJ Chief Justice Joan Donoghue held Uganda responsible for a “breach of its international obligations” by illegally occupying Congolese territory and backing rebel militias.
The ruling ordered the two nations to bilaterally negotiate financial reparations. When talks stalled in 2015, the DRC once again took the case to the ICJ. Then, in February of this year, the court ordered Uganda to pay $325 million in five yearly instalments, starting in September.
Yesterday,the @CIJ_ICJ handed down its decision on reparations regarding the Armed Conflicts on the Territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In total, Uganda was ordered to pay $ 325,000,000 over the period of 5yrs
— National Unity Platform (@NUP_Ug) February 10, 2022
Here is our statement on the Court Decision. pic.twitter.com/k2EfRErCLo
While Kampala initially denounced the verdict as “unfair and wrong,” it has now acknowledged past mistakes and agreed to pay the compensation.
The UPDF was among nine African armies—including from Rwanda, Angola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia—deployed in the DRC between 1998 and 2003 at the height of the war. With all parties vying for greater control over the country’s mineral-rich Ituri province, Ugandan and Rwandan armies ended up fighting each other in the northeastern region, notably in Kisangani in June 2000.
Since then, however, Uganda and the DRC have reconciled many of their past issues, particularly as the Islamist insurgency in eastern DRC deepens.
One of the wars @mkainerugaba is referencing is the shelling of a town in #Congo called Kisangani where actually Rwanda and Uganda fought each other over a Congolese mine on congolese soil in year 2000.
— #CongoIsBleeding (@kambale) May 29, 2022
We await reparations for Uganda’s invasion of #DRChttps://t.co/yIpUM5SH9h https://t.co/7XmCv9KYaX
President Félix Tshisekedi has kept in place a “state of siege” in the Ituri and North Kivu provinces since April 2021. In fact, Amnesty International estimates reveal a civilian death toll of over 1,300 between June 2021 and March 2022. The Kivu Security Tracker blames the Islamic State-affiliated Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) alone for around 1,200 civilian killings in the troubled region since 2017.
Against this backdrop, the DRC has sought to bolster its military cooperation with both the United Nations peacekeeping mission (MONUSCO) and the Ugandan army to fight the ADF militias. Last year, the Congolese forces launched joint air and artillery strikes with the UPDF on ADF camps in eastern DRC. In fact, Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi gave his approval for the UPDF to scale up its troop deployment in the country.
The two neighbours have also inked a $330 million deal to improve road infrastructure and connectivity, especially in the North Kivu province.