UN court orders Uganda to pay DRC $325M in war damages

The UN's top court has ordered Uganda to pay the Democratic Republic of Congo $325 million in reparations over a brutal war two decades ago, just a fraction of the $11 billion demanded by Kinshasa.

Judges at the Hague-based ICJ said on Wednesday that Kinshasa had failed to show evidence that its central African neighbour was directly responsible for any more than 15,000 of the deaths in the five-year war.

"The court sets out the total amount of compensation awarded to the DRC, which is 325 million US dollars," said ICJ chief judge Joan Donoghue as she read out the judgment.

Uganda must pay $225 million for damage to persons, $40 million for damage to property, and $60 million for damage to natural resources, said Donoghue.

The ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is a blow to DRC after a long legal battle for compensation over the devastating 1998-2003 conflict that left thousands of people dead. 

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Insufficient evidence

In 2005 the ICJ ruled that Uganda had to pay reparations, but they were never paid, and Kinshasa then claimed more than $11 billion for the occupation of its volatile northeastern Ituri region.

Donoghue said there was "insufficient evidence to support the DRC's claim of 180,000 civilian deaths for which Uganda owes reparation."

"The court considers that the evidence presented to it suggests that the number of deaths for which Uganda owes reparations falls in the range of 10,000 to 15,000 persons," she added.

At its height, the conflict drew in nine African countries, with Uganda and Rwanda backing rebel forces against the Kinshasa government as they jostled for control of the mineral-rich Ituri region. 

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