Uganda pays DR Congo $65 million for illegal invasion

In this file photo taken on May 19, 2003, the last batch of UPDF soldiers return through the town of Goli after withdrawing from DRC’s embattled Ituri region. The ICJ on February 9, 2022 ordered Uganda to pay DRC $325 million for the illegal invasion. PHOTO | PETER BUSOMOKE |AFP

By The East African

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Uganda has paid the Democratic Republic of Congo $65 million in reparations for past illegal invasion, justice minister Rose Mutombo has announced.

The sum, disbursed on Saturday, is the first instalment of the money that Kampala must pay to Kinshasa in reparations for the Ugandan army’s invasion of the DRC during the Congo war between 1998 and 2003, according to an International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision issued on February 9 this year.

The ICJ ordered Uganda to pay $325 million to the DRC, though Kinshasa had demanded $11 billion.

The money is to be paid in five instalments of $65 million, starting on September 1 this year and every September 1 for the following four years.

Between 1998 and 2003, some of the eastern, southern and north-eastern provinces of the DRC endured a devastating war that involved the country’s army, supported by the armies of Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia, against rebels backed by the Ugandan and Rwandan armies.

In the course of the war, the Rwandan and Ugandan armies ended up fighting each other on Congolese soil, notably in Kisangani, in the northeast of the country, in June 2000.

The ICJ also said the war led to illegal exploitation of Congolese mineral resources and other damage. The court said that "225 million dollars are for loss of life, 40 million dollars for damage to property and 60 million dollars for damage to natural resources".

The ICJ concluded that the number of deaths for which Uganda must pay reparations was between 10,000 and 15,000 people. The DRC government, through its spokesman Patrick Muyaya, said the funds paid "are lodged in a transitory account of the Ministry of Justice in a local bank" as officials wait to create mechanisms for compensating families of the victims.

Officials in Kampala had protested against the ICJ ruling as "unfair and wrong".

General Jeje Odongo, Uganda's foreign minister, regretted that the decision came as the DRC and Uganda were “continuing to strengthen their relations".

For the past nine months, Ugandan soldiers have been fighting ADF terrorists in eastern DRC alongside the Congolese army. In May 2021, the two countries also signed a $330 million agreement to build and rehabilitate more than 200km of roads in the interior of North Kivu in eastern DRC to link up the two sides.