DRC reopens reparation case against Uganda, demands $4bn

KINSHASA, DR Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has asked Uganda to pay $322 million for damages caused by its troops during the Congo invasion between 1997 and 2003.

This reparation is part of the $4.3 billion compensation that Congo is demanding from Uganda - nearly half of the $10 billion it demanded in 2005. The additional amount Congo is demanding is for the looting of its minerals, destroying the environment, adverse impact on the economy and legal costs. When added the figure totals to about $4.3 billion (about Shs 14 trillion). 

The figure is a drop from the $10 billion that DRC had demanded from Uganda in 2005 when it won the case it had filed in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). "By the conduct of its armed forces, which committed acts of killing, torture and other forms of inhumane treatment of the Congolese civilian population ... [Uganda] violated its obligations under international human rights law," the court ruled in 2005.    

The Hague-based ICJ reopened the case this week with submissions from DRC after the two countries failed to agree on an amount for more than a decade. When Uganda lost the case in 2005, DRC’s lawyers argued for a reparation figure of $10 billion which was awarded. However, the court asked the two countries to get together and come up with a figure that is agreeable to both because Uganda protested the claims.   

The talks have lasted more than a decade and failed to yield positive results figure - prompting Congo to ask the International Court of Justice to reopen the case. Uganda’s argument has been that Congo did not give evidence of how it arrived at the figure they were demanding for compensation. 

Throughout the negotiations, neither Congo nor Uganda disclosed the amount that DRC was demanding or the amount Uganda was willing to pay.

On Tuesday this week, speaking through an English translator, Jean-Paul Segeobe, one of the many lawyers who made submissions on behalf of Congo said that the country is demanding $322 million from Uganda for the damages. He argued that DRC has met the threshold required for wartime reparation.   

"It is a great honour for me to address your court on behalf of the DRC, to submit to you the claims for reparations by way of compensation for the many damages, injuries that this country and its people have suffered to their property as a result of the unlawful under activities of Uganda. For all the damage to property caused by Uganda in Ituri and the other parts of the country; Kisangani, Beni, Butembo and Gemena, the DRC is claiming only $322, 675,043.28. Despite what the respondents state claims, the damages caused to property during the 1998-2003 war is a consequence of these activities. The DRC has met the standard of proof required for wartime reparations," said Segeobe.   

Uganda's lawyers led by Attorney General William Byaruhanga who is attending court sessions physically will make submissions today Wednesday. Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi soldiers helped DRC’s late Laurent Kabila ascend to power in 1997, overthrowing dictator Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga. 

As Kabila settled in office, he disagreed with the foreign forces that helped him capture power. Consequentially, he asked them to leave. When Uganda and Rwanda declined to withdraw, Kabila sued Uganda at the ICJ for alleged invasion. 

But Uganda argued that its military's presence and activities in DRC were, for the most part, based on an invitation and were authorised by the Congolese administration. 

Last year, Uganda President Yoweri Museveni offered to contribute Shs 200bn towards the construction of 223 kilometres of roads in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as 'a way of boosting regional trade.'