ICC judges reject record compensation for Congolese war militia crimes victims

International Criminal Court (ICC) appeals judges on Monday rejected a decision to award a record $30 million in compensation for child soldiers and other victims of convicted Congolese militia leader Bosco Ntaganda, sending the case back to a lower court for a new ruling on the reparations amount.

The appeals judges said the order was missing a fundamental detail, “namely the number of victims whose harm it was intended to repair,” and added it was “not discernible” how the lower court had arrived at the sum of $30 million.

Ntaganda was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2019 for murder, rape and other atrocities committed when he was military chief of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) militia in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002-2003.

In March last year, a lower court ruled that Ntaganda should pay reparations of $30 million to his victims, the highest such amount ever ordered at the ICC.