Uganda has paid some $65m as the first of three instalments of a fine the International Court of Justice had imposed on it last February as reparations over its invasion of neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo in the early 2000s, APA learnt on Monday.
This payment is understood to be the first of a series of payments by instalment of the fine which would amount to $325 million in total.
The breakdown of the fine suggests that $225 million will be paid as damages to individuals adversely affected by Uganda’s invasion of eastern DRC in 2005, $40million being damages to property and another $60million for looted resources.
The payments are supposed to be made according to a timeline set by the ICJ which runs from 2022 to 2026.
According to testimonies of Uganda’s 2005 invasion, whole villages were destroyed, their inhabitants killed and others subjected to torture by the invaders.
Rwandan troops had allied with Uganda to help rebels trying to oust the then government in Kinshasa.
At least three million people are thought to have died in the DRC conflict, many as a result of famine and disease.
WN/as/APA