ICC to rule on DRC war victims compensation

The International Criminal Court (ICC) will give its final verdict on the amount of damages to be awarded to victims of Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga on Thursday.

The judges will be ruling on an appeal case by the victims and Lubanga after the initial 2017 case directed for a 10 million US dollar compensation to child soldiers recruited by the warlord.

The Hague court acknowledged that Lubanga was unable to afford the amount he was liable to pay in the original case.

Thus it stated that a court Trust Fund for Victims will pay part of the compensation, with requested contributions from the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to the ICC, the money would go into psychological and job training programmes, and an individual compensation of 8000 US Dollars to the 427 victims identified so far with an additional 6.6 million for future awards.

Lubanga was convicted in 2012 of committing war crimes during the fighting in the northeastern DRC between 1998 and 2007.