Judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) have on appeal referred the record amount of compensation for victims of Congolese militia leader Bosco Ntaganda back for review. The reasons are lack of substantiation and errors.
The lower ICC body had awarded reparations of a total of 30 million dollars (more than 30 million euros) to, among others, child soldiers. However, according to the appeal chamber, it is unclear how that amount was calculated and which war victims are eligible and why.
Ntaganda was sentenced in The Hague to 30 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). That judgment was affirmed on appeal. His trial began in 2015, two years after he turned himself in at the US embassy in Rwanda.
In 2002 and 2003, Ntaganda led an armed group in the resource-rich province of Ituri, where other rebels were driven out. There were massacres and rapes. Hundreds of civilians were killed and many thousands displaced in the conflict.