ICC awards $56 million in reparations to victims of Ugandan rebel group commander

Judges at the International Criminal Court on Wednesday granted reparations of more than $56 million to thousands of victims of a convicted commander in the shadowy Ugandan rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army. The nearly 50,000 victims covered by the order included former child soldiers and children born as a result of rapes and forced pregnancies. Dominic Ongwen was convicted three years ago of 61 offenses, including murders, rapes, forced marriages and recruiting child soldiers in 2002-2005. An ICC appeals panel upheld his convictions and 25-year sentence in late 2022, setting the stage for an order for reparations. UGANDA REBEL COMMANDER ARRIVES AT ICC TO FACE WAR CRIMES CHARGES “Tens of thousands of individuals suffered tremendous harm due to the unimaginable atrocities committed” as rebel fighters led by Ongwen attacked four camps for displaced people in northern Uganda, said Presiding Judge Bertram Schmitt. Dominic Ongwen is seen in a court room in the Netherlands, on Dec. 15, 2022. Judges at the International Criminal Court on Wednesday granted reparations of more than $56 million to thousands of Ongwen’s victims. (Sem van der Wal/Pool Photo via AP) “Similarly, over 100 women and girls and thousands of children, boys and girls under the...