DR Congo: Former President facing $46 billion in reparations
As DR Congo’s former president sits on trial for treason, civil parties have demanded billions of dollars from him in reparations, reports AfricaNews on the 22nd of August.
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) former president, Joseph Kabila, is facing charges of murder, torture and rape due to his alleged affiliations with the rebel M23 group. Lawyers for the civil parties involved have announced they expect nearly $25 billion in reparations.
Furthermore, the eastern provinces of South Kivu, Ituri, and North Kivu are demanding a further $21 billion and the total seizure of Kaliba’s bank assets.
Kabila has been on trial since May this year. His successor, President Félix Tshisekedi, has accused Kabila of being the brains behind the Rwandan-backed paramilitary group M23. An accusation Kabila denies.
After his presidency, Kabila did two years of self-imposed exile in South Africa but returned to Goma in May after the M23 captured the city. Currently, Kabila is being tried in absentia.
Kabila has been stripped of his presidential protections – former presidents of DRC are allowed to be senators for life and given lifelong immunity – so he can be prosecuted through the courts.
Kabila has described the court case as “arbitrary” and has argued the courts are being used as “instruments of oppression”.
The final arguments for the case are expected to be made by the DRC’s army attorney general later today. Kaliba stalwarts have expect a guilty verdict to be a foregone conclusion, describing the trial as little more than “theatre.”
The M23 have been ravaging the mineral-rich eastern region of Congo since their insurgency resumed in 2022. According to a report by Human rights watch, in July the group killed at least 140 people throughout these regions.
The UN has described the conflict in Congo as “one of the world’s most acute humanitarian crises” that has seen 7.8 million people displaced and a further 28 million now facing food insecurity.
AfricaNews, BBC news, Maghrebi.org
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