International Criminal Court (ICC) Outreach and Information Officer Margot Tadesco has announced that victims of the war crimes committed by Bosco Ntaganda between 2002 and 2003 will benefit from collective reparation.
Speaking to journalists in Bunia on Wednesday, Margot Tadesco said that victims eligible for collective reparation will be identified through a criteria set by the ICC.
“The judges decided that the victims are entitled to reparations and that the latter will take the form of service and will be collective with individualized elements. Hence, the direct and indirect victims of these atrocities are called upon to fill out a form, and will go through interrogations, in order to be retained among the beneficiaries once they meet the selection criteria. The objective is in particular to restore the victims to their rights,” Tedesco indicated.
She also stated that the deadline for identifying victims runs until December 2025 with an amount of US$32 million to be allocated for collective reparation.
However, victims who benefited from reparations in the Thomas Lubanga case will be exempted from the list as the charges brought against both and for which there is reparation are similar.
Until then, at least 2,000 victims have already been identified while it should be noted that another phase of identification will take place in 2027.
Former Congolese militiaman Bosco Ntaganda, nicknamed “Terminator”, was sentenced by the ICC in The Hague on November 7, 2019, to 30 years in prison for “crimes against humanity” and “war crimes” in after murdering at least 74 civilians in Ituri Province.
