The International Criminal Court (ICC) has confirmed €52 million in reparations for nearly 50,000 victims of Dominic Ongwen, a former commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a brutal rebel group that terrorised northern Uganda for decades.
The ruling, delivered on Monday and reported by AFP, marks one of the largest compensation awards ever issued by the ICC. The court dismissed Ongwen’s appeal against the reparations order, reinforcing the verdict that victims of his crimes are entitled to redress after enduring years of violence, displacement, and trauma.
Ongwen appeal denied, responsibility upheld
Ongwen, once known as ‘White Ant’, is currently serving a 25-year sentence after being convicted of 61 crimes, including murder, rape, and sexual enslavement. He had appealed the ICC’s earlier decision awarding reparations, but the appeal was unanimously rejected.
According to presiding judge Solomy Balungi Bossa, herself Ugandan, the victims will each receive a symbolic €750 payment, arranged by the ICC’s Trust Fund for Victims. The total award remains €52 million, acknowledging both the scale and gravity of the atrocities committed.
Ongwen attended the hearing via video link from his Norwegian prison cell, dressed in a dark suit and red tie.
From child victim to war criminal
Ongwen’s story is layered with moral complexity. He was abducted by the LRA at the age of nine, forced into life as a child soldier while on his way to school. His trajectory — from child victim to war criminal — has drawn international debate over accountability and coercion.
However, ICC judges ruled that Ongwen’s own role in ordering massacres and atrocities between 2002 and 2005, particularly at refugee camps in Lukodi, Pajule, Odek, and Abok, could not be excused by his past.
‘Being abducted as a child does not absolve him of the decisions he made as an adult,’ the court found.
Kony to face charges in absentia
The ruling comes ahead of a key hearing at the ICC on September 9, when charges will be formally laid in absentia against LRA founder Joseph Kony, who remains at large.
The LRA, created in the late 1980s by Kony, a self-styled prophet and former Catholic altar boy, waged a violent rebellion against the Ugandan government led by President Yoweri Museveni. The campaign left over 100,000 people dead, abducted an estimated 60,000 children, and extended into Sudan, DR Congo, and the Central African Republic.
Ongwen surrendered in 2015 to US special forces in the Central African Republic and was later transferred to the ICC in The Hague to stand trial.
Reparations as a step toward healing
The ICC’s confirmation of reparations offers survivors a form of justice, even if symbolic. While Ongwen has no personal means to fulfil the financial award, the ICC Trust Fund will oversee the distribution and implementation of reparative programmes.
This ruling signals the international court’s growing emphasis on victim-centred justice, and its continued pursuit of accountability in complex, protracted conflicts.
