In 2019, ICC Trial Chamber VI found Bosco Ntaganda guilty of having committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Ituri district of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between August 2002 and December 2003. Ntaganda was sentenced to thirty years of imprisonment.

In this reparations order issued on 8 March 2021, Trial Chamber VI defines the harms caused to Ntaganda’s direct and indirect victims, sets out the relevant criteria of eligibility, types and modalities of reparations, and the scope of Ntaganda’s liability.

The Chamber notes that the figures and assessments made by Trial Chamber II in the Lubanga and Katanga cases, related to crimes committed in Ituri during the same time-frame, are highly relevant to the Chamber’s assessment of the cost to repair the harm that Ntaganda inflicted on his victims. The Chamber also takes into account the costs for physical and psychological rehabilitation,  individual socio-economic reintegration and the costs of (re)building schools and hospitals.

Having concluded that collective reparations with individualised components are the most appropriate in the present case, as they may provide a more holistic approach to the multi-faceted harm suffered by the victims, the Chamber conservatively sets the total reparations award for which Ntaganda is liable at thirty million dollars. Noting  Ntaganda’s indigence, the ICC Trust Fund for Victims (TFV) is ordered to complement the reparation awards to the extent possible.

This reparations order was issued prior to the issuance of the appeals judgment on the conviction and sentence. On 30 March 2021, the ICC Appeals Chamber confirmed the conviction and the sentence in this case. These two decisions are now final.

Ntaganda and the legal representative of the victims appealed this reparations order. On 12 September 2022, the Appeals Chamber decided to remand several issues. It found that the Trial Chamber (i) did not make any appropriate determination in relation to the number of potentially eligible or actual victims, (ii) failed to provide an appropriate calculation, or set out sufficient reasoning, for the amount of the monetary award against Ntaganda, (iii) issued its decision without having assessed and ruled upon victims’ applications for reparations and (iv) failed to provide reasons in relation to the concept of transgenerational harm and the evidentiary guidance to establish such harm. The Appeals Chamber directed the Trial Chamber to issue a new reparations order. In December 2022 the ICC’s Public Affairs Unit stated there is no set date for a new order at this stage.

‍