Rights Groups Condemn African Union's Failure To Compensate Ex-Chad President's Victims

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th January, 2021) Several human rights groups on Tuesday expressed dismay at the lack of reparations for the victims of former Chadian President Hissene Habre, a matter the African Union was tasked with but yet failed to fulfill.�

Hissene Habre was Chadian leader from 1982 until 1990 when he was ousted from power. In 2016, a Senegalese court found the politician guilty of numerous human rights abuses, including torture, killings of some 40,000 people during his rule, sexual slavery, and others. Habre received a life sentence in Senegal.�

"Habre's victims fought relentlessly for 25 years to bring him and his henchmen to justice, and were awarded millions of Dollars, but they haven't seen one cent in reparations," Jacqueline Moudeina, lead counsel for Habre's victims, said, as cited by the NGOs' joint statement.

The statement specified that an appellate court confirmed Habre's conviction later in 2017 and mandated an African Union Trust Fund to raise some $150 million for his 7,396 listed victims.

However, the fund has not yet been put in use, the NGOs said.

The Chadian authorities have also failed to implement the 2015 decision of the country's court, under which they were obliged to pay half of a sum set up by the judge for 7,000 Habre's victims. The other half of an established $139 million sum is meant to be paid by "Habre-era security agents," convicted for human rights abuses, the statement said.

The statement was undersigned by well-known NGOs including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Senegalese League for Human Rights, the African Assembly for the Defense of Human Rights, the Chadian Association for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, the Afrikajom Center, and Redress.