AFRICAN LEADERS DEMAND REPARATIONS FROM WESTERN COUNTRIES OVER COLONIAL CRIMES. (PHOTO).

 African leaders demand reparations from Western countries over colonial crimes

African leaders pushed to have colonial-era crimes recognised, criminalised and addressed through reparations.

At a conference in Algiers, diplomats and leaders convened to advance an African Union resolution passed at a meeting earlier this year calling for justice and reparations for victims of colonialism.

In his opening speech, Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf said Algeria’s experience under French rule underscored the need to seek compensation and reclaim stolen property.

A legal framework, he added, would ensure restitution is seen as “neither a gift nor a favour.”

“Africa is entitled to demand the official and explicit recognition of the crimes committed against its peoples during the colonial period, an indispensable first step toward addressing the consequences of that era, for which African countries and peoples continue to pay a heavy price in terms of exclusion, marginalisation and backwardness,” Attaf said.

International conventions and statutes accepted by a majority of countries have outlawed practices including slavery, torture and apartheid. The United Nations Charter prohibits the seizure of territory by force but does not explicitly reference colonialism.

Bloody struggle

That absence was central to the African Union’s February summit, where leaders discussed a proposal to develop a unified position on reparations and formally define colonisation as a crime against humanity.

The economic cost of colonialism in Africa is believed to be staggering, with some estimates putting the cost of plunder in the trillions. European powers extracted natural resources often through brutal methods, amassing vast profits from gold, rubber, diamonds and other minerals, while leaving local populations impoverished.

African states have in recent years intensified demands for the return of looted artefacts still housed in European museums today.

Attaf said it was no mistake that the conference was held in Algeria, a country that suffered some of the most brutal forms of French colonial rule and fought a bloody war to win its independence.

Its impact was far-reaching: Nearly a million European settlers held greater political, economic and social privileges, even though Algeria was legally part of France and its men were conscripted in World War II.

France fails to apologise

Hundreds of thousands died in the country's revolution, during which French forces tortured detainees, disappeared suspects and devastated villages as part of a counterinsurgency strategy to maintain their grip on power.

“Our continent retains the example of Algeria’s bitter ordeal as a rare model, almost without equivalent in history, in its nature, its logic and its practices,” Attaf said.

Algeria has for decades pressed for colonialism to be tackled through international law, amid intermittent tensions with France, where the war’s legacy remains politically sensitive.

French President Emmanuel Macron in 2017 described elements of the history as a crime against humanity but stopped short of issuing an official apology and implored Algerians not to dwell on past injustices.

Mohamed Arezki Ferrad, a member of Algeria's parliament, told The Associated Press that compensation had to be more than symbolic, noting Algerian artefacts looted by France have yet to be returned. That includes Baba Merzoug, a 16th Century cannon that remains in Brest.