CRIMES committed during the colonial era must be recognised, criminalised and addressed through reparations, African leaders insisted on Sunday.

At a conference in Algiers, diplomats and leaders met 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,” Mr Attaf said.

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

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 artifacts still housed in European museums today.

Mr 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.