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London: The UK will resist paying compensation to thousands of Afghans caught up in a data leak scandal, The Times reported on Saturday.

The names and details of around 100,000 people in Afghanistan who worked with UK Armed Forces as part of the US-led coalition in the country were accidentally revealed online by a Ministry of Defence employee in February 2022.

It led to a massive covert program to bring large numbers of Afghans to Britain for fear they could be targeted by the Taliban, it emerged this week.

But the MoD will fight five-figure claims against it for endangering the lives of Afghans caught up in the leak following a review by former civil servant Paul Rimmer, ordered by Defence Secretary John Healey, which suggested that the risk to their safety had “diminished.”

Lawyers for the ministry say taxpayers have already paid enough after billions of pounds were set aside for the repatriation scheme of around 24,000 Afghan personnel and their families to the UK, a source told The Times.

Thousands of Afghans still trapped in their country have been left in fear for their safety after learning about the data breach on July 15.

The leak and accompanying repatriation scheme were kept from public knowledge after the government used a legal device called a superinjunction to prevent reporting on it. 

Before the superinjunction was lifted by a court, the government announced a small compensation scheme for victims of a separate, smaller data leak from 2021, of £4,000 ($5,364) per person.

The MoD will contest compensation claims by law firms representing Afghans affected by the 2022 breach.

The biggest lawsuit, brought by Barings Law, involves over 1,000 Afghan clients. The Times said it has seen WhatsApp messages sent to people in the UK, Afghanistan and Pakistan urging them to register with Barings to join the lawsuit.

The firm’s head of data protection, Adnan Malik, said around 100 people a day are signing up to sue the MoD, and the firm expects to be able to win payouts of “at least five figures” for those who can prove they had been contacted by the ministry confirming that their details were leaked.

Law firm Leigh Day is also suing the government on behalf of hundreds of Afghan clients. “We are currently acting for a number of existing clients and are also being approached each day by dozens more people who have been affected,” Sean Humber, a partner at the firm, told The Times.

The MoD confirmed that around 5,400 Afghans still in their country are eligible for flights to the UK under the Afghan Response Route and the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy.

It expects to have relocated all those deemed at risk from the Taliban and with a right to come to Britain under its various programs by 2029.

An MoD spokesman told The Times: “We will robustly defend against any legal action or compensation. The independent Rimmer Review concluded that it is highly unlikely that merely being on the spreadsheet would be grounds for an individual to be targeted, and this is the basis on which the court lifted its super injunction this week.”

DOHA: The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda-backed armed group M23 signed a ceasefire deal on Saturday to end fighting that has devastated the country’s mineral-rich but conflict-torn east.

The truce was agreed in a Declaration of Principles signed by the two sides after three months of talks in the Qatari capital, Doha, which follows a separate Congolese-Rwandan peace deal signed in Washington last month.

“The Parties commit to uphold their commitment to a permanent ceasefire,” including refraining from “hate propaganda” and “any attempt to seize by force new positions,” said the agreement.

The M23, which seized vast swathes of territory in eastern DRC in a lightning offensive in January and February, had insisted on seeking its own ceasefire deal with Kinshasa, saying the Washington deal left out various “problems” that still needed to be addressed.

The African Union hailed the new deal as a “significant development,” saying: “This... marks a major milestone in the ongoing efforts to achieve lasting peace, security, and stability in eastern DRC and the wider Great Lakes region.”

Under the deal, the warring parties agreed to open negotiations on a comprehensive peace agreement.

The deal, which the two sides said aligns with the Washington agreement, also includes a roadmap for restoring state authority in eastern DRC.

Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said the deal took account of the DRC’s “red lines,” including “the non-negotiable withdrawal of the M23 from occupied areas followed by the deployment of our institutions,” including the national armed forces.

He said a comprehensive peace agreement would follow “in the coming days.”

The deal said the two sides had agreed to implement its terms by July 29 at the latest, and to start direct negotiations toward a permanent agreement by August 8.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi are due to meet in the coming months to solidify the Washington peace deal, whose terms have not yet been implemented.

Previous ceasefire agreements for eastern DRC have collapsed in the past.

Neighboring Rwanda denies providing military backing to the M23, but UN experts say that the Rwandan army played a “critical” role in the group’s offensive, including combat operations.

Rich in natural resources, especially lucrative minerals, eastern DRC has been racked by conflict for more than three decades, creating a humanitarian crisis and forcing hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

Thousands were killed in the M23 offensive earlier this year, which saw the group capture the key provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu.

The front line has stabilized since February, but fighting was still breaking out regularly between the M23 and multiple pro-government militias.