The troops were accused of abandoning frontline positions while fighting a rebel coalition led by former president Joseph Kabila
A military court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has sentenced 66 soldiers to death for cowardice, military revolt and refusing orders in the country’s conflict-hit east, local media have reported.
The Goma Garrison Military Court handed down the sentences late Friday after a 12-day trial in Walikale, North Kivu province, according to Congolese news outlet Actualite.cd and state news agency ACP. One sergeant was sentenced to ten years in prison, while four soldiers were acquitted.
The soldiers belonged to the 3415th Regiment of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) and were arrested on October 20 in Ngora over alleged offenses committed in Ntoto, the 34th Military Region said in a statement cited by ACP. The arrests were linked to fighting in the east of the country near its borders with Uganda and Rwanda.
Actualite.cd reported that the troops were accused of abandoning frontline positions in the Humura area while fighting the Front for the Refoundation of the Nation (FRN), a rebel coalition led by former DR Congo President Joseph Kabila. The outlet said some defendants also faced charges including murder and wasting military ammunition.
Kabila, who governed DR Congo from 2001 to 2019, launched the Front for the Refoundation of the Nation (FRN) in rebel-held Goma on October 12 alongside leaders of the AFC/M23 insurgency. The FRN replaced the Congo River Alliance (AFC), with AFC leader Corneille Nangaa and M23 political chief Bertrand Bisimwa named vice presidents and M23 commander Sultani Makenga put in charge of its armed forces.
Kabila was sentenced to death in absentia in September 2025 for treason, war crimes and crimes against humanity over his alleged support for M23. He denied the charges and called the proceedings politically motivated.
The latest ruling follows other mass death sentences against Congolese troops accused of battlefield offenses. Last month, a military court in South Kivu sentenced 27 soldiers to death for cowardice after they fled fighting against AFC/M23 and allied forces.
DR Congo lifted a two-decade moratorium on executions in March 2024, with the government citing the need to remove “traitors” from the army and combat serious security threats. No official executions have been reported since the decision.
At least 507 Congolese soldiers have been convicted in military trials since the start of 2025, including 381 sentenced to death, according to figures compiled by French broadcaster RFI.
Fighting has intensified in the mineral-rich east, where government forces have been battling the rebel coalition and dozens of other armed groups for control of territory. M23 seized Goma and Bukavu in early 2025 and the group continues to hold significant areas of North and South Kivu.
