Their lawyer together with an army spokesman has said that twenty-five soldiers have been sentenced to death by a military tribunal in the Democratic Republic of Congo after they ran away from war against M23 rebels and theft, respectively.
In addition to fighting against other forms of militia violence, Congo’s army has been waging a battle against the Rwanda-backed M23 rebellion for over two years resulting in internal displacement of approximately 2.7 million people within North Kivu province. Last week saw advances into strategically significant rebel territory.
Last Tuesday, 27 soldiers were arrested by the army when they absconded from their positions in Keseghe and Matembe villages located in the province. Reagan Mbuyi Kalonji, an army spokesman revealed that these fugitives were caught red-handed stealing merchandise from nearby Alimbongo village shops.
Kalonji said four wives who also stayed in the village and received those goods stole them. The Alimbongo military tribunal was established on Wednesday to try them and out of this number, 25 were punished by death for among others looting, running away from enemy fire and disobeying orders.
However, one soldier was given a ten-year jail term while their four wives along with another soldier were acquitted.
This claim is denied by each one except one out of the twenty five who allegedly admitted guilt or pleaded guilty.
The lawyer representing them says he will appeal against this judgment.
The crisis has made Congo’s military even less coherent than it already was during its long history due to factors such as endemic corruption, insufficient resources plus logistics which are very poor as well as incessant internal divisions.
Reuters say army officers disclosed that eight officers were sentenced to death last month due to cowardice alongside various offences leading to disarray which has debilitated efforts aimed at combating M23 rebels amongst Congo’s armed forces.
Treachery and espionage during recurrent armed conflicts prompted abandonment of a moratorium on death sentence in the month of March by Congo.
However, the central African country has introduced a moratorium on the death penalty as early as 2000 but never abolished it.
