A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo has sentenced 66 soldiers to death for cowardice, military revolt and refusal to obey orders, in one of the largest mass death sentences handed to Congolese troops during the war in the east of the country.
The verdict was delivered late on Friday evening, 6 November 2026, by the Goma Garrison Military Tribunal, sitting at Walikale-centre in North Kivu province, at the end of a 12-day trial, according to Actualité.cd, as republished by Congo24, Yoka Infos, News24 and InfoCitoyen. All of those convicted belonged to the 3415th Infantry Regiment of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC).
Twelve days, three charges
According to Major Dieudonné Kasereka, communications officer for the 34th Military Region, the soldiers were prosecuted for three main offences: cowardice before the enemy, military revolt and refusal to obey orders. In the same hearing, a sergeant who benefited from extensive mitigating circumstances was sentenced to 10 years’ penal servitude, while four other soldiers were acquitted — among them a captain who had served as the regiment’s intelligence chief.
The soldiers had been arrested on 20 October 2026 at Ngora, following incidents at Ntoto, the main town of the Waloa Uroba grouping in the Wanianga sector of Walikale territory. The case began with 54 soldiers, with 16 more added as the investigation widened — although the reported total of 70 defendants does not match the 71 outcomes announced (66 death sentences, one 10-year term and four acquittals), a discrepancy flagged by Yoka Infos. Earlier reporting on the trial, from Mediacongo on 3 November, had also put the number of accused at 71.
The charges grew out of shootings on 16 and 20 October 2026 at Ngora, in the Waloa-Loanda grouping, which killed two soldiers and one civilian, according to Mediacongo’s earlier reporting. The 54 soldiers first accused also faced charges including military revolt, dissipation of war munitions, violation of orders, refusal to obey and murder, that report said — although the verdict as announced by the military spokesman listed cowardice, revolt and refusal to obey as the three main offences.
The latest in a string of mass sentences
The Walikale verdict is the latest in a series of mass death sentences imposed on Congolese soldiers accused of abandoning positions or disobeying orders in the fight against the Rwanda-backed M23 rebellion, which controls large parts of eastern Congo including the provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu, seized in early 2025.
In October, a military court in Uvira, South Kivu, sentenced 27 soldiers to death for cowardice after they withdrew from the front line during fighting against the rebels, while 54 others received five-year prison terms. In May, a military court sentenced 58 Congolese soldiers to three years in prison for violating instructions when they withdrew during clashes with the rebels. In September, 10 soldiers from the same 3415th Regiment were handed prison sentences for opening fire on their own company commander.
The government lifted a moratorium on the death penalty in March 2024, citing treachery and espionage in the country’s recurring armed conflicts. The Walikale sentences underline how the military justice system has become a central tool in Kinshasa’s effort to enforce discipline in an army that has struggled to contain the insurgencies in the east — and how heavily the cost of that effort is falling on rank-and-file soldiers.
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