A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo has sentenced 66 soldiers to death after a mass trial over a revolt inside a regiment fighting rebels in the east of the country. QNC News reported that the Goma garrison military tribunal delivered the verdicts on Friday night at the end of a twelve-day trial held in Walikale Centre, a town deep in North Kivu province.

The condemned soldiers all serve in the 3415th regiment of the Congolese army, the FARDC. Prosecutors accused them of military revolt, cowardice in the face of the enemy and refusing to obey orders during operations in Walikale territory in October.

The case began with arrests at Ngora on 20 October, after shootings at Ntoto in the Wanianga sector of Walikale territory. Two soldiers and one civilian lost their lives in the incidents of 16 and 20 October, and investigators later widened the case to the full group who appeared before the tribunal.

Not every defendant received the death sentence. One sergeant received ten years of penal servitude after the court accepted mitigating circumstances, while four defendants were acquitted, among them the captain who headed intelligence for the regiment. The convicted men have the right to appeal to the High Military Court. Congo lifted a moratorium on executions in 2024 after two decades without them, arguing that the death penalty was needed against traitors and soldiers who commit grave crimes in wartime.