Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: A Democratic Republic of Congo court in the country’s east has sentenced seven troops to death for cowardice in the face of M23 militants along with murder.
The troops were deduced to have fled advancing M23 rebels, retreating through a town named Sake where they killed two people while recklessly discharging their arms.
The soldiers’ lawyers said they would appeal.
In November 2022, three other soldiers were sentenced to death after being convicted of cowardice.
In most cases, death sentences are commuted to life terms in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The North Kivu province, which is rich in minerals, has been seeing intensified fighting even though Pope Francis, who visited last week, appealed passionately for all groups to end conflicts.
At a Mass in the capital Kinshasa, that was attended by around a million people, Pope Francis said that it’s time stop choking Africa as it is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered.
Since its independence in the 1960s, the country has been beset by conflicts. Some have been driven by ethnic rivalries while others have been waged to control the country’s mineral wealth.
Due to their failure to stop M23 militants from capturing large areas of territory in North Kivu, there is public resentment against the East African regional force and the UN.
M23 Militants suspected to have backing of Rwanda
Democratic Republic of Congo, United States, and experts belonging to the UN experts accuse neighboring Rwanda of backing the M23 rebels, however, Kigali denies these claims.
For many years, Rwanda has criticized the Congolese authorities for not being to disarm Hutu rebels. Some of those militants s were linked to the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
