15 April 2024 :

A soldier from the army, Sergeant Major Serugo Buhera, on April 6, 2024 was sentenced to death for shooting and killing a pregnant woman, at the end of a summary trial at the military garrison tribunal of Goma, in the North Kivu province, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
This military member of the command staff at the Katindo military camp in Goma was found guilty of "rape, murder, and the dissipation of war ammunition." The sergeant-major had riddled a pregnant woman with bullets on the night of April 3 to 4, 2024. In his defense before the court, the accused claimed he had mistaken the victim for a "monstrous creature."
The events took place while this soldier was assigned to guard the barrier post near the Tongilo primary school at the entrance of the Katindo military camp, in the city of Goma.
According to his statements before the military tribunal, before shooting the pregnant woman with ten bullets, he claimed to have seen a silhouette he mistook for a monster approaching him. These statements were deemed "fallacious" by various witnesses.
According to the prosecution, the soldier had forcefully taken the pregnant woman before raping her. A dispute between him and the victim ensued. He then shot her ten times in the chest, reports Radio Okapi.
Therefore, the judge found him guilty of the acts of rape, murder, and dissipation of war ammunition, and pronounced the heaviest penalty: the death sentence. After the verdict was announced, the convicted filed an appeal.

22 March 2024 :

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has resolved to lift a 21-year moratorium on death penalty executions as part of measures to stop its citizens, and serving military and police, from working with M23 rebels in the eastern part of the country.
During the moratorium, death penalty sentences were handed down, but no hangings took place.
On March 13, 2024, the First President of the High Military Court, the Auditor General of the National Army (FARDC), the Prosecutor General at the Court of Cassation, the President of the Council Superior of the Judiciary, and the President of the Constitutional Court attended a meeting addressed by Rose Mutombo Kiese, the Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals of the DRC.
It was during that meeting that Mutombo disclosed why the government was lifting the moratorium on executions. She said it was due to the instability in the eastern DRC that executions would go ahead because in some cases, locals were working with insurgents.
"During the last 30 years, the eastern part of our country has been plagued by recurring armed conflicts, often orchestrated by foreign states which for the circumstance, sometimes benefit from the complicity of some of our compatriots.
"These acts of treachery or espionage have exacted a heavy price from both the population and the republic given the immensity of the damage suffered," she said.
The DRC says, and much of the world accepts, that M23 is supported by Rwanda - a claim Rwanda rejects.
M23 claims to be working to protect civilians in the east.
While people are displaced during the conflict, the rebels allege that the FARDC and its allies such as the SADC force led by South Africa were shelling civilian populations.After some operations, M23 announced through their social media channels that ordinary civilians could go about their day-to-day business.
It's a headache for Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Jean-Pierre Bemba, who submitted the recommendations to continue executions.
Mutombo in her address, said the moratorium was being abused or taken for granted.
She said:
“Unfortunately, this moratorium was in the eyes of all these offenders as a guarantee of impunity because, even when they have been irrevocably condemned capital punishment, they were assured that this sentence would never be carried out their place.”
According to the resolution, for civilians, the execution would happen in situations such as association with criminals, treason, participation in armed bands, espionage, participation in an insurrectional movement and genocide.
For those in the army and police, the executions would be carried out under circumstances such as desertion to the enemy, cowardice, military conspiracy, disobedience, and refusal to march against the enemy.