A court in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has sentenced seven soldiers to death for cowardice in the face of the enemy and murder.
He led the M23 rebels on the run, retreating through the town of Sake, where he inadvertently discharged his arms, causing the deaths of two people.
His attorney plans to appeal.
Three other soldiers were convicted of cowardice and sentenced to death last November.
Death sentences in DR Congo are commuted to life imprisonment.
Fighting has intensified in mineral-rich North Kivu province, driving tens of thousands from their homes, despite Pope Francis’ impassioned plea for an end to the conflicts when he visited the country last week.
“Let’s abandon the Democratic Republic of the Congo! Let’s abandon Africa! Stop suffocating Africa, it’s not a mine to be mined or a territory to be plundered,” Pope Francis said at a Mass in the capital, Kinshasa. From a million people.
DR Congo has been beset by conflicts since independence in the 1960s. Some were driven by struggles to control its mineral wealth, others by ethnic rivalries.
There is public anger against the UN and the East African Regional Force for failing to prevent M23 rebels from seizing large swaths of territory in North Kivu.
DR Congo has been accused by US and UN experts of supporting rebels in neighboring Rwanda – which it denies.
Source: BBC
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