New Report Highlights Alarming Rise in Arbitrary Arrests and Death Sentences for Youth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

A new report pub­lished by Ius Stella, a non-prof­it in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), high­lights ongo­ing human rights vio­la­tions in the nation’s efforts to elim­i­nate urban gangs, which has been marked by arbi­trary arrests and the impo­si­tion of death sen­tences, includ­ing on vul­ner­a­ble civil­ian youth pop­u­la­tions, after mil­i­tary tri­als whose fair­ness is in grave doubt. Earlier in January, reports emerged that 170 death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers, ages 18 to 35, con­vict­ed for their links to urban gangs, had been trans­ferred to Angenga mil­i­tary prison for exe­cu­tion. No exe­cu­tions have been report­ed. Ius Stella is call­ing for a halt to all planned exe­cu­tions and a review of the death sen­tences imposed dur­ing this oper­a­tion to date.

Launched in December 2024, Operation ​“Ndobo” is rife with legal prob­lems. Its stat­ed goal is to elim­i­nate ​“kulu­nas,” or urban gangs, through the arrest, tri­al, and social rein­te­gra­tion of remorse­ful indi­vid­u­als, but Ius Stella cau­tions that the oper­a­tion has led to ​“mass arrests and arbi­trary con­vic­tions,” includ­ing the impo­si­tion of numer­ous death sen­tences. The report high­lights ongo­ing prob­lems in the fair pros­e­cu­tion of civil­ian youth pop­u­la­tions by mil­i­tary courts, includ­ing inad­e­quate access to legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion and lack of access to inter­preters. Judicial pro­ceed­ings are con­duct­ed in French, which is not wide­ly under­stood among this pop­u­la­tion. The oper­a­tion is also known for con­duct­ing group tri­als where 30 – 50 indi­vid­u­als are tried simultaneously. 

Although both inter­na­tion­al and Congolese law out­line legal pro­tec­tions for minors, Ius Stella notes that these safe­guards are not being fol­lowed. Many of those arrest­ed lacked a birth cer­tifi­cate, mak­ing them vul­ner­a­ble to author­i­ties manip­u­lat­ing their age and try­ing them as adults. Following con­vic­tion, large num­bers of these civil­ians have been trans­ferred to Angenga mil­i­tary prison, result­ing in dif­fi­cul­ties access­ing their lawyers and iso­lat­ing them from their fam­i­lies who would oth­er­wise vis­it or pro­vide food. Detention con­di­tions have been called ​“inhu­mane and degrad­ing” and are char­ac­ter­ized by over­crowd­ing, lack of food and clean water, mal­nu­tri­tion and dis­ease, and vio­lence. In addi­tion to rec­om­mend­ing halt­ing planned exe­cu­tions and review­ing death sen­tences imposed through this oper­a­tion, Ius Stella has called for guar­an­teed access to ade­quate coun­sel, legal safe­guards, improved con­di­tions of con­fine­ment, and the trans­fer of those in mil­i­tary pris­ons back to Kinshasa to help them main­tain con­tact with coun­sel and families.

According to report­ing by La Croix International, promi­nent reli­gious lead­ers in the nation are divid­ed on using the death penal­ty to address the issue of urban ban­dit­ry. Pentecostal-inspired Christian denom­i­na­tions have expressed sup­port for its use. A legal rep­re­sen­ta­tive of these church­es, Ejiba Yamapia, called address­ing urban ban­dit­ry ​“crit­i­cal for the nation” and allowed that judi­cial­ly imposed death sen­tences may be appro­pri­ate pun­ish­ment. Both the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) and the Church of Christ in Congo (ECC), a protes­tant church, main­tain their cat­e­gor­i­cal oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty, even in cas­es of urban ban­dit­ry. ECC spokesman and Secretary General, Pastor Eric Senga, both urged author­i­ties to uphold Article 16 of the country’s Constitution pro­tect­ing the right to life. Pastor Senga urged the gov­ern­ment to find oth­er ways to address ban­dit­ry, call­ing the cur­rent approach ​“tak­ing short­cuts” and ​“delib­er­ate­ly vio­lat­ing” the con­sti­tu­tion. Sheikh Abdallah Mangala, pres­i­dent of the Islamic com­mu­ni­ty in Congo, is sim­i­lar­ly opposed to the death penal­ty to address urban banditry. 

In March 2024, the DRC lift­ed their more than 20 year mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty for cas­es involv­ing trea­son, ter­ror­ism, and urban ban­dit­ry result­ing in death. The DRC has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since 2003. Since lift­ing the mora­to­ri­um, mil­i­tary courts have imposed death sen­tences for trea­son, although no exe­cu­tions have been car­ried out and cap­i­tal tri­als are still ongo­ing. On February 10, 2025, a mil­i­tary tri­al, where the civ­il par­ty has request­ed the death penal­ty, of 84 Congolese sol­diers accused of mur­der, rape, and oth­er crimes against civil­ians began. Pascal Mupenda, a lawyer for the civil­ian vic­tims, told the Associated Press that ​“they turned their weapons against the civil­ian pop­u­la­tion that they were sup­posed to pro­tect, while the ene­my was at our doors.” 

Among those sen­tenced to death in the DRC are three Americans who were con­vict­ed for their par­tic­i­pa­tion in an attempt­ed coup in May 2024. On February 22, 2025, the U.S. President’s spe­cial envoy for hostages, Adam Boehler, high­light­ed the ongo­ing deten­tion of these three Americans on X, although the U.S. State Department has not declared the three indi­vid­u­als wrong­ful­ly detained, accord­ing to Voice of America (VOA). In com­ments to VOA, a U.S. State Department spokesper­son expressed sup­port for ​“DRC author­i­ties uphold­ing a fair and trans­par­ent legal process” and explained that there are ongoing talks.