According to the country’s justice minister, the Congolese government has executed over 102 persons in the last week and has 70 more scheduled for execution.
In a statement to the Associated Press on Sunday evening, January 5, 2025, Minister of Justice Mutamba said that the individuals, who were between the ages of 18 and 35, were armed bandits and “urban bandits,” called locally as Kulunas, who were put to death at Angenga jail in northwest Congo.
Within the previous 48 hours, the remaining 57 were put to death, while 45 were slain in late December.
Additionally, a plane carrying 70 more individuals from Kinshasa has reached Angenga; however, the government has not provided an update on the inmates’ condition.
The “third batch will be executed, so the first two have already undergone the measure of execution by the death penalty,” Justice Minister Mutamba continued.
The use of the death penalty by the government has caused controversy. In Congo, the death sentence is a touchy subject. It was outlawed in the nation in 1981 but brought back in 2006.
The last execution was carried out in 2003, but the Congolese government declared in March 2024 that capital executions will resume.
The revived death sentence was meant to be applied to military personnel who were charged with treason.
For escaping the battlefield, eight soldiers received d3ath sentences in May, while 25 soldiers were found guilty of identical offenses in July. It is unknown if any of them were put to death.