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The number of death sentences in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has surged dramatically since the government lifted its 20-year moratorium on executions in 2024, a new report has revealed.
The findings, published by the French campaign group Together Against the Death Penalty, alongside several Congolese NGOs, paint a troubling picture of a judicial system spiralling into an unprecedented climate of fear.
In 2024, courts sentenced over 480 individuals to death, a sharp rise from just 122 in 2023. The following year, 344 more death sentences were handed down. The escalation is significant, considering the DRC had maintained a de facto moratorium for over two decades, during which death sentences were routinely commuted to life imprisonment.
“To date, no execution has been officially confirmed, but the multiplication of death sentences is creating an unprecedented climate of fear,” the report warns, highlighting growing concerns about the future.
Despite this, no executions have been confirmed as of yet, leaving the country in a state of uncertainty.
The report’s findings are based on 11 months of fact-finding across around 20 prisons and detention camps, during which investigative missions by lawyers, civil society actors, and Congolese parliamentarians uncovered troubling conditions. At least 950 people are currently on death row, a sharp rise from the 500 detainees found in 2019 during the group’s last investigation.
Prisoners, often housed in overcrowded and deteriorating facilities, live in conditions of “extreme health and food insecurity,” sometimes unaware of their death sentences. The report reveals that these sentences are often handed down after rushed trials, in which defendants lack legal representation and fair-trial guarantees.
The judicial system remains opaque and subject to influence, with limited access to appeals for those without financial means or connections.
The alarming increase in death sentences has raised serious questions about the integrity and fairness of the DRC’s legal processes, urging calls for reform and heightened scrutiny of the country’s criminal justice system.
