Rumonge: The second degree of the military prosecutor’s office has handed down heavy sentences to soldiers who refused to go to fight alongside the FARDC against the M23

The military prosecutor’s office issued its decision on Monday in the Burundian soldiers’ case about their refusal to go and fight alongside the FARDC against the M23. Some inmates were sentenced to heavy sentences of up to life imprisonment. Others will have to serve sentences of between 4 and 10 years. The fines were maintained at $500 for some and reduced to $250 for others.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The convicts were classified into three main groups. The first category includes the lower-ranking soldiers and corporals. They were repatriated to Burundi by plane. They should serve a four-year prison sentence and pay a fine of $500 each. The second is the group of corporals and non-commissioned officers who were sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of $500 each. They were repatriated from North Kivu (eastern Congo) to the commercial city of Bujumbura by plane as well. The third group includes elements of the FDNB (Burundi National Defense Force) who returned by boat. They were divided into two subgroups. The members of the first subgroup were sentenced to 10 years in prison while those of the second subgroup were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Only one soldier was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of $500. https://www.sosmediasburundi.org/2024/11/30/rumonge-la-prison-a-perpetuite-requise-pour-les-272-militaires-burundais-qui-ont-refuse-daller-combattre-aux-cotes-des-fardc-contre-le-m23/

SOS Médias Burundi had not yet had the number of soldiers who make up each category. Detained in three prisons namely Ruyigi (east), Bururi and Rumonge (south-west), the 272 elements of the Burundian army are currently gathered at the central prison of Murembwe in Rumonge where the appeal trial took place very recently.

The Burundian army is engaged in the war against the M23 in the province of North Kivu (eastern Congo) alongside the FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) and local militias maintained by the Congolese authorities, as part of a bilateral partnership between the Burundian and Congolese governments. Several Burundian activists have often denounced “a useless and dangerous involvement of our soldiers in a war that does not concern us”.

But President Évariste Ndayishimiye, supreme commander, has always justified “a saving mission”, affirming that it is normal that Burundian soldiers are killed in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) “because they signed up for it”.

The M23 is a former Tutsi rebellion that took up arms again at the end of 2021, accusing the Congolese authorities of not having respected their commitments on the reintegration of its fighters. The Congolese authorities remain convinced that he benefits from support from Rwanda, something that the Rwandan government continues to rule out.

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Illustrative photo: the first Burundian soldiers of the EAC regional force welcomed in Goma, March 2023 (SOS Médias Burundi)