A military tribunal in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has sentenced 13 soldiers to death on charges including murder, looting, and cowardice, Reuters news agency reported.

It is not the first time that soldiers accused of deserting frontlines are sentenced to death in the North Kivu Province where government forces are fighting Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.

Military authorities reportedly said the court martial will improve army discipline after territorial losses due to soldiers abandoning their positions.

The soldiers were sentenced on Tuesday in Lubero town, where Congolese forces have been fighting the M23 insurgency for nearly three years, as well as facing other militia violence.

Local army spokesperson Mak Hazukay told Reuters that fighting has flared in Lubero territory and cases of soldiers fleeing have helped the enemy advance.

“Some of the soldiers who are supposed to be fighting the enemy at the front have shown a kind of indiscipline. We had to organise this educational trial to set things right,” he said.

In the latest hearing, overall 24 soldiers stood trial with the verdicts handing death sentences to majority, while some recieved 2-10 years and six were acquitted.

Military prosecutor Kabala Kabundi told Reuters all those convicted pleaded not guilty and have five days to appeal their sentence.

DR Congo’s mineral-rich east has been plagued by fighting between both local and foreign-based armed groups for the past three decades, the conflict having spilled over from the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s.

In July 2024, a similar court convicted 25 soldiers to death on accusations that they fled frontline battles with the M23 rebel group in North Kivu, according to their lawyers who spoke to an international news agency.