Kinshasa, February 2nd, 2026 (CPA). – On Monday, two colonels were sentenced to five years in prison for causing the fall of Bunagana, a border town with Uganda in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, by failing to fight against the Rwandan invasion, during a hearing before the High Military Court. ‘The High Military Court finds that Colonel Jean-Marie Ndiandia and Colonel Lobo René are guilty of wilfully refraining from attacking or fighting the enemy, and sentences them each to five years’ imprisonment,’ said Brigadier General Jean Claude Nzau Keba, presiding judge.
‘The court noted mitigating circumstances, in particular the fact that the defendants are fathers of large families,’ he added. On appeal, the two defendants’ sentence was reduced from life imprisonment in the first instance, as handed down by the North Kivu military court, to five years in prison on appeal. They had already served four and a half years of their sentence. They now have only a few months left to serve of the sentence imposed on them by the High Military Court. In October 2022, the two officers were arrested and brought before the North Kivu Military Court for desertion, abandoning weapons and ammunition, violating orders and embezzling funds allocated to operations. Until their arrest, Colonel Jean-Marie Ndiandia had been commander of the 34th Infantry Regiment in Bunagana-Centre since 2022, and Colonel Lobo René had been commander of the 33rd Infantry Regiment since May 16th, 2022