The soldier responsible for Saturday’s massacre of a family that left 13 people dead in Ituri, northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said on Thursday.
Death penalty. still commonly circulated in the DRC , but it has not been applied for 20 years and is systematically reduced to life in prison.
Babby Ndombe Opetu, 32 years old, soldier assigned to the Congolese naval force stationed at Tchomia, on the shores of Lake Albert, has been blatantly tried delicto since Tuesday by the military court garrison Ituri, which sentenced him in the evening. On Wednesday, Franck Bahati, president of the youth association Tchomia, told AFP.
According to testimony, the soldier could not stand the fact that one of his children, who had died, when away had been buried without his knowledge. Returning to the location of the death, the fishing village of Nyakova, in the territory of Djugu, he opened fire on people gathered to mourn the baby.
The soldier then escaped but he was quickly arrested in Tchomia.
At the trial, the defendant explained that he was also in conflict with his wife over money. Aside from the child’s death, “these are the things that upset me and really, I shot it,” he said, according to the same source.
His wife was seriously injured in her hand. and 13 others, including at least nine children, were killed. Among the dead were two stepchildren of the shooter.
‘Why would you kill people who had nothing to do with the conflict between you and your wife?’ The judge asked the killer soldier. “I acted out of anger, actually, I killed, I shot many people…”, the defendant replied.
Babby Ndombe Opetu was found guilty of murdering 13 civilians and conspiracy to kill two others. A military court sentenced him to death, stripped of his right to join the armed forces and for him to pay one million dollars in compensation to the families of the victims.
“We also want the Congolese nation to do everything so that families can be compensated,” reacted Franck Bahati.
