The smell of decomposing bodies filled the air as cemetery workers in eastern Congo unloaded dozens of coffins at the final resting place for victims of one of the deadliest crackdowns on protests in recent local memory.
As rain poured down on the funerals in mid-September, distraught family members cried out and clasped each other for support. The burials continued as darkness fell., according to a military prosecutor, after Congolese soldiers in the city of Goma opened fire on protesters ahead of a demonstration against the presence of U.N. peacekeepers.some of those accused of orchestrating the bloodshed, and the government has paid for burials and offered compensation to the grieving and angry families.
Her husband's brother was also killed on Aug. 30. She and her sister-in-law, Zawadi Balthazar, 22, must now raise six children between them without their fathers. They all wept when they went back to visit the graves on Sept. 19.On Monday, three of six soldiers on trial for their role in the killings were sentenced to 10 years behind bars, while the head of the Republic Guard unit in Goma was handed the death penalty, which is expected to be commuted to life imprisonment.
Decades of conflict between the army and myriad rebel groups has destabilised eastern Congo and civilians rarely see justice for the abuses committed by both sides.
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