Death sentences in the Democratic Republic of Congo have surged dramatically since authorities ended a long-standing de facto moratorium on executions, according to a new report by French campaign group Together Against the Death Penalty and several Congolese partners.

The organizations say Congolese courts imposed more than 480 death sentences in 2024 and a further 344 in 2025, compared with just 122 in 2023. Researchers describe the spike as a sharp and deliberate policy shift that risks normalizing capital punishment in a country already scarred by chronic violence and political instability.

Although no executions have been officially confirmed, the report warns that the rapid multiplication of death sentences has created an unprecedented climate of fear. Families often learn of a relative’s fate only through informal channels, while uncertainty over whether executions might resume hangs over hundreds of prisoners.

An investigative mission to around 20 prisons across the country identified at least 950 people currently on death row, nearly double the 500 recorded in 2019. Many are held in overcrowded, crumbling facilities where food is scarce, medical care is minimal and basic sanitation is absent. Some detainees interviewed by researchers did not even know they had been condemned to die.

The report paints a bleak picture of Congo’s justice system, describing death sentences frequently handed down after summary trials. Defendants often appear in court without effective legal assistance, and proceedings can be rushed through in a single hearing. In such conditions, the right to a fair trial is more theoretical than real, the authors argue.

Appeals are technically available but in practice remain out of reach for most condemned prisoners, who lack money, legal representation or political connections. In a judicial system widely seen as opaque and vulnerable to influence, this leaves many death sentences effectively final.

One third of those interviewed on death row had been convicted of criminal conspiracy, a charge the report describes as vague and expandable. Rights advocates say this elasticity allows prosecutors and judges to stretch the law to cover a wide range of conduct, increasing the risk of miscarriages of justice.

The groups behind the report are urging Congolese authorities to reinstate the moratorium, commute existing death sentences and undertake deep reforms of the criminal justice system before any further use of capital punishment.