Classification note: This file is Solved / Adjudicated because a military court convicted four defendants for conduct connected to the killings. The label is qualified: later reporting and Amnesty International’s investigation say other senior responsibility remained unexamined.
A banned protest in a conflict-burdened city
Goma is the capital of North Kivu, a province shaped by armed conflict, displacement and repeated public frustration with international and regional security missions. A religious movement formally known as the Natural Judaic and Messianic Faith Towards the Nations—and commonly described in reporting as Wazalendo—announced a demonstration against MONUSCO and the East African regional force.
The city’s mayor prohibited the protest. A ban did not remove the state’s obligation to protect life or to use force lawfully. Security and defense units assembled before the planned action, and the lethal operation began in the early hours of August 30.
The August 30 operation
Early accounts were confused and contested. Authorities alleged violence by members of the movement, including the killing of a police officer. Witnesses and rights investigators described security forces firing on people before the demonstration could properly begin. Hospitals in Goma received patients with gunshot wounds, and bodies were transported away from affected neighborhoods.
Associated Press reporting initially cited at least 26 civilian deaths, then a government toll of 43 dead and 56 seriously injured. More than 220 people were reported arrested. These changing numbers are treated as an evolving record, not as interchangeable totals.
Victims and the later count
Amnesty International’s later reconstruction placed the toll at at least 56 killed and 80 injured. Its analysis included an earlier raid on premises associated with the movement in which six people, including a journalist, were allegedly summarily executed.
The archive uses “at least 56” as the best-supported later minimum while retaining the government’s earlier figure. It does not collapse every person present into a single role: those killed and injured included members or supporters of the movement, while the official account also reported a police death.
Arrests and a rapid military inquiry
National authorities dispatched a delegation to Goma after public outrage. On September 4, Interior Minister Peter Kazadi announced the arrests of Colonel Mike Kalamba Mikombe, commander of the Republican Guard unit in Goma, and Colonel Donat Bawili, who headed the local army regiment.
The speed of the response contrasted with many unresolved mass-violence cases in eastern Congo. It also created a narrower question: whether the defendants placed before the military court represented the full chain of responsibility for an operation involving several security bodies.
The October 2023 verdicts
On October 2, 2023, the military court convicted Mikombe and three soldiers. Mikombe received a death sentence. Three soldiers from his unit received ten-year prison terms. Two officers, including Bawili, were acquitted.
At the time, Congo had not carried out an execution for more than two decades, and early reporting described the death sentence as effectively equivalent to life imprisonment. The government lifted that moratorium in 2024. This page therefore records the sentence imposed without claiming either that it was carried out or that it still functions automatically as life imprisonment.
Why the trial did not close the case
In December 2024, Amnesty International called for renewed investigation of possible crimes against humanity and identified senior officials whose conduct it said required further scrutiny. Its account alleged a planned sequence of operations rather than an unexpected reaction by a few soldiers.
That is an allegation by a rights organization, not a domestic conviction. Lieutenant General Constant Ndima and Major Peter Kabwe are not labeled perpetrators here. The latest reliable update reviewed said they had not faced adjudication for the conduct Amnesty attributed to them.
Current status
Four defendants have adjudicated outcomes; two officers were acquitted. Mikombe’s death sentence and the three ten-year terms establish a legal result for those defendants. No reliable record reviewed confirms Mikombe’s execution.
Accountability remains incomplete because the later rights investigation questioned the scope of the prosecutions and called for examination of decisions above and alongside Mikombe’s unit. The page preserves both the convictions and that unresolved command question.
Frequently asked questions
Are these killings the same as later fighting involving “Wazalendo” militias?
No. In this case, “Wazalendo” refers to the religious movement that planned the Goma protest. The term is also used for armed self-defense groups elsewhere in eastern Congo, and the two contexts should not be conflated.
Why do sources give different death tolls?
Counts changed as injured people died and investigators reconstructed separate parts of the operation. The archive retains both the early official total and the later rights-based minimum.
Were all named officials convicted?
No. Four defendants were convicted, two officers were acquitted, and additional senior officials named by Amnesty have not been presented as convicted.
Sources
- Associated Press — initial reporting, August 30, 2023Contemporary account of the operation, early casualty estimates and competing claims.
- Associated Press — arrests, September 4, 2023Records the government inquiry and arrests of Mikombe and Bawili.
- Associated Press — military-court verdicts, October 3, 2023Details four convictions, two acquittals and the sentences imposed.
- Associated Press — Amnesty findings, December 11, 2024Reports the later 56-death minimum and the call to investigate wider responsibility.