Nigeria, Nov. 11 -- Some 66 soldiers have been sentenced to death for cowardice, mutiny, and failure to obey orders in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Goma Garrison Military Court handed down the sentence last Friday.

The BBC reported on the sentences following the trial of 71 soldiers before the court in Walikale, in North Kivu province, in eastern DR Congo.

The soldiers were arrested in separate incidents related to fighting between the military and rebel groups near the country's borders with Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi.

Troops from Congo have been fighting armed groups in the country's resource-rich east for decades, including the M23 group and the umbrella rebel coalition Front for the Refoundation of the Nation (FRN).

The...