Old and unrelated footage falsely linked to DR Congo death row inmates

In January 2025, Congolese authorities announced that over 170 prisoners on death row over armed robberies would be executed. A recent video on TikTok purportedly shows the alleged convicts before, during and after execution. But the video is misleading: while the “before” section shows the inmates being transferred to high-security prisons in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the other clips are old and unrelated. One video shows Al Shabaab members who were executed in Somalia in 2021, while the other is from a memorial service held in September 2024 in honour of 200 civilians killed during clashes between the M23 armed group and the Congolese army.

“DR.Congo: Over 100 death row inmates executed,” reads a text overlay on a TikTok post published on January 11, 2025.

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Screenshot of the misleading post, taken on February 14, 2025

The video shows three different clips stacked on top of each other.

The first clip, labelled “Before execution”, shows a group of men who appear to be prisoners dressed in blue and yellow uniforms. They are lined up before officers shove them into a waiting vehicle. Some of them are crying and begging as armed policemen look on.

The second clip is labelled “During” and shows footage of several men tied to poles in an open field before fire is opened on them. Uniformed police officers and a man in a blue shirt can be seen speaking in the video, but their words are not audible.

The bottom clip features white caskets covered in white cloths with flowers on top, laid out in what looks like a stadium with a crowd of onlookers. Men dressed in white hazmat suits then lift the caskets and start carrying them. The final images show the coffins on the back of trucks.

DRC and the death penalty

Since 2003, when 15 people were reportedly executed for armed robbery, the DRC had observed a de facto moratorium on executions, meaning that although death sentences were issued, they were not carried out (archived here).

However, the Congolese government announced an end to the moratorium in March 2024, reinstating capital punishment particularly for treason and banditry (archived here).

Two months later, eight soldiers were handed death sentences after being charged with desertion and cowardice while fighting the M23 armed group (archived here). Dozens of others were also sentenced in August and September over what the country’s army said was a coup attempt (archived here and here).

On January 6, 2025, the Congolese government reportedly announced plans to execute over 170 death row inmates convicted of armed robbery (archived here).

The resumption of executions in the DRC was met with international condemnation, with human rights organisations calling for the abolition of the death penalty (archived here and here).

However, the video being shared on TikTok is misleading.

Unrelated videos

AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches on keyframes from the videos to find the original footage.

The results established that two of the clips from the TikTok footage are old and unrelated to the DRC death row convicts.

We found that the footage used in the “during” clip was first published on the YouTube channel of Somali-language account XOGSAN TV on June 27, 2021 (archived here).

“18 Al-Shabaab members shot dead in Galkayo city today,” reads the video title in Somali.

Galkayo is the capital of Somalia’s north-central Mudug region.

Other Somali media outlets reported on the executions in a similar context at the time (archived here and here). 

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Screenshots comparing the second clip of the misleading TikTok post (top) and the original footage published by XOGSAN TV

We found footage matching the one used in the “after” clip in a video published on X by DRC-based journalist Daniel Michombero on September 2, 2024 (archived here).

According to his post, the footage shows the burial of 200 displaced persons, whose bodies were displayed at the Unity Stadium in Goma, in the DRC’s east.

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Screenshots comparing the third clip of the misleading TikTok post (left) and the video published on X by journalist Daniel Michombero

DRC-based photojournalist Arlette Bashizi published photos from the memorial service and burial site on her Instagram page, reporting that the deceased were killed during clashes between the M23 armed group and the country’s armed forces (archived here and here).

The images were captured by Bashizi for Reuters, and the news outlet used them in article on the memorial service (archived here).

In addition to the flowers on the coffins and the handlers in white hazmat suits, Bashizi's photos also feature the stadium's name, Stade de L'Unité (Unity Stadium in English), which is visible in the TikTok video and mentioned in Michombero's post.

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Screenshots comparing the third clip of the misleading TikTok post (top) and the photos published by photojournalist Arlette Bashizi

Death row inmates

The first clip from the TikTok video – labelled “before” - correctly shows death row inmates in the DRC.

An extended version of the clip was published on X by the country’s justice minister, Constant Mutamba, on January 5, 2025 (archived here).

According to the post written in French, the prisoners in the video, locally known as “Kulunas” or “urban bandits”, were being transferred to high security prisons.

Speaking at a conference the following day (see from minute 19:29), Mutamba said that no executions had occurred yet but that “more than 300 young Kulunas [had] been sentenced”. He specified that the sentences range from two years in prison to the death penalty for some (archived here).

Mutamba added that the convicts still had several legal remedies, such as appeal and cassation, before the sentences would become final and “it is only when this has been exhausted that the death penalty is carried out”.

DRC President Felix Tshisekedi reiterated this in his address at the diplomatic corps on January 18, 2025 (archived here).

“Concerning the thorny issue of the death penalty... (its application is) limited solely to cases of terrorism and treason within the army,” he said one minute and eight seconds into the speech.

“It is important to emphasise that to date, no executions have been carried out.” 

Amnesty International has urged the DRC to halt the planned executions, citing fears of “imminent mass executions by the authorities amid a lack of reliable information about the status of people sentenced to death” (archived here).

AFP Fact Check debunked similar claims on the purported DRC executions in French.