| Written by Faith Mwende |
Former Democratic Republic of Congo president Joseph Kabila has been sentenced to death in absentia by a military court in Kinshasa after being found guilty of treason, war crimes and organising an armed insurrection.
The judges ruled that the 54-year-old collaborated with the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group, describing him as “the chief of the AFC/M23 coalition.”
Kabila, who ruled from 2001 until 2019, was neither present at the trial nor represented by lawyers. His whereabouts remain unknown.
The court also ordered his arrest and directed him to pay more than $33 billion in damages to the state, eastern provinces, and victims’ associations.
Judges said he had “betrayed his duty of loyalty to the Congolese state,” and called his actions “an outrage to millions of Congolese whom he led for 18 years.”
The ruling relied partly on testimony from Eric Nkuba, former chief of staff to Corneille Nangaa, who was convicted of rebellion in 2024.
Nkuba claimed that Kabila had been in regular contact with Nangaa about plans to topple President Félix Tshisekedi.
Kabila’s party, the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), dismissed the case. “This is a vast joke.
We have always said this is a political trial,” said the party’s permanent secretary Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary. “Instead of seeking cohesion and national reconciliation, this trial will further divide Congolese.”
By contrast, victims’ representatives welcomed the outcome. Kasongo Mayombo, a lawyer for NGOs in eastern Congo, said: “Victims finally appear and the suffering they live in anonymity now has an author. Perhaps we will go even further and find other authors or accomplices of the crimes they endured. This is the beginning of the end of impunity.”
State lawyer Richard Bondo also expressed approval: “As professionals, we must therefore bow while saluting the court’s decision,” he said, noting that civil parties had asked for life imprisonment instead of the death penalty, but the ruling “falls under the sovereignty of the judge.”
Kabila has mostly lived outside Congo for the past two years, largely in South Africa. He was last seen publicly in May in the rebel-held city of Goma. Earlier this year, Congo’s Senate voted to lift his immunity from prosecution, a move Kabila denounced as dictatorial.
In February, he published an opinion piece in South Africa’s Sunday Times denying the charges but expressing support for the M23 campaign. His allies maintain he is working to unite the opposition against Tshisekedi.
Meanwhile, conflict in eastern Congo has escalated sharply. M23 rebels, backed by Rwanda, seized Goma in January and Bukavu in February, sparking violence that has killed around 3,000 people in 2025 and displaced nearly seven million.
Analysts warn that Kabila’s conviction could worsen Congo’s political divides and complicate peace efforts in the east.
