Kabila sentenced to death: What it means for DRC and what’s next

Joseph Kabila, the former head of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was sentenced to death on Tuesday by a high military court on suspicion of treason, war crimes, and other serious crimes in connection with the country’s eastern border.

Kabila was sentenced in absentia for alleged collaboration with the Rwanda-backed rebel group, M23, which launched lightning offensives in January this year and seized swaths of territory, including the strategic eastern hub of Goma. Nearly a million people were forced to flee and over 3, 000 people died as a result of the group’s advance.

The DRC government and M23 rebels’ representatives have been negotiating slowly for peace since July, which Qatar has mediated. However, Kabila’s sentence raises the possibility that the conflict will get worse and the country’s divided political system will get worse.

The DRC has been in the throes of a decades-long conflict, which escalated in January. Despite the ceasefire in the peace negotiations, there are still reports of violence. Kabila, who served as president between 2001 and 2019, has accused the current president of using the courts to settle political disputes. He is competing with Felix Tshisekedi in the political debate.

Here’s what you need to know about Kabila’s sentencing:

What was the ruling?

A panel of experts from the UN found Kabila guilty of treason, war crimes, conspiracy, and organizing an insurrection with the M23 rebel group, which he supported. The group claims that Tshisekedi’s overthrow is their goal. Rwanda denies being the force behind M23.

By a majority vote, Lieutenant General Joseph Mutombo Katalayi, who presided over the DRC’s military tribunal, found Kabila guilty of “war crimes committed by intentional murder, war crimes committed by rape, war crimes committed by torture, and war crimes committed by attacks against protected property,”

It imposes the death penalty, the most severe sentence, under Article 7 of the Military Penal Code, according to Katalayi.

The court also ordered the former president to pay $29bn in damages to the DRC government, and $2bn each to the war-affected regions of North Kivu and South Kivu, in the eastern DRC. According to legend, Kabila was actually born in the South Kivu area.

North Kivu and South Kivu provinces were represented by prosecutor Richard Bondo during the trial, who praised the court’s ruling. “Justice rendered in the name of the Congolese people gives satisfaction to its people”, Bondo told reporters outside the court.

Kabila was not present, and his legal team did not.

What is Kabila’s identity, and why is he facing legal action?

Kabila, 53, took office at age 29, following the assassination of his father and former president, Laurent Kabila. He served in the Congo Wars as the army’s chief of staff. 2016 saw the end of Kabila’s term, which was fraught with allegations of corruption and human rights violations. He unconstitutionally delayed elections until December 2018, citing voter registry challenges.

Kabila and opposition candidate Tshisekedi of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) were forced to agree to a power-sharing deal after the election when the candidate he supported lost. Kabila’s People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) allies were able to have their names removed from the cabinet as a result of the agreement. However, in 2020, Tshisekedi ended the alliance after he began systematically removing Kabila’s allies from government.

Kabila and his close allies were accused of corruption charges by the DRC government in November 2021. Kabila reportedly has been living in South Africa since April 2023 when she was under increasing pressure to enter self-imposed exile.

He was largely quiet until February 2025, when he wrote an opinion editorial in the Sunday Times, a South African newspaper, accusing Tshisekedi of attempting to hold on to power, and of mishandling the ongoing conflict with M23. President Tshisekedi claimed Kabila financially supported the rebel group during a speech at the Munich Security Conference the same month.

In the past, the president said Kabila’s close links to rebel leader Corneille Nangaa, who is allied with the M23, were proof of his relations with the rebels. Under Kabila, Nangaa oversaw the 2018 elections that resulted in Tshisekedi becoming president. In 2021, he and Tshisekedi broke up over how the elections were conducted, formed the rebel Alliance of the Congo River (ACF), and teamed up with the rebels in December of that year.

Reports that Kabila landed in Goma in April angered Tshikedi’s government, prompting it to ban the PPRD and order Kabila’s assets seized. In order to prepare for a trial, the DRC parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of lifting Kabila’s presidential immunity, which shields former presidents from prosecution if they don’t commit “gross misconduct.” In a YouTube video, Kabila responded, calling the Tshisekedi government a “dictatorship.” He also presented a 12-point peace plan he said could end the conflict in the east.

Kabila was in Goma for a meeting with local religious leaders and other residents two days later, according to the M23. No formal alliance existed between his party and M23, despite the fact that both had the “same goal” of overthrowing Tshisekedi, according to a member of his entourage.

In July, the military trial against Kabila began. According to the court, prosecutors on Tuesday provided evidence linking Eric Nkuba, a former Nangaa employee who was found guilty of rebellion in August of that year and is currently imprisoned, to Kabila’s testimony. Nangaa and Tshisekedi exchanged phone calls about their plans to overthrow Tshisekedi, according to the court.

Where is Kabila now?

Location of the former president is not known at this time. He was last seen in public in May after Goma was confirmed to have him. The military court on Tuesday ordered his immediate arrest.

What is meant by the sentence?

Goma-based legal analyst, Nzanzu Masomeko Hubert, faulted the trial, saying concrete evidence against Kabila was lacking. According to him, the sentencing runs the risk of stifling the ongoing Doha discussions with the M23, which according to researchers are only going to continue slowly and with great success because of both sides’ grandstanding.

Hubert, a member of the provincial government, told Al Jazeera, “I believe this trial was politically motivated.” “Convicting Joseph Kabila for his alleged links to the AFC/M23 while the government is negotiating with the M23 in Doha is inconsistent. He claimed that it was in opposition to the need to “enforce national unity,” particularly in this difficult time.”

Kambale Musavuli, a staffer for the US-based Center for Research on Congo-Kinshasa, claimed that Kabila’s trial represented “dramatic punishment” rather than a thorough investigation of the numerous allegations against the former president or a more comprehensive transitional justice system for the DRC, which the UN has recommended since the civil war.

“Congolese people want accountability indeed (but) Joseph Kabila’s gravest betrayals go far beyond his recent contacts with M23”, he said, citing allegations of fraudulent elections under Kabila’s watch and failed promises by his government to investigate killings of opposition members and activists during his term.

“Selective justice directed at one man for political reasons risks more harm than good.” Musavuli reaffirmed that real justice must be objective, accessible, and inclusive.

Meanwhile, some residents of Goma, where calm has largely prevailed following fighting earlier in the year, have voiced concerns that the sentencing could prompt a violent reaction from the M23.

Analysts warned that the political unrest in the nation, where Kabila still enjoys considerable influence, could grow. A temporary ban on executions that had been in place since 2003 was lifted by the DRC in March 2024 to deter military personnel from collaborating with M23 or engaging in mutiny. Thirteen soldiers were sentenced to death in January, but no executions have been carried out.

The fragile peace with Rwanda and the increased violence in the DRC could become even more unstable.

Following negotiations led by Qatar and the United States, the two nations signed a peace agreement in June 2025. It is separate from the Qatar-mediated peace deal signed in July between the DRC and M23.

What was the response of Kabila’s allies and M23?

PPRD permanent secretary Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary criticized the court’s sentence as a “political, unfair decision” in an interview with The Associated Press.

“We believe that the clear intention of the dictatorship in power is to eliminate, to neutralise, a major political actor”, Shadary is quoted as saying.

Source: Aljazeera