Former Democratic Republic of Congo leader Joseph Kabila said he was starting a new rebel group that will fold in the M23 movement that now occupies part of the country’s east, posing a fresh challenge to President Felix Tshisekedi.
Kabila, who was sentenced to death in absentia last year after being convicted of treason, was flanked by M23 leaders as he announced his new Front pour la Refondation de la Nation in Goma on Monday.
He had foreshadowed the move Friday when he delivered a speech calling Tshisekedi a tyrant who planned to stay in power beyond the end of his term in 2028.
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The FRN will “unify and coordinate all resistance forces in order to put an end to tyranny by all means, including force,” the men said in a statement read by Claude Ibalanky, a businessman and former adviser to Tshisekedi, and sent to Bloomberg by message Monday.
The move amounts to a serious threat to Tshisekedi and signals the collapse of last year’s peace agreement signed between Congo and Rwanda, which has backed the M23 rebellion. President Donald Trump had helped oversee negotiations for that deal and claimed that the agreement was one reason he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.
{{/usCountry}}The move amounts to a serious threat to Tshisekedi and signals the collapse of last year’s peace agreement signed between Congo and Rwanda, which has backed the M23 rebellion. President Donald Trump had helped oversee negotiations for that deal and claimed that the agreement was one reason he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.
{{/usCountry}}The US sanctioned Kabila in April over his connections to M23.
Kabila served as Congo’s president from 2001 to 2019. He stepped down under international pressure, brokering a power-sharing deal with Tshisekedi after a disputed election that independent analysts say the current president almost certainly lost.
The two men subsequently fell out. Spokespeople for Tshisekedi and Congo’s government did not immediately respond to messages requesting comment.
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In 2021, M23 relaunched a rebellion with help from neighbouring Rwanda, saying it was protecting the rights of Tutsis and other speakers of the Rwandan language in Congo.
The group took over Goma and Bukavu, the region’s two biggest cities, last year. Soon after, Kabila began traveling to M23 territory, saying he wanted to unify the country.
Tshisekedi accused Kabila of backing the rebels, and a military court convicted him of treason last year on charges that he had aided M23.
This marks the second time Kabila has played a role in an insurrection from the east. He was part of the Rwanda-backed rebellion led by his father, Laurent-Desire Kabila, that in 1997 overthrew the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who had long ruled the country, then known as Zaire.
Kabila then led Congo’s army in a subsequent war against Rwanda and Uganda that engulfed multiple African nations.
When his father was assassinated in 2001, Kabila took over as president, guiding the country through peace talks and elections.
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M23 political leaders Corneille Nangaa and Bertrand Bisimwa as well as military head Sultani Makenga all signed the FRN statement Monday. All three men are also sanctioned by the US, as are M23 and Rwanda’s army.
Calls to telephone numbers previously used by Nangaa and Bisimwa did not connect.
Kabila’s longtime collaborator and former ambassador Barnabe Kikaya bin Karubi did not immediately respond to messages requesting comment.