The trial of former Congolese president Joseph Kabila, who ruled the DRC from 2001 to 2019, started today in Kinshasa, although Kabila is not expected to attend. He faced charges of homicide, torture, rape, conspiracy to overthrow the government, and treason, the latter charge carrying out the death penalty, whose moratorium was lifted last year by President Félix Tshisekedi.
Joseph Kabila, who took office in 2001 after the assassination of his father Laurent-Désiré Kabila, is accused of having conspired with Rwanda to support the Congo River Alliance, a loose confederation of armed rebel groups including the notorious M23, which seized several large cities in the Eastern DRC in early 2025.
Kabila broke his self-imposed exile in South Africa by visiting the city of Goma, under the control of M23, in May 2025. Kabila still enjoys popularity in the Eastern DRC, where his father maintained a Maoist-inspired proto-state for decades before he moved to overthrow Mobutu Sese Seko during the First Congo War, in 1995-96. Laurent-Désiré Kabila ruled over the DRC during the deadly Second Congo War – often dubbed the “Great African War” due its multiple foreign interferences – and was denounced for severe human rights abuses until his assassination in 2001.
Under Joseph Kabila’s 18-year reign, the DRC signed the Sun City Agreement, putting an end to the bloody civil war, although violence persisted in the East. The DRC renewed with sustained economic and demographic growth, although it remained one of the poorest and most underdeveloped countries in the world, due to systemic corruption, multidimensional poverty, instability, enduring ethnic and political conflict.
Kabila illegally extended his presidency by three years and was credibly accused of rigging the 2018 presidential election to dismiss the winner, Martin Faluyu, and transfer power to Félix Tshisekedi, who he considered to be a more accommodating asset. But the two leaders quickly had a falling out – Tshisekedi moved to pardon the assassins of Laurent-Désiré Kabila, arrest allies of Joseph Kabila and strip him of his immunity to stand trial for treason in front of a military court, accusing him of using the Congo River Alliance to launch a coup against Tshisekedi.
Kabila’s return to the DRC was assessed by international observers as having the potential to dramatically escalate tensions in Africa’s third-most populated country, where a fragile peace agreement was concluded between the Congolese government and Rwanda in June. Félix Tshisekedi, who warned in early 2025 that a “Tutsi conspiracy” was afoot in the Eastern DRC, remains in a precarious position in Kinshasa.
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The trial of former Congolese president Joseph Kabila, who ruled the DRC from 2001 to 2019, started today in Kinshasa, although Kabila is not expected to attend. He faced charges of homicide, torture, rape, conspiracy to overthrow the government, and treason, the latter charge carrying out the death penalty, whose moratorium was lifted last year by President Félix Tshisekedi.
Joseph Kabila, who took office in 2001 after the assassination of his father Laurent-Désiré Kabila, is accused of having conspired with Rwanda to support the Congo River Alliance, a loose confederation of armed rebel groups including the notorious M23, which seized several large cities in the Eastern DRC in early 2025.
Kabila broke his self-imposed exile in South Africa by visiting the city of Goma, under the control of M23, in May 2025. Kabila still enjoys popularity in the Eastern DRC, where his father maintained a Maoist-inspired proto-state for decades before he moved to overthrow Mobutu Sese Seko during the First Congo War, in 1995-96. Laurent-Désiré Kabila ruled over the DRC during the deadly Second Congo War – often dubbed the “Great African War” due its multiple foreign interferences – and was denounced for severe human rights abuses until his assassination in 2001.
Under Joseph Kabila’s 18-year reign, the DRC signed the Sun City Agreement, putting an end to the bloody civil war, although violence persisted in the East. The DRC renewed with sustained economic and demographic growth, although it remained one of the poorest and most underdeveloped countries in the world, due to systemic corruption, multidimensional poverty, instability, enduring ethnic and political conflict.
Kabila illegally extended his presidency by three years and was credibly accused of rigging the 2018 presidential election to dismiss the winner, Martin Faluyu, and transfer power to Félix Tshisekedi, who he considered to be a more accommodating asset. But the two leaders quickly had a falling out – Tshisekedi moved to pardon the assassins of Laurent-Désiré Kabila, arrest allies of Joseph Kabila and strip him of his immunity to stand trial for treason in front of a military court, accusing him of using the Congo River Alliance to launch a coup against Tshisekedi.
Kabila’s return to the DRC was assessed by international observers as having the potential to dramatically escalate tensions in Africa’s third-most populated country, where a fragile peace agreement was concluded between the Congolese government and Rwanda in June. Félix Tshisekedi, who warned in early 2025 that a “Tutsi conspiracy” was afoot in the Eastern DRC, remains in a precarious position in Kinshasa.