Kabila

Joseph Kabila is visiting the eastern city of Goma, which has been seized by rebels, after he was stripped of immunity.

Former President Joseph Kabila has returned to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, just days after he lost his immunity amid accusations he has helped armed rebels fighting in the eastern DRC, according to the Reuters and AFP news agencies.

Kabila, on Thursday, was visiting the eastern city of Goma, which had been seized by the Rwanda-backed M23 militia along with several other areas in the resource-rich east of the country earlier this year.

A team of AFP journalists saw Kabila meet local religious figures in the presence of M23’s spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka, without giving a statement.

Citing three unidentified sources close to Kabila, Reuters also said the ex-president held talks with locals in Goma.

The visit comes despite the former president facing the possibility of a treason trial over his alleged support for M23.

Earlier this month, the DRC Senate voted to lift Kabila’s immunity, paving the way for him to be prosecuted.

The ex-president, who has been in self-imposed exile since 2023, denies the allegations and has slammed the charges against him as “arbitrary decisions with disconcerting levity”.

On Thursday, a member of Kabila’s entourage told AFP that though no formal alliance existed between his party and M23, both shared the “same goal” of ending the rule of President Felix Tshisekedi.

The United Nations and the DRC’s government say Rwanda has supported the M23 with arms and troops – an accusation the neighbouring country denies.

The renewed violence has raised fears of igniting a full-blown conflict, akin to the wars that the DRC endured in the late 1990s, involving several African countries, which killed millions of people.

The current fighting has already displaced about 700,000 people this year, according to the UN.

On Tuesday, Amnesty International accused M23 of committing abuses against civilians in areas under its control, “including torture, killings and enforced disappearances”.

“These acts violate international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes,” the group said in a statement.

M23 says its goal is to protect ethnic minorities against the government in Kinshasa.

Kabila, accused of ‘treason’ and ‘war crimes’, denies government accusations of links to M23 rebel group.

Joseph Kabila, former president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has attacked the country’s justice system after the Senate voted to lift his immunity, paving the way for him to be prosecuted for alleged treason and war crimes.

Kabila gave a livestreamed speech from an undisclosed location on Friday, a day after losing his immunity over alleged links to the M23 rebel group, saying that the justice system was “an instrument of oppression for a dictatorship desperately trying to survive”.

The 53-year-old, who denies supporting the Rwanda-backed rebels who have seized two major cities in the country’s conflict-battered east, has been in self-imposed exile since 2023.

The former president, who has repeatedly said he was returning from exile to help find a solution to the crisis, accused Kinshasa of taking “arbitrary decisions with disconcerting levity”.

Congo’s Senate voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to grant the government’s request to lift the lifetime immunity Kabila – leader of the country from 2001 to 2019 – had enjoyed because of his honorific title as “senator for life”.

Justice Minister Constant Mutamba said Kabila’s alleged crimes included “treason, war crimes, crimes against humanity and participation in an insurrectional movement” in the country’s east.

On Friday, Kabila said the DRC’s sovereignty and territorial integrity were non-negotiable. “As a soldier, I swore to defend my country to the supreme sacrifice … I remain more faithful than ever to this oath,” he said.

Kabila’s return to the DRC could complicate the bid to end the rebellion in the east, which contains vast supplies of critical minerals that United States President Donald Trump’s administration is eager to access.

Washington is pushing for a peace agreement to be signed between the DRC and Rwanda this summer, accompanied by minerals deals aimed at bringing billions of dollars of Western investment to the region, according to Massad Boulos, Trump’s senior adviser for Africa, cited by news agency Reuters.