KINSHASA, DRC – Former Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) president Joseph Kabila has been sentenced to death in absentia after being found guilty of treason and war crimes, including murder, sexual assault, torture, and crimes against humanity.
The ruling, delivered on Friday, centers on accusations that Kabila backed the M23 rebel movement, which has unleashed violence across eastern DRC.
Judges declared him guilty of orchestrating insurrection and enabling atrocities committed by the militia.
Kabila, 54, dismissed the case as “arbitrary,” accusing Congolese courts of being used as “an instrument of oppression.” His whereabouts remain unknown.
Kabila ruled the DRC for 18 years after succeeding his father, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, who was assassinated in 2001.
He relinquished power in 2019 to President Félix Tshisekedi, but the two later clashed, culminating in Kabila’s self-imposed exile in 2023.
In April 2025, Kabila announced his willingness to help resolve the eastern conflict and later resurfaced in Goma—then under M23 control—fuelling accusations that he was coordinating with the rebels.
Tshisekedi subsequently accused him of being the mastermind behind the insurgency, and senators voted to strip him of immunity, clearing the path for prosecution.
The verdict comes against the backdrop of escalating violence in the mineral-rich east, where M23 rebels captured Goma, Bukavu, and key airports earlier this year. Despite a ceasefire deal agreed in July, fighting has persisted.
The United Nations and several Western governments maintain that Rwanda is providing military support to M23, deploying troops across the border.
Kigali denies the allegations, insisting it is only safeguarding its territory from the spillover of the conflict.
Kabila, once a central figure in regional politics, now faces the death penalty, a dramatic fall for the man who led the DRC through nearly two decades of turmoil.
