By Ayomide Otitoju
A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday sentenced former president Joseph Kabila to death in absentia on charges of treason.
Kabila, 54, was accused of colluding with the M23 rebel group, which has seized large parts of eastern Congo with alleged support from Rwanda. He neither appeared in court nor was represented at the trial in Kinshasa.
The former leader left the country in 2023 but resurfaced briefly in Goma in May, a visit that unsettled authorities in the capital. Analysts say the ruling is intended to neutralize his potential to rally opposition forces, though his current whereabouts remain unknown.
Military prosecutor General Lucien Rene Likulia, who pressed for the death penalty, accused Kabila of plotting to overthrow President Felix Tshisekedi with the help of Rwanda and former electoral commission head Corneille Nangaa. Additional charges included homicide, torture, and rape linked to the M23 insurgency.
Kabila’s party denounced the proceedings as a “political trial,” while Tshisekedi has consistently branded him the mastermind behind the M23 rebellion. Kabila, in turn, has called Tshisekedi’s government a “dictatorship.”
The Democratic Republic of Congo lifted its moratorium on the death penalty last year, though no executions have been carried out since.
Kabila, who came to power in 2001 following the assassination of his father, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, ruled until 2019. During his visit to Goma in May, he met with religious leaders in the presence of M23 spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka.
Rwanda has denied supporting the rebels, but UN experts have reported that its forces played a “critical” role in M23’s recent offensive.
