Former Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila was sentenced to death in absentia for treason and war crimes by a military court in Kinshasa on Tuesday.
Kabila, 54, was president of the DRC from 2001 to 2018. He rose to power after his father, President Laurent-Desire Kabila, was assassinated by one of his own bodyguards. The younger Kabila clung to power beyond constitutional limits by delaying elections, dogged by allegations of corruption and incompetence, until massive protests forced him to step down in 2018. He was then declared to be a “senator for life,” retaining a voice in the government of his successor, current DRC President Felix Tshisekedi.
Kabila preferred another candidate as his chosen successor and many international observers believe the 2018 election was actually won by an entirely different candidate, opposition leader Martin Fayulu. To this day, Fayulu believes the election was stolen and delivered to Tshisekedi with help from Kabila, who believed Tshisekedi would be easier for him to influence than Fayulu.
Kabila turned against his former ally Tshisekedi and dissolved their political coalition in 2020. He soon became an outspoken critic of Tshisekedi’s leadership in the long-running struggle against a Rwanda-sponsored insurgent group known as M23 in the mineral-rich eastern Congo.
Tshisekedi stripped Kabila of immunity from prosecution in May 2025, voiding the protection nominally conferred by the title of “senator for life.” The government accused Kabila of supporting M23 and wanted to put him on trial for aiding and abetting the many war crimes perpetrated by the rebels.
Kabila responded by posting a 45-minute “address to the nation” from an undisclosed location, in which he dressed and spoke as though he were still president.
Kabila was no longer in the DRC at the time, having ostensibly departed to earn a doctorate from a South African university. M23 and other rebel groups claimed Kabila had secretly returned to the Congo and was headquartered in Goma, a city the rebels captured in January 2025. His current whereabouts are unknown, as he has not appeared in public since May, when he did indeed pop up in Goma for a meeting with religious leaders.
Tshisekedi’s government essentially accused Kabila of defecting and becoming a citizen of Rwanda so he could lead M23 forces to victory in the eastern Congo. Kabila began referring to Tshisekedi as a corrupt “dictator” who should be overthrown.
Kabila was tried in absentia by a panel of six military judges in Kinshasa and found guilty on every charge, including war crimes, murder, torture, sexual assault, conspiracy to support terrorism, and treason. The list of charges against him was so long that the verdict took four hours to read in court.
The panel sentenced Kabila to death, and also ordered him to pay $33 billion in “reparations” for the “moral, defense, infrastructural, and ecological damages” caused by the insurrection he nominally commands.
The leading judge, Lt. Gen. Joseph Mutombo Katalayi, declared that Kabila has “always been the undisputed leader of M23.”
Although he denies leading the insurgency, Kabila has expressed public support for M23 and urged Tshisekedi to negotiate directly with the group. Testimony heard by the court included an imprisoned rebel officer who said Kabila held regular phone conversations with M23 leader Corneille Nangaa about overthrowing Tshisekedi.
Kabila’s political party in the DRC, the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy, denounced the verdict on Tuesday as a “political, unfair decision.”
“We believe that the clear intention of the dictatorship in power is to eliminate, to neutralize, a major political actor,” said party secretary Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary.
The Financial Times (FT) on Wednesday speculated that Kabila’s conviction could spell trouble for the peace agreement between the DRC and Rwanda brokered by President Donald Trump in June. A major benefit of the deal would be clearing the way for American companies to safely operate mines and build infrastructure in the eastern Congo.
“[Kabila’s] sentencing comes as the M23 rebels are consolidating and expanding their control of eastern DR Congo, according to U.N. sources. There has been little progress during months of negotiations in Qatar between Kinshasa and the rebels, talks that are meant to complement U.S. efforts to bring a halt to decades of conflict between Congo and neighbouring Rwanda,” FT noted.
Al Jazeera News quoted observers who said the DRC court wanted to “remove the possibility that Kabila could unite the opposition within the country,” but the verdict could create more unrest by enraging Kabila supporters. Also, if Kabila responds to his death sentence from somewhere in M23 territory or Rwanda, it could increase political tension between Tshisekedi’s administration and the Rwandans, complicating Trump’s efforts to establish a durable peace agreement.
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