A military court in Kinshasa has sentenced former Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) president Joseph Kabila to death in absentia, after finding him guilty of war crimes, treason, and crimes against humanity.

The verdict, delivered on Tuesday, accuses the ex-leader of supporting the M23 rebel group, which has been battling government forces in eastern Congo with alleged backing from Rwanda. Kabila, who governed the DRC from 2001 to 2019, has long denied any involvement, dismissing the case as politically motivated.

Lieutenant-General Joseph Mutombo Katalayi, who presided over the military tribunal, said Kabila was convicted of charges including murder, sexual violence, torture, and leading an insurrection.

“In applying Article 7 of the Military Penal Code, the court imposes the single and most severe sentence — the death penalty,”
General Katalayi stated.

Kabila, who did not appear in court and had no legal representation, was also ordered to pay $50 billion in damages to the Congolese state and victims of the conflict. His current whereabouts remain unclear, though reports suggest he has been living primarily in South Africa since 2023.

The ruling is expected to deepen political and ethnic divisions in the mineral-rich Central African nation, which has faced decades of violence in its eastern regions.

Once seen as a stabilising figure after the assassination of his father, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, Joseph Kabila ruled for nearly two decades before stepping down in 2019 following widespread protests.

Relations between Kabila and his successor, President Félix Tshisekedi, deteriorated soon after their uneasy power-sharing agreement collapsed. Tshisekedi later accused Kabila of financing the M23 insurgency, which has taken control of large areas of North and South Kivu provinces, killing thousands and displacing hundreds of thousands more.

Although a U.S.-brokered peace deal was signed in June, fighting continues, with both sides accusing each other of violating the agreement.

The DRC government has since moved to suspend Kabila’s political party and seize the assets of several of its leaders, as tensions between Kinshasa and Kigali persist over Rwanda’s alleged support for the rebels — a claim Rwanda continues to deny.

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