A military tribunal in Kinshasa has handed down a death sentence in absentia to former Democratic Republic of Congo president Joseph Kabila, convicting him of war crimes, treason, and crimes against humanity. The ruling, delivered on Tuesday, September 30, 2025, marks one of the most consequential legal judgments against a former African head of state in recent history and is likely to further polarize the nation.
The charges are tied to Kabila’s alleged involvement in supporting the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, whose offensives have destabilized eastern Congo for years. The tribunal accused him of orchestrating or enabling a campaign of violence, including murder, sexual assault, torture, and insurrection. Lieutenant-General Joseph Mutombo Katalayi, presiding over the proceedings, declared that “in applying Article 7 of the Military Penal Code, it imposes a single sentence, namely the most severe one, which is the death penalty.”
Kabila, who governed Congo from 2001 until stepping down in 2019, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claimed that the Congolese judiciary has been manipulated for political purposes. He was neither present at the trial nor represented by legal counsel, and his current location remains unclear. For years, reports have placed him primarily in South Africa, though he was last seen publicly in May in Goma, an eastern city under rebel control.
Alongside the capital sentence, the court ordered Kabila to pay an unprecedented $50 billion in damages to both the state and victims of violence. Analysts say this staggering financial penalty underscores the tribunal’s intent to hold him accountable not only symbolically but materially, though the feasibility of enforcement is highly uncertain.
The ruling is expected to deepen political and social fractures in a country already burdened by decades of instability, corruption, and armed conflict. Kabila’s long rule was marred by violent crackdowns on dissent, and he ultimately left office only after nationwide protests and international pressure. His uneasy power-sharing agreement with current President Felix Tshisekedi soon unraveled, with Tshisekedi accusing him earlier this year of actively sponsoring M23’s insurgency.
The resurgence of M23 has dramatically reshaped the security landscape in Congo. The rebel group currently controls wide swathes of North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, where thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in 2025 alone. A U.S.-brokered peace deal signed in June has failed to stabilize the region, as both government forces and rebels accuse each other of violating the truce.
The broader regional context further complicates the picture. Rwanda, long accused of backing M23 as a proxy force, continues to deny direct involvement, insisting instead that its troops are acting in self-defense against Congolese forces and Hutu militias linked to the 1994 genocide. The mutual distrust between Kinshasa and Kigali threatens to drag the conflict deeper into a regional confrontation.
Tshisekedi’s government has already escalated pressure on Kabila’s political base, suspending his party’s activities and moving to seize assets belonging to its leadership. Political observers warn that this could ignite new cycles of unrest, particularly among Kabila loyalists, some of whom still wield significant influence in parts of the military and regional politics.
With the country on edge, the death sentence for Kabila symbolizes both a dramatic assertion of judicial power and a risky gamble that may further destabilize Congo’s fragile political equilibrium. The verdict’s long-term implications—whether it will deter insurgency or exacerbate division—remain uncertain in a nation where justice, politics, and armed conflict have long been inseparably entwined.
