Ex-leader Kabila slams DR Congo 'dictatorship' after losing immunity

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) senators attend a plenary session to vote whether lift the immunity of former DRC President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa on May 22, 2025. [AFP] Former DR Congo president Joseph Kabila on Friday said he would soon visit a city occupied by the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group, branding the current government a "dictatorship" after he lost his immunity. In a rare speech streamed live on the internet, the Democratic Republic of Congo's leader between 2001 and 2019 took aim at current President Felix Tshisekedi, who in turn has accused Kabila of conspiring with the M23. A day after the Senate voted to lift his parliamentary immunity, opening the 53-year-old to prosecution for his supposed support of the armed group, Kabila hit out at "arbitrary decisions" by Kinshasa over reports he had visited the M23-occupied city of Goma. "Following a simple rumour from the street or social networks, about my alleged presence in Goma, where I will be going in the next few days... the regime in place in Kinshasa took arbitrary decisions with disconcerting levity, which testifies to the spectacular retreat of democracy in our country," Kabila said. "The dictatorship must end, and democracy and good economic and social governance must be restored," Kabila added. Although he left the country in 2023, with his entourage tight-lipped on his exact whereabouts, the former president still enjoys some influence over Congolese political life. Tshisekedi has accused Kabila of plotting an "insurrection" with the M23 and has regularly named him as the architect of its lightning advance in the east, where the armed group has seized swathes of territory with Rwanda's help. 'Witch hunt' In his speech Kabila set out a 12-point plan to end the more than three-decade-long conflict in the DRC's east, which has intensified since the M23's resurgence in 2021. Since the beginning of 2025 the anti-government armed group has seized the key eastern cities of Goma and Bukavu, and set up to govern for the long term in the areas under its control. Kabila in April caused surprise across the DRC by announcing his grand return to the country by the conflict-riven east. No concrete evidence of his return ever emerged. Yet in the wake of the announcement, the Congolese authorities raided several of his properties and suspended his People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD). The justice ministry referred the case against the former president to the military courts, which in turn urged the Senate to lift his parliamentary immunity as honorary senator for life. In a secret ballot late on Thursday the upper house -- dominated by Tshisekedi's ruling coalition -- overwhelmingly voted to strip him in a process questioned by constitutional experts. Kabila's party on Friday denounced the move to sideline Kabila as a "witch hunt". "Although he no longer has any institutional leverage, he is still a shadow power which the government is clearly trying to keep at bay," said Tresor Kibangula, political director at the Ebuteli research institute. Kinbangula however cautioned that even given the current crisis "there is no strong popular nostalgia for Kabila in the country today". 'Against the tide of history' While he has given interviews since leaving office, Kabila had not addressed the Congolese people directly since his speech in 2019 on the eve of his handover to Tshisekedi. In his Friday address Kabila argued he left the DRC in a far better state than when he took power in 2001 on the assassination of his father in the middle of the Second Congo War. "Barely six years after, has this great inheritance... been completely dilapidated," Kabila charged, accusing Tshisekedi of the desire to "concentrate power in the hands of one man". The justice system meanwhile had become "an instrument of oppression for a dictatorship desperately trying to survive against the tide of history", he argued. Following the vote on his immunity, Kabila faces the prospect of prosecution on war crimes, crimes against humanity and treason charges. In large part, the case against him hinges on testimony by opposition figure Eric Nkuba, who when questioned claimed to have overheard Kabila advise the M23's leader to remove Tshisekedi by coup rather than by assassination.

Ex-leader Kabila slams DR Congo 'dictatorship' after losing immunity

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