Joseph Kabila, the shadowy ex-president back in the DR Congo

Former President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Joseph Kabila sits in an armchair during a meeting with leaders of various religious denominations at one of his residences in Goma on May 29, 2025. (Photo by Jospin Mwisha / AFP) Since stepping aside for current President Felix Tshisekedi in 2019, Joseph Kabila has had the Democratic Republic of Congo's government chasing his shadow despite years in self-imposed exile. Now back in the vast central African country after his departure in 2023, the return of the leader of 18 years has caused an unwanted headache for those in Kinshasa's corridors of power. A solitary and secretive figure, Kabila still enjoys some influence over Congolese political life, even after the end of time at the helm of sub-Saharan Africa's biggest and most volatile state. Tshisekedi accuses his predecessor of being in cahoots with Rwanda as the mastermind behind the M23 militia, which has seized vast tracts of the resource-rich Congolese east. Yet following the end of a tenure marked by accusations of corruption and bad governance, Kabila kept a low profile with typical discretion. That is until he broke his silence with a speech urging an end to "dictatorship" in the DRC on Friday. Shorn of his usual beard, Kabila then reappeared in the DRC on Thursday in the eastern city of Goma, which fell to the M23's lightning advance in January. Bidding to curb the 53-year-old's influence, the authorities have paved the way for a treason trial over his supposed support for the M23 and suspended his political party. Assassinated father Kabila was just 29 years old when in 2001 he was catapulted to power after his father Laurent Kabila, a rebel-turned-president, was slain by a bodyguard. As leader, Kabila presided over a country famous for its mineral wealth, ranging from cobalt and copper to uranium and diamonds. But the DRC is equally notorious for corruption, colonial abuses and bloodshed. It has seen two wars in the past three decades which have sucked in foreign powers, while deadly conflicts are still simmering away in the east of the country. Kabila's handover of power to Tshisekedi following the 2018 elections was the country's first peaceful transition since independence from Belgium. But before that dozens of civilians were killed in protests as Kabila attempted to cling on to power. Critics have also questioned the terms of the transition, alleging that Kabila wished to rule from behind the scenes by installing Tshisekedi through underhand electoral manipulation. In any case, the coalition deal between Tshisekedi and Kabila collapsed within two years, with the former working to sideline his predecessor ever since. 'Introverted' Kabila took the helm during the Second Congo War, a conflict sometimes dubbed Africa's World War which ravaged the country at a cost of at least three million lives. When he was elected president in 2006 in a post-war poll organised by the United Nations, he was mostly hailed as the legitimate winner. Not so five years later, when Kabila was challenged by veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi -- Felix's father -- who claimed the vote was marred by massive fraud. Born on June 4, 1971 in his father's fiefdom in the east, Kabila went into exile at five years old, spending most of his youth in neighbouring Tanzania before returning in 1996 as the First Congo War broke out. "He has an introverted personality, he's disciplined and he loves discretion," a member of Kabila's inner circle said. Kabila's aloofness and difficulties speaking French leave him visibly uncomfortable when he makes rare ventures out in public. His first languages are Swahili and English -- a language barrier that has not endeared him to many of the population of the capital, Kinshasa, where most people speak Lingala. Many Congolese regard their former head of state as a "foreigner", or worse, a "Rwandan" who enriched his family at the expense of the nation's poor millions. Most of the country's more than 100 million people have seen no benefits from its mineral wealth, with the World Bank ranking it among the five poorest nations in the world. In his rare interviews, Kabila is soft-spoken and presents himself as a modest statesman who worked to rebuild a country scarred by decades of ruin and war. He rebuts charges of having given juicy mining contracts to foreigners at the cost of the DRC's development. Kabila, an Anglican, is married to Marie Olive Lembe Kabila. They have a daughter, Sifa, and a son, Laurent-Desire.

Joseph Kabila, the shadowy ex-president back in the DR Congo

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