Joseph Kabila stood at his residence in Goma on Monday to announce an alliance with the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, in a city the group has controlled since January 2025. The former president has been named leader of the Front for the Refoundation of the Nation, or FRN, a political-military coalition that includes M23.
The announcement places Kabila, 55, in open cooperation with the armed group over alleged links to which he was sentenced to death in absentia. He denied the allegations at the time.
The FRN succeeds the now-dissolved Alliance Fleuve Congo, or AFC. Congolese authorities had accused Kabila of being one of the AFC’s initiators, describing it as M23’s political wing.
Three figures associated with M23 have been appointed FRN vice-presidents: Corneille Nangaa, Bertrand Bisimwa and Major General Sultani Makenga.
Makenga commanded M23 forces in the rebellion that began in 2012 and will remain chief of the general staff of the Congolese Revolutionary Army, or ARC. Bisimwa headed M23’s political leadership.
Nangaa was appointed chairman of the electoral commission under Kabila in 2015. He oversaw the disputed December 2018 election that produced Felix Tshisekedi’s victory.
Kabila ruled Congo from 2001 to 2019 and lost the 2019 election. Reports of his links to M23 emerged after he left office.
The former president’s decision to work openly with M23 changes the terms of a conflict long concentrated in the east. Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has faced violence for over 30 years, while M23 controls large parts of eastern Congo-Kinshasa.
M23 had announced the end of an earlier insurgency in November 2013, after Congolese forces backed by the United Nations defeated it. The group later resurfaced with Rwanda’s backing and took Goma, bringing the rebellion back to the centre of Congo’s political crisis.
Diplomatic efforts have yet to contain the fighting. Kinshasa and Kigali signed a deal in December under Washington’s auspices. In July 2025, Kinshasa and M23 committed to a ceasefire through a Qatari-mediated process, though that ceasefire is not being respected.
The alliance now confronts Tshisekedi with a formal political-military challenge. The president, 63, will reach the end of his second and final five-year term in 2028, when the Congolese Constitution’s two-term limit prevents him from seeking another term.
Kabila’s move therefore binds a former president to a rebel movement holding territory in the east, as the country approaches a constitutionally required change of president.
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