DRC: Before lawmakers, Tshisekedi presents Joseph Kabila as Kigali's "proxy"

The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, accused his predecessor Joseph Kabila on October 27, 2026, of acting on behalf of Rwanda. He was speaking before the deputies of his coalition in a speech broadcast by the Congolese presidency on the X network and reported by AFP via Africanews.

According to Félix Tshisekedi, Rwandan President Paul Kagame asked his "proxy" to come out of the shadows to take charge of the offensive. The Congolese head of state sees this as a sign of an opposing camp being "cornered," forced, for lack of other solutions, to push the former president to the front line.

A former head of state at the head of an armed front

In October 2026, Joseph Kabila, 55, president from 2001 to 2019, joined the M23, a movement supported by Kigali, and is set to lead the new Front for the Refoundation of the Nation (FRN), whose deputy positions would go to M23 leaders. The FRN says it wants to "pool its forces, resources and means" to put an end to what it calls tyranny. Belgium condemned the launch of this group on October 22, 2026.

Joseph Kabila was sentenced to death in absentia in September 2025 for complicity with the M23, accusations he denies. The Congolese authorities suspect him of having led the Congo River Alliance (AFC), the political wing of the M23 which is now dissolved. Having reappeared in May 2025 in Goma, a city held by the M23, he visits it regularly. On October 16, 2026, Kinshasa banned the activities of thirteen political parties linked to him, and three days later accused the former president of preparing a "general attack" against the country.

A war that drags on, a political calendar that is tightening

At the beginning of 2025, a lightning offensive by the M23 supported by the Rwandan army had allowed the capture of Goma and then Bukavu. The front has since stabilized, but fighting persists, particularly in South Kivu, according to AFP. A United Nations report published on July 2, 2026, tightened the links established between Joseph Kabila and the AFC-M23.

This standoff is also playing out internally. Opposition rallies in June and September 2026 denounced a constitutional revision project that could allow Félix Tshisekedi, 63, to run for a third term; his second and final term provided for by the Constitution ends in 2028. Designating an opponent presented as being remote-controlled from abroad and defending Congolese sovereignty against Kigali does not extinguish the questions that the Congolese are asking their own government regarding respect for the rules of the game.