Former Democratic Republic of Congo president Joseph Kabila has joined forces with the M23 armed group to lead a new political and military alliance, taking a more direct role in the conflict in the country’s east.
The alliance, named the Front pour la Refondation de la Nation (FRN), was announced on Monday at a joint press conference at Kabila’s residence in Goma. The city, a major commercial hub in mineral-rich eastern Congo, has been under M23 control since January 2025.
Kabila will head the new organization, with rebel leaders serving as his deputies. The alliance said it would combine its resources and capabilities to challenge the government, declaring that it would seek to end what it called tyranny through means that could include force.
The announcement follows Kabila’s conviction in absentia a year earlier, when he was sentenced to death for complicity with M23. Congolese authorities have also accused him of helping establish the Congo River Alliance (AFC), the now-dissolved political wing of M23. Kabila has denied that allegation.
Kabila, 55, governed Congo from 2001 to 2019, taking office after the assassination of his father, Laurent Kabila. He won the country’s first free elections since independence in 2006 and secured another term in 2011 in a vote marked by violence and allegations of fraud. He has largely stayed out of public view since leaving office.
The new alliance emerges amid uncertainty over Congo’s political future. President Felix Tshisekedi’s second five-year term ends in 2028, when the constitution’s two-term limit would prevent him from seeking another term. Members of the presidential majority have nevertheless been preparing public opinion for constitutional changes.
M23, a predominantly ethnic Tutsi rebel movement, launched its first uprising in eastern Congo in 2012. The United Nations and Western governments accuse Rwanda of supporting the group, an allegation Kigali denies. The wider region has endured more than three decades of violence despite repeated diplomatic efforts.
Recent peace initiatives have brought little relief. A Washington-backed agreement signed by Congo and Rwanda in December has produced no tangible improvement on the ground, while a ceasefire commitment reached between Kinshasa and M23 through Qatari mediation in July 2025 has not been respected.
