Overview

• On August 22, military prosecutor Gen. Lucien René Likulia urged the High Military Court to impose death on Kabila, plus 20 years for “apologie de crimes de guerre” and 15 years for “complot”.
• Kabila is being tried in absentia in Kinshasa before the country’s top military tribunal, with proceedings that began on July 25.
• The prosecution says he acted “in intelligence with Rwanda,” worked with the M23 armed group, and helped launch its political wing, the Alliance Fleuve Congo.
• The indictment cites war crimes, treason, organizing an insurrection, intentional homicides by gunfire, rape, torture, deportation, and the forcible occupation of Goma, tying him to abuses in North and South Kivu.
• A moratorium on executions ended in 2024 but no executions have occurred since 2003, as the case proceeds against the backdrop of M23 control of Goma and Bukavu and Kabila’s continued stay abroad.