Former Democratic Republic of the Congo President Joseph Kabila has formally thrown in with the armed rebellion fighting his country’s government, launching a new political-military coalition built around the Rwanda-backed M23 group. Kabila announced the Front for the Refoundation of the Nation (FRN) at a news conference held, pointedly, at his residence in Goma, the eastern city M23 has controlled since January 2025.

The FRN replaces the earlier M23-AFC alliance and folds in several of the rebellion’s best-known figures. Kabila will lead the new coalition, with Corneille Nangaa, a former elections commissioner and head of the Congo River Alliance (AFC), and M23 spokesman Bertrand Bisimwa serving as deputies. M23 military commander Sultani Makenga was named army chief, and senior M23 health official Freddy Kaniki was named secretary-general.

Coalition adviser Claude Ibalanky said the new front aims to unite Congo’s resistance movements “to put an end to tyranny by any means necessary, including the use of force,” a statement widely read in Kinshasa as a direct threat against President Félix Tshisekedi’s government.

The announcement lands almost exactly a year after a military court in Kinshasa sentenced Kabila to death in absentia on charges of treason, war crimes and crimes against humanity, having found he collaborated with Rwanda and M23. Kabila, who has lived in self-imposed exile in South Africa since 2023, has called the case politically motivated and denies the charges. Washington sanctioned him in April over allegations he helped fund rebel groups in the east.

Kabila, 55, ruled the DRC from 2001 to 2019, taking power at 29 after his father, President Laurent Kabila, was assassinated. His government was marked by persistent allegations of human rights abuses and corruption.

M23 has fought in the mineral-rich eastern DRC for nearly 15 years, saying it defends the rights of the country’s minority Tutsi population. Its renewed offensive has displaced more than 7.8 million people, according to the United Nations, which along with the United States accuses neighboring Rwanda of arming and directing the group; Kigali denies the claim. Rebel forces now hold Goma, Bukavu, regional airports and key border crossings with Rwanda and Uganda.

Al Jazeera correspondent Alain Uaykani, reporting from Goma, said the Congolese government “has shown no sign of defeating these people,” and noted that because Kabila “is still a soldier” who has commanded an army, some government troops could be tempted to defect to his side.

Analysts warned the move could unravel fragile peace efforts, including a United States-brokered DRC-Rwanda agreement signed in June 2025 and a Qatar-mediated framework with M23-AFC signed last November, with new talks due in Doha in November. “You don’t make an announcement like this without having prepared the actions that follow,” said Yvon Muya, a researcher at the University of Ottawa, predicting “an escalation on the military front.” Bram Verelst of the Institute for Security Studies said Kinshasa is likely to harden its stance toward both the rebels and Kabila, adding that the conflict’s trajectory now hinges on whether Kabila can control the rebellion and broaden its alliances beyond North and South Kivu.

The Congolese government had not issued a formal response to the coalition’s launch as of this writing.

Sources: Al Jazeera