Conversely, Kabila is also entangled with the instability in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

The rivalry between former president Joseph Kabila and his successor Félix Tshisekedi is expected to resurface as a result of the conflict in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

On April 5, Éric Nkuba, a political and strategic advisor to Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC) commander Corneille Nangaa—who had been apprehended in Tanzania and subsequently extradited to Kinshasa—identified the outgoing president of the Congo as one of the rebels’ military backers.

The former head of state is regarded as “a man of peace and dialogue, a patriot and proven democrat, a statesman who respects the Constitution of the republic, as well as his oath to respect this supreme law of the land,” according to the FCC statement, which also stated that Joseph Kabila “is the exact opposite of what he is accused of.”

At the end of March, Tshisekedi’s party accused Kabila of being the brains behind some of the rebel organizations. These charges were made in the context of Kabila’s PPRD party members defecting to the AFC and M23 rebels, who together promise to remove Tshisekedi, whom they view as a despot.

The two presidents have been at odds ever since the coalition that Kabila and Tshisekedi had created to run the DRC broke up at the end of 2020.