A new front under Kabila

Former president Joseph Kabila has been named leader of a new political-military movement, the Front pour la Refondation de la Nation (FRN), which replaces the AFC/M23 alliance. The group was presented on Monday, 12 October, at Kabila's residence in Goma, a city in eastern Congo that is under M23 control. Kabila, 55, held power from 2001 to 2019 and was sentenced to death in absentia by a military court in September 2025 on charges of treason and war crimes. The announcement came a year after that sentence, and until now his links to the rebellion had never been formally confirmed.

Kabila's path to leading the rebel front
  1. Senate lifts Kabila's parliamentary immunity after he appears in Goma
  2. Military High Court sentences Kabila to death in absentia
  3. Kabila announces he will lead the new FRN movement

Leadership and programme

Corneille Nangaa, a former elections commissioner who led the Congo River Alliance (AFC), becomes deputy leader alongside Bertrand Bisimwa, a senior M23 figure, while Sultani Makenga will serve as the alliance's army chief. Freddy Kaniki, a medical doctor and senior M23 health official, is named secretary-general. The FRN's political declaration places the blame for the country's crisis mainly on Kinshasa, describing the 2023 elections as chaotic and the government as illegitimate. It accuses President Félix Tshisekedi of weakening institutions, fuelling insecurity and tribalism, and mismanaging national resources. Speaking for the coalition, its spokesperson Claude Ibalanky put the aim in stark terms.

The new movement will put an end to tyranny by any means necessary, including the use of force.

— Claude Ibalanky

Divided reactions

Inside the DRC, reactions have split. Adolphe Amisi Makutano, a leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress, the party of President Tshisekedi, accused Kabila of lacking courage and called the affair a shame for the country. Jules Ngeleza, a civil society member in North Kivu, said the announcement came as no surprise because Congolese intelligence services had long pointed to direct links between Kabila and M23. He fears the move could harm ongoing peace processes, though he prefers to wait and see. A young entrepreneur from North Kivu said he was saddened by the alliance and accused the rebellion of killing people in Goma and Bunagana. Activist Ezechias Muhongya offered a different view.

For us, Joseph Kabila is a man of initiatives, a creator of movements that have always helped the country out of very bad situations.

— Ezechias Muhongya

Muhongya rejected the idea that the former president had created a rebel platform, presenting the initiative instead as a possible way out of the impasse.

Conflict background

The M23 insurgency has run for nearly 15 years in the mineral-rich east of the country. The UN says more than 7.8 million people are displaced and 28 million face food shortages, figures shown below.

UN figures on the eastern Congo crisis (million people)
Displaced, UN figure7.8Face food shortages, UN figure28

The United States and the UN accuse Rwanda of backing M23, while Kigali denies it. The UN has estimated the rebellion at about 30,000 fighters, not counting Rwandan soldiers. Goma and Bukavu have been under M23 control since January 2025. Kabila rarely appeared in public after leaving office in 2019, which makes his open role in the rebellion a sharp change.