Dr. Congo prohibits the PPRD part of the former president on the alleged M23 links

The Democratic Republic of Congo prohibited the party of former president Joseph Kabila, accusing him of links with the rebel group M23 which seized large parts of the eastern country this year.

The ban comes in the midst of information that Kabila returned to the country after spending two years in South Africa.

He would have returned to the city of Goma, which was seized by the M23 supported by Rwandan in January.

Kabila led Dr. Congo for 18 years, after having succeeded his father Laurent, who was shot in 2001. Joseph Kabila was only 29 years old at the time.

A press release from the Interior Ministry said that all activities of the Kabila PPRD party had been prohibited because of its “ambiguous attitude” towards the occupation of the Congolese territory by the M23.

He also noted that Kabila had chosen to return to Goma, where he was protected by “the enemy”.

The PPRD did not comment.

Friday, the government accused Kabila, 53, of high treason and ordered the seizure of all its properties.

Kabila previously denied having links to M23. He did not comment on the last measures of the Congolese government, nor confirmed that he had returned to Dr. Congo.

However, he said earlier this month that he would return to the country. The senior PPRD officials have denied that Kabila is currently in Goma.

On Saturday, his spokesperson Barbara Nzimbi posted on X that Kabila would address the nation in the coming hours or days.

Questioned by the BBC Great Lakes, the spokesperson for the M23 did not confirm either the presence of Kabila to Goma, saying: “I do not see any problem that he was here.”

After lending oath as president after the death of his father, he won the elections twice. His second and last mandate elected in his functions officially ended in December 2016, but he refused to resign, saying that it was not possible to organize elections, leading to fatal demonstrations.

He stayed in power for two more years until the elections finally occur in 2018.

In January 2019, he gave power to Félix Tshisekedi, the official winner of a contested election, who, according to many elections observers, was rightly won by Martin Fayulu.

He accused Kabila and Tshisekedi of concluding an agreement to exclude him from power – which the two men denied.

But relations between the pair have aggravated and the coalition of their parties officially ended in December 2020.

Kabila left Dr. Congo in 2023, officially to study in South Africa.

In January 2024, his doctoral thesis on the geopolitics of African relations with the United States, China and Russia was validated at the University of Johannesburg.

In a written statement to announce her next return, Kabila said she was motivated by the desire to help resolve the worsening of the institutional and security crisis in Dr. Congo.

He also told the French language magazine Jeune Afrique that he wanted to “play a role in finding a solution after six years of full retirement and a year in exile”.

But Ben Radley, political economist and lecturer in international development at the University of Bath, noted that the leader of the political group who includes M23, Corneille Nangaa, was the head of the electoral commission under Kabila and had been a “close ally”.

“In addition, historical continuity with his father Laurent Kabila, who also entered the East Congo in the late 1990s during his possible march to the presidency, is also in the minds of many Congolese,” he told the BBC.

Additional report by Alfred Laseck & Didier Bikorimana