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The Democratic Republic of Congo government will initiate legal proceedings against former President Joseph Kabila for allegedly supporting Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in the country’s mineral-rich east.
Kabila crossed into the rebel-controlled city of Goma from neighboring Rwanda on Friday, infuriating the government of current President Felix Tshisekedi.
On Saturday, Congo’s justice ministry
announced it would take legal action against Kabila and the interior ministry suspended his political party.
The government condemned Kabila’s “deliberate choice to return to the country through the city of Goma under control of the enemy, which curiously assured his security,” Interior Minister Jacquemain Shabani said in a
statement published on social media.
M23 rebels took over Goma with Rwandan support in a
bloody battle in January, and have since continued to
expand their territory in eastern Congo, drawing international condemnation and sanctions.
Rwanda has denied backing the group.
Tshisekedi has
previously accused Kabila of backing the rebellion and “preparing an insurrection.”
The justice ministry said it would seize Kabila’s assets in the country and has placed travel restrictions on unnamed Kabila associates.
By
Michael J Kavanagh
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Restraint appears to be the order of the day following the arrival of former president and opposition figure Joseph Kabila in Goma, a city under the control of the Rwandan-backed AFC/M23 rebellion.
The government, the opposition, and civil society are watching in silence, wondering what the next moves will be for the man who led the country from 2001 to 2018.
Meeting in Lubumbashi under the chairmanship of the Head of State, the latest session of the Council of Ministers did not mention Joseph Kabila's arrival in Goma, either in comments or during a briefing.
This was the assurance of a government official, eager to calm speculation. Another official, meanwhile, sought confirmation from us of this arrival, which was deemed sensitive.
This Saturday afternoon in Lubumbashi, government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya spoke at a press conference, albeit with great caution.
I didn't see it, I heard it, obviously.
We read articles, we wait to see, we wait to listen, because perhaps we shouldn't presume certain things.
But here, we must first know that the President of the Republic had been talking about it for several weeks.
He said that his predecessor had been linked to the AFC for several months.
Now that he's decided to return, I don't have confirmation yet; we'll see what will be said because we mustn't forget that President Kabila himself fought the M23.
We mustn't forget that he was Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
We are rather confident behind the President of the Republic with the strategy we have implemented on all fronts, which allows us not only to end this war for now, but to end it forever.
The former president's return via Goma—a city currently under the control of the AFC/M23—is perceived by some in power as implicit evidence of his closeness to the rebellion.
"It doesn't surprise us," confided an influential source close to the head of state.
Kabila's entourage in Goma firmly rejects this interpretation. The former president, now a senator for life, reportedly returned as a "man of peace" with no intention of supporting any rebel movement.
His agenda remains unknown to the general public, but a speech is reportedly planned in the coming days.
"For now, we simply note that an opponent has returned to the country.
It is his future actions that will allow us to determine his position in the current crisis," a diplomat based in Kinshasa told us this Saturday, April 19.
The opposition ranks are equally cautious, including those close to Martin Fayulu, who consider Joseph Kabila a key player in the country's political and security solution.
In Kinshasa, the former president's political coalition, the FCC, remains silent and refrains from any comment on his stay in the east of the country.
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