The former president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Joseph Kabila has been appointed the highest responsible for a new political-military front that integrates the March 23 Movement (M23) and takes over from the Congo River Alliance (AFC, for its initials in French), thus reinforcing its political and military weight after the insurgency against his successor, Félix Tshisekedi.
This new bloc, called the Front for the Refoundation of the Nation (FRN), was officially presented on Monday at Kabila's residence in Goma, in the east of the country, a city controlled by the M23 along with other areas of North Kivu and South Kivu, where the former president has remained for months.
The FRN will have three vice presidencies. One of them will be occupied by the former president of the Electoral Commission of the DRC, Corneille Nangaa, until now leader of the AFC. The others fall to Bertrand Bisimwa, leader of the M23, and Sultani Makenga, chief of staff of this militia, supported by Rwanda.
During the launch event, the political declaration of the FRN was read, in which it is stated that "the crisis that the DRC is going through is essentially endogenous and derives from the irresponsibility and bad elections of Kinshasa, on the one hand, and its illegitimacy as a result of the chaotic elections of 2023," while denouncing "untimely violations of the Constitution and the laws of the Republic."
The text also holds Tshisekedi responsible for the "fragilization of institutions, the persistence of insecurity, the escalation of tensions, discrimination, tribalism, xenophobia, the breakdown of social cohesion, repeated violations of Human Rights and fundamental freedoms, and the disastrous management of national resources," factors that would have led to "a continuous deterioration of the living conditions" of the Congolese population.
"In the political sphere, the intolerant regime established in Kinshasa is characterized by a regressive march of democracy, the establishment of tyranny and monolithic thinking; the contempt for legal texts has led to the bankruptcy of the State," the FRN has argued, also emphasizing that Tshisekedi uses the state apparatus for his own benefit to perpetuate himself in power.
The alliance also accuses the president of having opted for the military route: it claims that "he has chosen war instead of peace, a war that he does not know how to carry out or win." "He is content with murdering, massacring, indiscriminately bombing defenseless civilians and destroying basic infrastructures such as schools, hospitals, bridges, churches, and markets," continues the statement, before warning that Tshisekedi would have also proceeded to "dismantle the Army with the creation and legalization of radical militias with a genocidal ideology."
At this point, the FRN directly points to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) —created by extremist Hutus who fled Rwanda after the 1994 genocide— and to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), who pledged allegiance to the jihadist group Islamic State and have been operating for years in the east of the DRC under its banner.
According to the new coalition, its emergence responds to the obstacles imposed by Kinshasa on the peace process and is born "to confront a macabre picture in a country in danger," which is why its members have decided to "mutualize their forces, resources, and means" with the aim of "creating a framework of actions through which all Congolese together undertake the task of liberating their country."
"The FRN points out that the crisis facing the DRC is not a simple passing dispute between politicians of opposing tendencies. It is not merely a security crisis. It is, at the same time, political, economic, security, moral, institutional, social, and humanitarian," explained the platform, which warns that the current scenario "represents a true existential threat to the Republic as a State and as a nation."
Consequently, the front makes a call "to all Congolese, in all their diversity," to join this new project "in order to save the country." "The FRN does not aspire to occupy a place in a failing system, but proposes an alternative of national refoundation," it has stated.
"It is not about replacing one clan with another, but about rebuilding a State capable of protecting, administering justice, guaranteeing citizenship for all, redistributing wealth equitably, ensuring national reconciliation, guaranteeing the dignified return of refugees and political exiles, and truly involving the provinces in the decisions that determine their future," concluded the statement.
The return of Kabila to the front line
The launch of the FRN marks the return of Kabila, 55 years old, to the center of the Congolese political scene. The former president led the country from 2001 to 2019, when he transferred power to Tshisekedi, then opposition leader, after elections postponed for years amid accusations that he sought to prolong his stay in the Presidency.
Kabila assumed the head of state in 2001 after the assassination of his father, Laurent Kabila, at the hands of one of his bodyguards. In 2006, he won the first democratic elections since Belgium's independence, although his terms were surrounded by allegations of human rights violations and repression against civil society and the opposition.
With Tshisekedi already in power, he accused his predecessor of supporting the M23 after the militia took Goma and Bukavu in a rapid offensive in the east of the country, which heightened tensions and fueled fears of a direct confrontation between the DRC and Rwanda.
The former president left the country in 2023 and returned in 2025 to Goma, already under M23 control. Shortly after, the Military High Court of the DRC sentenced him in absentia to death for war crimes, treason, and participation in an insurrection, considering him the "undisputed leader" of the AFC, the political arm of the M23 now replaced by the RFN.
The Congolese Prosecutor's Office had already requested the death penalty against Kabila — after the Senate approved the withdrawal of his parliamentary immunity — attributing to him the intellectual authorship of a series of atrocities, including murders, summary executions, rapes, and forced deportations perpetrated by M23 fighters in the east of the country.
In reaction to the sentence, the M23 denounced that the death sentence against Kabila constituted a "violation" of the agreements reached to try to end the conflict. These criticisms were joined by the Common Front for Congo (FCC), a political platform linked to the former president, whose activities were suspended weeks later by the authorities along with those of other opposition formations.
The emergence of the FRN occurs, moreover, in a scenario of blockage of the peace process sponsored by the United States, which led to an agreement signed in December 2025 between the DRC and Rwanda without tangible results on the ground. The ceasefire agreed upon in July 2025 with mediation from Qatar has also suffered dozens of violations since its entry into force.