 "Congo suspends former President Kabila’s party, orders asset seizure over alleged M23 rebel links")
The Democratic Republic of Congo has suspended former President Joseph Kabila’s political party and ordered the seizure of his assets, accusing him of supporting Rwandan-backed M23 rebels in the country’s eastern region, the government announced.
Kabila, 53, who led the nation from 2001 until 2019 and left office after widespread and often deadly protests, has recently expressed interest in returning to help resolve the ongoing conflict.
However, in separate statements issued late Saturday, the interior ministry declared the suspension of his party for allegedly aiding the M23 rebel group, while the justice ministry announced that Kabila and other senior party members would face asset seizures on charges amounting to high treason.
Both ministries confirmed that prosecutors had been instructed to launch legal proceedings against Kabila, though specific details of the accusations were not disclosed.
Ferdinand Kambere, secretary of his Party for Reconstruction and Democracy, called the suspension a flagrant violation of Congo’s constitution and laws in a statement to Reuters.
The M23 have taken two major cities in the mineral-rich east since the start of the year. The region has suffered decades of conflict rooted in the spillover from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and the struggle for control of minerals.
Kabila came to power after his father’s assassination and refused to go when his final term expired in 2016.
He eventually agreed to step down and has lived in different African nations since.
The decades-long conflict between Congo and the M23 rebels escalated in January, when the rebels made an unprecedented advance and seized the strategic eastern Congolese city of Goma, followed by the town of Bukavu in February. The latest fighting has killed some 3,000 people and worsened what was already one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with around 7 million people displaced.
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