JOSEPH Kabila, the ex-president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has lashed out at the government of his successor – calling it a “dictatorship”.
The 53-year-old made a 45-minute speech live on YouTube on Friday evening from an unspecified location a day after the Senate lifted his immunity from prosecution.
DR Congo’s authorities intend to charge the former president with treason and war crimes, linking him to the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels, who have taken control of several towns in the east.
Kabila, in power between 2001 and 2019, said he had broken his silence because he felt the unity of the country was at risk.
Analysts say any trial of Kabila could further destabilise the country, which has been battling the M23 rebellion since 2012.
The government of President Félix Tshisekedi has not responded to the speech in which Kabila also set out a 12-point plan that he said could help end decades of insecurity in the mineral-rich east of DR Congo.
Dressed in a navy suit with a Congolese flag badge pinned to his lapel, Kabila stood before a lectern in what was termed an “address to the nation” – a broadcast topped and tailed by the national anthem.
The YouTube link shared by his spokesperson has subsequently been deleted, but the recording has been shared by numerous other accounts.
Once an ally of Tshisekedi, Kabila fell out with his successor and their parties’ coalition formally ended in 2020.
The former president has been living outside the country for two years – he initially left to pursue a doctorate in South Africa.
During his speech, he hit out at “arbitrary decisions” taken by the government last month after “rumours” that he had travelled to the eastern city of Goma.
This prompted the authorities to ban his People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) and order the seizure of his assets.
It all “testifies to the spectacular decline of democracy in our country”, Kabila said.
During his speech, he did mention that he intended to go to Goma “in the coming days”, where he is not in danger of arrest as the city has been under control of the M23 rebels since January.