Joseph Kabila

Biography

Joseph Kabila was born in 1971 in Hewa Bora, a rebel-held village in what is now South Kivu, the son of the rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila. He grew up largely in Tanzania, finishing school in Mbeya and Dar es Salaam, and then had military training and studied at Makerere University in Uganda.

When his father's AFDL began its campaign against Mobutu Sese Seko in 1996, he commanded a unit in the advance on Kinshasa. After the victory he trained at the PLA National Defense University in Beijing, became deputy chief of staff of the Congolese armed forces, briefly led them at the start of the Second Congo War in 1998 and in 2000 became chief of staff of the land forces.

After his father's assassination in January 2001 he was installed as president at 29. He revived the Lusaka peace process, signed the 2002 accords on Rwandan and Ugandan troop withdrawals and headed the transitional government created by the inter-Congolese peace agreement. He founded the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy, won the 2006 election, the country's first relatively free vote in decades, and was re-elected in a disputed vote in 2011.

The elections due in 2016 were repeatedly postponed amid protests. He stood aside at the December 2018 election, handed power to Félix Tshisekedi in January 2019 and became a senator for life, and his coalition shared power with Tshisekedi until 2020. He went into exile in 2023, and in 2025 a military court sentenced him to death in absentia for treason, after Tshisekedi accused him of backing the M23 rebels, which he denied.