Democratic Republic of the Congo - September 2025

On 30 September, a military court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) sentenced the country’s former president Joseph Kabila to death and fined him USD 33 billion, having found him guilty of treason, war crimes and organising an insurrection. The case relates to his alleged support to the M23 rebel group operating in the east of the DRC, and the political-military movement of which it is a part, Alliance Fleuve Congo (Congo River Alliance, AFC). However, Kabila has always denied the charges and many observers perceived the proceedings to be highly politicised, and judged the charges and sentences to be exaggerated, raising due process concerns. Chief among these was the fact that Kabila, who was tried in absentia, was not represented by legal counsel. While the death sentence is unlikely to be carried out (Kabila is living in exile), human rights experts warned that the trial is likely to have a chilling effect on the political opposition in the DRC.     

Sources: Jeune Afrique, British Broadcasting Corporation (1), Human Rights Watch, British Broadcasting Corporation (2), International IDEA    

On 2 September, a court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo convicted former Minister of Justice, Constant Mutamba, of embezzling USD 19.9 million from a public fund set up to compensate victims of war crimes committed by Ugandan troops in 2000. The Court of Cassation (Cour de cassation) found that Mutamba had illegally diverted the money to a company the government had contracted to build a prison and sentenced him to three years of forced labour and barred him from voting or running for election for five years. The victim fund was established in 2022 to receive USD 325 million in compensation that is being paid by Uganda in instalments, in accordance with a ruling from the International Court of Justice. However, according to a September report by the Centre for Research on Public Finance and Local Development, much of this money has been misappropriated, with less than two per cent of the USD 195 million received between 2022 and 2024 having been paid to beneficiaries. 

Sources: Jeune Afrique (1),  Justice Info (1),  Justice Info (2), Jeune Afrique (2)