GOMA — Five days after African Union mediators urged Congo’s rebels to keep to their ceasefire commitments, the founder of the rebels’ political coalition, Corneille Nangaa, became deputy to former president Joseph Kabila, who has been sentenced to death in absentia, in a new front pledging to “put an end to tyranny by any means necessary, including the use of force.”
Kabila launched the Front for the Refoundation of the Nation, known by its French initials FRN, at a news conference on Monday at his residence in Goma, Al Jazeera reported. It replaces the Congo River Alliance, the coalition Nangaa founded, and Xinhua reported that Nangaa, M23 leader Bertrand Bisimwa and the group’s military commander, Sultani Makenga, are its three vice presidents. The accounts differ on what became of M23 itself: Anadolu Agency reported that both the alliance and the rebel movement were dissolved with immediate effect, while Xinhua said the front brings M23’s leaders under Kabila and includes several other armed groups.
Kabila, 55, ruled Congo from 2001 to 2019. A military court in Kinshasa sentenced him to death in absentia in 2025 on charges including treason and crimes against humanity; he calls the case politically motivated and denies the charges. The United States sanctioned him earlier this year over alleged funding of rebel groups. Three days before Monday’s launch, Xinhua reported, he addressed the nation and called for “an inclusive national dialogue.”
That sequence is the problem for the peace process. After consultations in Goma, the African Union’s panel of facilitators, led by former Ethiopian president Sahle-Work Zewde with former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta and former Botswanan president Mokgweetsi Masisi, said on October 7 that M23 and the government should adhere strictly to the ceasefire and take part in good faith in the Qatar-mediated Doha talks, Xinhua reported. At a press conference the same day Nangaa asked mediators to “go beyond general statements” and offer commitments that are “precise, clear and verifiable.” Bram Verelst of the Institute for Security Studies is quoted in Al Jazeera’s explainer saying he expects Kinshasa to harden its stance and sees the Doha process as the main risk.
The people in the middle are numerous and long-suffering. M23 has held Goma since January 2025 and Bukavu since February, Anadolu reported. In its explainer, Al Jazeera cited UN figures of more than 7.8 million people displaced and 28 million facing food shortages, and said nearly 3,000 civilians were killed in the January 2025 battle for Goma. Its correspondent Alain Uaykani reported fears that government soldiers could defect to Kabila.
None of the accounts reviewed carried a response from President Félix Tshisekedi’s government. That silence sits against a political calendar the opposition has already made tense: Tshisekedi’s second term ends in 2028, and Al Jazeera reported that his allies have been preparing public opinion for changes to the two-term limit, a move that brought tear gas to parliament in June. The Doha track, which produced a ceasefire deal in July 2025, now has to deal with a rebel coalition led by a man Kinshasa has sentenced to death.
A man who asked for “an inclusive national dialogue” on Friday launched a front promising force on Monday. Which of the two he means is the question the next round of talks will have to ask.
