Former President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has officially allied with armed rebel groups, raising fears of further escalation of an ongoing conflict in the country’s east that has already killed thousands.

Kabila on Monday launched a new political-military coalition to replace the M23-AFC alliance, which is fighting government forces and controls swaths of territory.

The new movement will “put an end to tyranny by any means necessary, including the use of force”, coalition spokesperson Claude Ibalanky said, in what appeared to be a chilling threat to the government in Kinshasa.

It comes precisely a year after Kabila was sentenced to death by a military court for alleged links to the rebel groups.

The M23 crisis has racked the mineral-rich eastern DRC for nearly 15 years. The United Nations says more than 7.8 million people are displaced while 28 million people face food shortages. An untold number have died. The United States and UN accuse Rwanda of backing M23. Kigali denies it. Here’s what we know: Kabila introduced the new alliance, the Front pour la Refondation de la Nation (FRN), from his residence in Goma, confirming the DRC government’s accusations. The former president said he will lead the alliance.

Corneille Nangaa, a Kabila ally who served as a former elections commissioner before leaving government to launch the Congo River Alliance (AFC), will serve as deputy, alongside Bertrand Bisimwa, an M23 spokesman.

Freddy Kaniki, a medical doctor and senior M23 health official, will serve as secretary-general, while Sultani Makenga of the M23 will be the army chief of the alliance. Kabila, 55, is the son of former President Laurent Kabila.

He took office as a 29-year-old back in 2001 after his father was assassinated. He previously served as army chief and fought in the two Congo civil wars, when Rwanda backed rebel groups against longtime Congolese leader Mobutu Sese Seko.

Kabila’s term, which officially ended in 2016, was marked by rights violations and corruption. He illegally delayed elections until 2018, citing voter registration challenges, and left office in 2019.

Before he stepped down, Kabila is believed to have signed a power-sharing deal with opposition candidate and election winner, current President Felix Tshisekedi. Kabila’s allies were initially installed throughout the cabinet after the deal, but in 2020, Tshisekedi began removing them, as their truce collapsed on a bitter note.

Tshisekedi’s government also launched corruption investigations against Kabila, forcing him into self-imposed exile in South Africa in 2023.

The former president’s latest move is unsurprising; Kinshasa has long alleged his ties to the M23-AFC alliance.

Amid intensifying M23-AFC offensives last year, Kabila wrote a scathing opinion piece in South Africa’s Sunday Times, accusing Tshisekedi of mishandling the conflict and proposing a “12-point plan” to restore peace. Reports also emerged of Kabila’s sighting in the eastern rebel-held Goma, where he owns homes.

Last October, a military court in Kinshasa sentenced Kabila to death on charges of treason, war crimes, and other major offences for alleged collaboration with Rwanda and M23-AFC.

In April, Washington imposed sanctions on Kabila, alleging that he funded rebel groups.

Eastern DRC has been engulfed in violence for more than 30 years, and multiple groups have been fighting to dominate the region. The roots of the crisis go back to the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda, the alleged harbouring of Hutu fighter groups in the DRC in its aftermath, Kigali’s determination to fight them, and deep-rooted tribalism.

The March 23 Movement (M23) emerged in 2012 from the remnants of Congolese Tutsi fighter groups that fought in the Second Congo War. It claims to be fighting for the rights of minority Congolese Tutsis and seeks to unseat the government in Kinshasa.

M23 first took Goma and other towns in the east in 2012 offensives; however, its fighters were pushed back by a special UN force fighting alongside the FARDC – the Congolese military.

In 2022, amid Tshisekedi’s fallout with Kabila, M23 resurfaced with renewed force, allegedly backed by more than 4,000 Rwandan soldiers. Kigali has long accused successive governments in Kinshasa of supporting the DRC-based Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) armed group, which includes Hutu genocidaires.

In 2023, as the M23 seized several towns and the Congolese army fell back, Nangaa, the then-elections commissioner, also fell out with Tshisekedi – reportedly over his move to run in elections. He then went into exile, formed the AFC, and allied with M23 as its political arm.

In early 2024, AFC-M23 launched lightning offensives that saw it sweep across vast swaths of the east, rapidly seizing territory. Goma fell again to the AFC-M23 in January 2025, following heavy battles that killed nearly 3,000 civilians.

The rebels, who have been accused of civilian massacres, currently hold North and South Kivu, where Kabila is from, including their capitals Goma and Bukavu, as well as border crossings with Rwanda and Uganda. Kampala has also been accused of supporting M23.

Al Jazeera’s Alain Uaykani reported that Congolese are worried the conflict could escalate again, and that a number of soldiers could defect to serve their former boss.

There are also fears that ongoing peace talks could collapse. In June 2025, DRC and Rwanda signed a US-led peace agreement.

In a separate process mediated by Qatar, the DRC and M23-AFC also signed the Doha Framework last November and were meant to meet this month.

But the changes may not end the agreements between the DRC and Rwanda, as Kigali will likely want to continue with the US-led talks, Bram Verelst of the Institute for Security Studies told Al Jazeera. The real threat, he warned, lies to the Doha process.

“We are likely to see a hardening of Kinshasa’s position toward the rebel movement and Kabila, including efforts to isolate Kabila and FRN regionally,” Verelst noted.

“What this means for the conflict on the ground will depend on the capacity of Kabila to take control over the rebellion and to build and expand alliances beyond North and South Kivu,” he added.