Dr. Congo prohibits the former president's PPRD party over the alleged M23 links

The Democratic Republic of Congo has banned the party of former President Joseph Kabila, accusing him of ties to the M23 rebel group, which has taken large parts of the eastern part of the country this year.

The ban comes against the backdrop of reports that Kabila has returned to the country after spending two years in South Africa.

He is said to have returned to the city of Goma, which was seized from Rwanda M23 supported in January.

Kabila has led the Congo for 18 years after inheriting her father Laurent, who was shot dead in 2001. Joseph Kabila was only 29 years old at that time.

A statement by the interior ministry said that all activities of the PPRD party of Kabil were banned because of its “ambiguous attitude” to the occupation of the Congoan territory of the M23.

He also notes that Kabila has chosen to return to Goma, where she is protected by the “enemy”.

PPRD has not commented.

On Friday, the government accused the 53 -year -old Kabil of treason and ordered the seizure of all his property.

Kabila had previously denied having links to the M23. He did not comment on the most recent moves of the Congoy government or confirmed that he had returned to the Congo.

However, he said earlier this month that he would return to the country. PPRD senior officials have denied that Kabila is currently in Goma.

On Saturday, his spokesman Barbara Nzimby Posted on x That Kabila will turn to the nation in the coming hours or days.

Asked by BBC Great Lakes, the M23 spokesman neither confirmed nor denied Kabila's presence in Goma, saying, “I don't see a problem here.”

After sworn in president after his father's death, he won elections twice. His second and final selected term officially ended in December 2016, but he declined to withdraw, saying that it was not possible to organize an election, which led to deadly protests.

He remained in power for two more years, until the election was finally held in 2018.

In January 2019, he handed over the power to Félix Tshisekedi, the official winner in contested elections that many election observers said he was rightly won by Martin Faulu.

He accused Kabila and Tshiziekedes of agreeing a deal to exclude him from power – something that both men have denied.

But the relationship between the couple is deteriorating and the coalition of their parties was officially ended in December 2020.

Kabila left the Congo in 2023 to officially study in South Africa.

In January 2024, his doctoral dissertation on the geopolitics of African relations with the United States, China and Russia was established at the University of Johannesburg.

In a written statement, to announce its upcoming return, Kabila said it was motivated by the desire to help resolve the deteriorating institutional and security in the Congo.

He also told the French language magazine Jeune Afrique that he wants to “play a role in searching for a solution after six years of full retreat and one year in exile.”

But Ben Radley, a political economist and a teacher of international development at the University of BAT, noted that the leader of the political grouping, which includes the M23, Cornei Nanga, was the head of the election committee under Kabila and was a “close ally”.

“In addition, historical continuity with his father Laurent Kabila, who also entered the East in the East in the late 1990s in his possible march to the presidency, is also in the minds of many Congoars,” he told the BBC.

Additional reporting by Alfred Lasteck and Didier Bikorimana