Congo’s former President, Joseph Kabila, on Thursday, initiated talks with opposition politicians to discuss the country’s political future as Rwanda-backed rebels seized territory in the east.
Five sources familiar with the peace talk and political outreach told Reuters on Thursday.
The discussions, which have also involved civil society members, represent a potential additional threat to current President Felix Tshisekedi who has faced criticism over his response to the unprecedented advance by M23 rebels.
Tshisekedi and Kabila once formed an awkward power-sharing deal following Congo’s disputed 2018 election, but Tshisekedi eventually began chipping away at his predecessor’s influence while accusing him of blocking reforms.
The two men’s relationship soured to the point that, as M23 marched on east Congo’s second-largest city of Bukavu last month, Tshisekedi told the Munich Security Conference that Kabila had sponsored the insurgency.
Kabila did not make any public statements on the crisis or respond to the accusation until he published an op-ed in a South African newspaper on February 23 that accused Tshisekedi of violating the constitution, committing human rights abuses and bringing Congo to the brink of civil war.
The ex-president has been equally withering in private, according to sources that either spoke to Kabila directly or had knowledge of his recent exchanges with opposition politicians and civil society members.
One source who spoke to Kabila said the message was that “the Tshisekedi regime is soon over”.
“We will see what they do,” said the source, who did not wish to be named due to the sensitivity of the discussions.
