Joseph Kabila

Joseph Kabila Kabange (born 4 June 1971) became head of state of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on 26 January 2001, ten days after the assassination of his father, President Laurent-Désiré Kabila. He inherited a country in the midst of the Second Congo War, a conflict often called "Africa's World War" that drew in armies from across the region.

Under Kabila's early tenure, the DRC moved toward formal peace. The Sun City Agreement (2002) and the Global and All-Inclusive Agreement signed in Pretoria in December 2002 established a transitional government in which Kabila served as president alongside four vice-presidents under the "1+4" formula. A new constitution was approved by referendum in 2005, and Kabila won the DRC's first multi-party presidential election in 2006, defeating Jean-Pierre Bemba in a runoff. He was re-elected in 2011 in a contest widely criticised by observers, including the Carter Center, for serious irregularities.

His second constitutional term ended in December 2016, but elections were repeatedly postponed, triggering protests and a political crisis mediated in part by the Catholic bishops' conference (CENCO), which produced the Saint-Sylvestre Agreement of 31 December 2016. Kabila finally stepped down after the December 2018 election, in which his preferred candidate Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary lost. Opposition figure Félix Tshisekedi was declared the winner and inaugurated on 24 January 2019, marking the DRC's first peaceful transfer of power between elected presidents.

Kabila retained substantial influence as a "senator for life" and through his Front Commun pour le Congo (FCC) coalition, which initially dominated parliament. The FCC-Cap pour le Changement alliance with Tshisekedi collapsed in December 2020, sidelining Kabila politically. He and his family have faced repeated allegations of large-scale corruption and asset concealment, documented in investigations such as the Congo Hold-up leaks published in 2021.